Bears finished 6th in the 400 Free Relay (Amy, Boots, Baker, Farida). 'SC-first, Georgia-2nd, LSJU-4th.
Tough season for the Bears with too many unforeseen setbacks/moving parts: Kristen left program, Cierra transfer, mid-season strength coach change, Mau's mystery season, and McL's injury.
Boots capped a HOF career, Naze harnessed her potential, Farida continues to shine, Amy's nowhere near her peak after an injury, and Baker's finding her sea legs.
Seniors will be missed, but Abbey, McL, and Keaton will all be solid. Teri can still add a high end transfer (preferably a rising junior) or an international.
Sun's setting on Georgia. Academic scandal killed their recruiting. Strong 2017 seniors, OK juniors, but not much in their underclass. Bauerle may be a little young for retirement, but he's damaged goods as a recruiter. Meehan to Georgia to run both m/w wouldn't hurt, but he has a super team on the farm in 2017. Cal and LSJU will be much better than Georgia next year. A&M, UVa, and 'SC may pass them too.
LSJU was a year early, but still might have won if not for the relay DQ. Eastin was national frosh of the year, if not swimmer of the meet (Smoliga, Worrell). Manuel and diver Alex Clay return from Olympic redshirts and Ledecky and the frosh will be very good. May sweep relays, although Bears have a good chance at a three peat in the 200 Free.
Oh, I think the Furds will miss Haase in their medley relays.
It will be interesting who will be the assist coach. I believe Kathie Wickstrand was only a temporary replacement for Kristen. Will they make Kathie permanent or will they go with someone who can work with the breast strokers. Wonder if Rebecca Soni available? Getting her might entice some to transfer :acclaim:
[COLOR="#000033"][SIZE=5]Bears Take Third At NCAA Championships[/SIZE]
[COLOR="#808080"][SIZE=4]Cal Places In Top-3 For Eighth Straight Season[/SIZE][/COLOR]
[SIZE=3]By Cal Athletics on Sat, March 19, 2016[/SIZE][/COLOR]
ATLANTA The Cal women's swimming & diving team didn't win another national championship in 2016. But what the Bears did do is a reflection of the staggering level of consistency head coach Teri McKeever's program has reached.
Cal finished in third place after the final day of the 2016 NCAA Championships at the McAuley Aquatic Center at Georgia Tech University. That means the Bears have placed in the top-3 for eight consecutive years, the top-5 for 11 straight seasons and the top-10 for 19 consecutive years.
"I'm just so proud of the consistency," McKeever said. "It speaks volumes to a number of classes, an institution, a program, a culture where young women have come in and been successful in the classroom and in the pool. To be able to have a trophy at the end of it is just really, really special."
The Bears finished with 358 points, trailing NCAA champion Georgia (414 points) and runner-up Stanford (395 points). Cal claimed one individual championship and one relay crown, as senior Rachel Bootsma captured her third NCAA title in the 100 backstroke while the Bears' 200 freestyle relay team of junior Farida Osman, freshman Amy Bilquist, junior Kristen Vredeveld and sophomore Valerie Hull also won the national championship.
"I'm really proud of this group," said senior Kelly Naze, who tied for fifth Saturday in the 200 butterfly. "We've had quite a year. We've had a lot of ups. We've had a lot of downs. I'm really proud of this group for staying consistent, and being in the top-3 for so long is really important."
The Bears, who won the 2015 NCAA Championship and have taken the national title in four of the past eight years, battled injuries and obstacles all season. They came on with some terrific swims at last month's Pac-12 Championships and entered the Saturday still in contention for the NCAA crown.
"There are more than a couple of times where we could have just said this isn't our year, that things aren't going our way," McKeever said. "We just kind of found a way to keep getting knocked down and keep getting back up. This team has been resilient all year. They stuck together. I'm really proud. We worked hard for this one."
The Bears had four individual finalists Saturday, with Naze tying for fifth and sophomore Noemie Thomas placing eighth in the 200 butterfly. Bilquist was fifth in the 100 backstroke and Osman finished seventh in the 100 freestyle.
Cal's 400 freestyle relay team of Bilquist, Bootsma, freshman Kathleen Baker and Osman finished sixth.
"We're really excited. For this group, this was definitely success," Naze said. "We're really proud of everything we did. We came together and we were all in. That was our motto all season, and I'm really that we were all in for this."
It will be interesting who will be the assist coach. I believe Kathie Wickstrand was only a temporary replacement for Kristen. Will they make Kathie permanent or will they go with someone who can work with the breast strokers. Wonder if Rebecca Soni available? Getting her might entice some to transfer :acclaim:
I like the way you are thinking OBear. Hiring a big name breaststroke coach would help recruit Nikol Popov and Maggie Aroesty (who took down Drabot at Junior Nationals in the 200IM), and also help Kathleen to get over the top and beat Eastin in the 200IM.
Congratulations to the Bears for fighting through so much adversity. I'm bummed that Pelton finished her Cal career on a bit of a down note, after reaching such heights earlier in her career. All things considered, it was a fine season. The team represented the university with class. Great job!
