Shortly after attending the USA Swimming National Championships across town, the National High School Record Holder made her verbal committment to swim for Teri McKeever and the Cal Golden Bears, beginning in the fall of 2012.
Among the impressive accomplishments of this high school senior-to-be is her National High School Record in the 100 back of 51.53, set last year at the Minnesota State Championship meet. At the NCSA Junior Nationals meet in March, she was even faster in 50.76. She swims for the Aquatjets club team and Edens Prarie High School in suburban Minneapolis.
Bootsma earned a bronze-medal at the 2010 Pan Pac Championships in 2010, and a 2nd-place finish (behind only Missy Franklin) at USA Nationals in 59.65 (long course). She is also the National Age Group Record holder in the 100 (SCY) backstroke for both the 15-16 and 17-18 age groups, and she still has another year to lower her mark in the latter. She is also a part of 6 NAG Short Course Relay Records.
Cal has earned a serious reputation for developing top backstrokers (beginning, of course, with the legendayr Natalie Coughlin) over the last decade, and are becoming the USC of women’s backstroking, of sorts. At last year’s NCAA Championships, two Cal Freshman (Cindy Tran and Deborah Roth) went 1-2 at the NCAA Championships in the 100 back, and Bootsma would have run the race running away. (Cal also had the consolation champion in the 200, Stephanie Au, who is also a freshman.)
In addition to Bootsma, Cal will bring in World Championship team member Liz Pelton in the class of 2012, who like Bootsma made an early announcement to focus on Olympic training. This means that beginning in the fall of 2012, the Golden Bears will likely have the four-fastest collegiate 100 backstrokers in the country, along with Liz Pelton as potentially the best 200 backstroker.
Bootsma brings a bit of a different element to Cal, however, than their current backstroke crew. Her 52.64 100 butterflier already almost makes her an NCAA A-Finalist, as does her 1:55 200 fly, and her 48.99 100 free will make her a potential contributor on multiple Cal relays. Bootsma will bring plenty of flexibility to the pending Cal backstroke logjam.
There’s still a slew of great backstrokers (notably Bonnie Brandon out of Colorado) left in the class of 2012, but the cherry on top will be Missy Franklin in the class of 2013. As one of the best backstrokers in the world already, everyone’s going to have her going to Cal as well, but it really now becomes a balancing act of whether or not Cal can afford to spend that much scholarship money on backstrokers. If they do, in 2014 (mark it down), Cal will have the potential, if they choose, to finish 1-5 at NCAA’s.
Well, probably the best swimmers in California high school are usually from the north these days,sometimes from the south part of California . Mention above Cindy Tran and Melanie Klaren are the best from the Southern part of California on the women’s side. Tom Shields is probably the best on the men’s side from southern part of California. Most of the swimmers coming up from the La, Orange,Inland Empire and San Diego area are not as good as swimmers as those from the North. Usually in a school like Cal they help a lot in dual meets rather than then NCAA’s. USC did more recruiting from the Southern Part of Calfironia.. Texas was helped during the past decade having good… Read more »
Cal always supplements their roster with international swimmers, so the fact that they have broadened their recruiting domestically only adds to their ability to remain at or near the top every year. As for campus life, Cal v Stanford, the campus life at Cal is much more exciting and there’s more of a social life as well, so I’m not sure Missy Franklin would want Stanford over Cal unless she like a big campus that is beautiful but little personality.
@JAG… It’s funny for me to read your post also because you still haven’t mentioned the financial future and status of any college either 🙂
It is funny you guys never mention the academics or their financial future & the status of the colleges.
I agree with you (chris) that this years class is definitely not as good as the past two. Could it be that we were spoiled a little bit with the 2011 and 2010 boys though?
Okay, Grothe was 41, so not in the top 40. That’s more of an exception because he even had OT cuts, buy specialized in distance so his ranking was relatively low (Frayler is another example). Collegeswimming favors multievent swimmers. In any case, there were 38 swimmers that year with a score under 2.00, while this year there are only 14. If you scan the times, a lot of the guys are good in a range of events, but not outstanding in a few, unlike Frayler. He’s ranked 10 because he’s pure distance, but even has a great chance at finishing top 5 in the mile.
On the men’s side, Texas has to be the favorite this year. On the women’s side, Cal has to be the favorite for this year and possibly the next 2-3 years.
Cal women’s team has the potential to become the leading factor at NCAAs for the next five years – I would not be surprised to see them being in the top 3 year after year for the next decade as long as Teri is there.
True, they will have to go further from home. It seems they tend to look instate first; however, this past year’s class got guys from Michigan, Texas, and New England, and their stock has to have gone up with a national championship.