Weitzeil Posts 21.5 Anchor Split on 200 Free Relay as Cal Defeats UCLA

CAL VS. UCLA

• Results 
• Friday, January 27th
• Hosted by Cal
• 25 yards
• Dual meet format

FINAL TEAM SCORES

• CAL- 165
• UCLA- 128

The Cal women finished off their weekend of dual meets with another victory, this time downing the UCLA Bruins with a score of 165-128. The Bears had 4 swimmers win multiple individual races, including Abbey Weitzeil, Amy Bilquist, Celina Li, and Noemie Thomas.

Weitzeil, who has been demonstrating her breaststroke skills for the Beats on the 200 medley relay, raced in the individual 100 breast. In the individual 100 breast, she won with a 1:02.39 ahead of teammate Marina Garcia (1:03.35). She also won the 50 free with a quick 22.44 over teammate Farida Osman (22.62).

Weitzeil didn’t swim the 50 breast leg on the medley relay this time around, however, as she anchored with a 21.82 free split. She was even faster than that on their 200 free relay at the end of the session, anchoring the C-relay in 21.54. Teammate Osman was also sub-22, as she anchored the A-relay with a 21.81.

PRESS RELEASE – CAL

BERKELEY – Five Golden Bears won two events apiece and Cal swept both the 200-yard medley and 200 free relays, leading to a 165-128 dual-meet victory over UCLA Saturday at Spieker Aquatics Complex.

One day after downing USC, the Bears came back with another solid performance to improved their record to 7-1 overall and 6-0 in the Pac-12. Cal closes out the regular season on Saturday, Feb. 11 by hosting Stanford in a noon showdown in Berkeley.

“I thought we did a nice job of staying strong again and being competitive,” head coach Teri McKeever said. “We did talk about backing up yesterday’s performance, and I felt we had really good energy with a good crowd.”

Overall, the Bears claimed first in 13 events, starting with a 1-2-3 finish in the opening 200 medley relay. The foursome of Amy Bilquist, Marina Garcia, Noemie Thomas and Valerie Hull touched ahead of the pack in 1:40.70, with two Cal squads right behind.

Chenoa Devine followed with second straight sub-10-minute 1000 free as she led wire-to-wire before finishing in 9:59.71.

Bilquist – the national leader in the 100 back – swept the 100 free (1:47.20) and 200 free (48.85) for the Bears, while Thomas claimed both the 100 fly (52.45) and 200 fly (1:58.13). Thomas paces the NCAA in the 100 fly and is undefeated in the event this year.

Abbey Weitzeil sprinted to victory in the 50 free (22.24), as the Bears took the top four spots with Farida Osman, Maddie Murphy and Kristen Vredeveld following in succession. Weitzeil also changed pace from her sprinting form and won the 100 breaststroke in 1:02.39.

Senior Celina Li had perhaps the toughest double, scoring first place in the 500 free in a season-best 4:53.31 and then came back barely 20 minutes later to win the 400 individual medley in 4:17.74.

In addition, sophomore Phoebe LaMay earned victories on both the 1-meter (289.35) and 3-meter (323.55) springboards.

Cal closed out the afternoon with another 1-2-3 showing in the 200 free relay, led by a time of 1:31.94 by Keaton Blovad, Thomas, Hull and Osman.

“We’re getting close to Pac-12’s and NCAA’s, so we took a look at each individual and how we put them in situations to keep building their confidence moving into championship season,” McKeever said of some of the different events Bears swam. “For example, Amy sometimes only gets to do the backstroke, so it’s good to swim freestyle. I want to make sure that Abbey is swimming more than just the 50 and the 100 free for the next four years, and Celina did a nice job in the 500 free for us, and then was able to swim the 400 IM.”

PRESS RELEASE – UCLA

BERKELEY – The No. 19 UCLA swimming and diving team completed its Bay Area trip with a 165-128 loss to the No. 6 California Golden Bears Saturday at Spieker Aquatics Complex.

200 Medley Relay
California’s A, B and C teams finished occupied the top three spots, while the Bruin B quartet of sophomore Emma Schanz, junior Sarah Kaunitz, freshman Amy Okada and senior Savannah Steffen took the fourth spot with a time of 1:43.93.

1000 Freestyle
A day after finishing third in the same event at Stanford, UCLA junior Margaux Verger Gourson posted a second-place finish at 10:04.95. Sophomore Sandra Soe and senior Katy Campbell followed her up with third and fourth-place times of 10:12.76 and 10:15.68, respectively.

200 Freestyle
Bruin freshman Kenisha Liu finished less than two seconds off the lead at 1:49.27 to finish third, while junior Carly Reidposted a fifth-place time of 1:51.70.

100 Backstroke
Senior Linnea Mack picked up the first win of the day for the Bruins, as she finished in a time of 53.22. Senior Madison White was close behind with a 54.49 finish, good for third.

100 Breaststroke
Bruins Sarah Kaunitz and senior Brigette Winkler finished fourth and fifth, respectively, with times of 1:04.74 and 1:05.37.

200 Butterfly
California’s Noemie Thomas took first with a time of 1:58.13, while second through fourth were separated by 0.35 seconds. Bruins secured second and third, as junior Katie Grover and Okada recorded times of 2:00.25 and 2:00.40.

50 Freestyle
Mack finished fifth with a time of 23.29, while freshman Maisie Jameson rounded out the top six for the Bruins with a 23.76 finish.

3m Diving
Bruins finished 2-3-4 in the first diving event of the day, as Cal’s Phoebe LaMay took first at 323.55. Junior Ciara Monahan was tops for the Bruins at 297.75, while sophomore Kat Friese (283.20) and senior Annika Lenz (251.40) also earned points for UCLA.

100 Freestyle
Mack (49.97), Reid (52.21) and freshman Isabella Goldsmith (52.49) finished 2-3-4 for the Bruins.

200 Backstroke
For the second consecutive day, the 200 backstroke belonged to White, whose 1:56.95 was nearly four seconds faster than the nearest competitor. Junior Marie-Pierre Delisle finished third with a time of 2:01.88, while junior Natalie Amberg‘s time of 2:03.03 was good for fourth.

200 Breaststroke
A day after posting a non-exhibition best time, Liu took the overall best time of 2:15.46 for the Bruins. Schanz (2:18.97) and Winkler (2:19.86) finished third and fourth.

500 Freestyle
Verger Gourson (4:57.95), freshman Lisa Kaunitz (4:59.74) and Campbell (5:00.37) rounded out the top four behind Cal’s Celina Li (4:53.31).

100 Butterfly
Okada finished with UCLA’s top time at 55.38, good for second. Grover (56.68) finished just ahead of Delisle (56.86) for third.

1m Diving
LaMay again topped the diving leaderboard, while Lenz finished second with a score of 261.15. Monahan tallied a third-place score of 255.75, while Friese contributed two points with a fourth-place score of 240.68.

400 IM
UCLA’s Liu challenged Cal’s Li, but the Bruin’s time of 4:19.88 was good for second. Schanz (4:28.87) and Goldsmith (4:28.88) tallied third and fourth-place points for the Bruins.

200 Freestyle Relay
The UCLA A team of Mack, Jameson, Grover and White finished second with a time of 1:33.73, while the B team of Sarah Kaunitz, Steffen, Okada and Winkler completed a third-place finish at 1:35.86.

UCLA will close out the regular-season portion of the schedule with a trip to rival USC’s Uytengsu Aquatics Center. The No. 4 Trojans will host the Bruins Feb. 10 at noon.