No shortage of potential transfers who could help the 2017 Bears and Teri does have money to spend. Highly unlikely that a stud from a major program would transfer, but Minnesota's Zeiger and IU's Tucker would be top picks in the fantasy draft.
Smaller school stars would be more likely. Eastern Michigan breastroker Duncan or DU's Andison would be interesting. Bears don't need another 2IMer, but could use another 4IMer. Canadian, so maybe Noemie knows her.
Intriguing option -- Cal is becoming Butterfly U (alongside Backstroke U), so could Chelsea Britt be a possibility? She is originally from Orlando, FL:
Some of the SwimSwam comments on the associated article talk about transferring within/out of conference. I believe this may have been the issue faced by Cierra Runge. A very old article, from 2014, states that, even before she enrolled at Cal, Cierra was already planning an Olympic year redshirt:
So, Cierra may have discussed this plan with Teri after NCAAs (not sure if they had discussed it before), and it's likely that Teri/Cal did not have the flexibility to hold her scholarship, so that the transfer plan was hatched. Teri/Cal must not have given Cierra permission to contact schools within the Pac-12 conference. (This is typically the case in revenue sports, but I am not sure how common it is for non-revenue sports -- anyone know of high-profile swimmers (male or female) who recently transferred in-conference? If one has already graduated, then they can enroll in any other school, even within the conference, to finish out their eligibility.)
Yes, Cierra could have transferred to ASU (or Jessica Hardy could have transferred to USC back in the day), but she would have had to sit out an additional year before being eligible for an athletic scholarship, per NCAA rules. So, she would not have been eligible to compete until 2017-2018, and even then, would have lost her sophomore year of eligibility.
I always thought that Wisconsin would be a likely out-of-conference destination, because Cierra's age-group club coach is now at Wisconsin.
Back to the topic at hand, let's hope that Chelsea will pick Cal.
Intriguing option -- Cal is becoming Butterfly U (alongside Backstroke U), so could Chelsea Britt be a possibility? She is originally from Orlando, FL:
Some of the SwimSwam comments on the associated article talk about transferring within/out of conference. I believe this may have been the issue faced by Cierra Runge. A very old article, from 2014, states that, even before she enrolled at Cal, Cierra was already planning an Olympic year redshirt:
So, Cierra may have discussed this plan with Teri after NCAAs (not sure if they had discussed it before), and it's likely that Teri/Cal did not have the flexibility to hold her scholarship, so that the transfer plan was hatched. Teri/Cal must not have given Cierra permission to contact schools within the Pac-12 conference. (This is typically the case in revenue sports, but I am not sure how common it is for non-revenue sports -- anyone know of high-profile swimmers (male or female) who recently transferred in-conference? If one has already graduated, then they can enroll in any other school, even within the conference, to finish out their eligibility.)
Yes, Cierra could have transferred to ASU (or Jessica Hardy could have transferred to USC back in the day), but she would have had to sit out an additional year before being eligible for an athletic scholarship, per NCAA rules. So, she would not have been eligible to compete until 2017-2018, and even then, would have lost her sophomore year of eligibility.
I always thought that Wisconsin would be a likely out-of-conference destination, because Cierra's age-group club coach is now at Wisconsin.
Back to the topic at hand, let's hope that Chelsea will pick Cal.
-Katherine Raatz from 'Zona to Cal in 2009 -Emily Bibb from UCLA to Cal in 2009 -Deb Roth from Cal to 'Zona in 2012
Roth was second in the 100 Back on an NCAA championship team (along with Raatz and Bibb) as a Cal froskie in 2011, but didn't qualify for NCAAs as a soph and transferred. Raatz was an All American relay swimmer on the 2012 NCAA championship team.
Much ado on the hoops board about Cuonzo releasing Tyson Jolly from a signed LOI. Lots of SwimSwam hate toward Teri for Cierra and do think it had some effect on 2016 recruiting.
Louisville would have been a great option for a flyer, but maybe ACC eligibility rules on intraconference transfers or coach refused to release her to a conference rival made that unfeasible. Could also see a reluctance to release her to rival Florida. Can see a Floridian going from FSU to Florida, Georgia, or A&M for SEC meets. Florida desperately needed a flyer when Sophia Batchelor transferred from Cal. Florida's closer to home than FSU, but they were only 19th at 2016 NCAAs. Georgia's relatively weak in fly and has more scholly $s than Cal.
"Perfect" transfer for the Bears would be a rising junior (maximize 2018 scholly $s), middle distance/distance (Cierra replacement) or 400 IM (Naze replacement). Britt fits as a rising junior and could back fill in fly if Mau doesn't bounce back. Another 2017 flyer could allow McL to swap the 100 Fly for the 200 Free (Abbey only) to avoid getting boat raced there by Ledecky, Manuel, Neal, and Drabot. Britt and Mykkanen in the 100 Back potentially could free up Baker for the 200 Free as well. Incoming froskie Maddie Murphy may be in the fly mix too.
