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Led by Abby Weitzeil (50, 100, 200 Free winner), Cal W. Swim wins 9 Pac-12 titles including all 5 relaysBears finished 2nd to Stanford for the team title, but is in a good position heading into the NCAA.By
Ruey Yen@YRueyYen Mar 4, 2019, 5:00am PST
While the lack of diving depth meant that the
California Golden Bears women's swimming and diving could only finish 2nd at the 2019 Pac-12 Championships this past week, the meet turned out as optimally as possible for the Cal Bears. Head coach Teri McKeever's squad brought home 9 Pac-12 titles (out of 21 events), including all 5 relays.
Bears goes 5 for 5 in relaysBig meet for Abby WeitzeilSeniors Amy Bilquist and Katie McLaughlin goes out on top
Impact Underclassmen: Freshmen Ema Rajic and Izzy Ivey and Sophomores Robin Neumann and Sarah DarcelStanford collected a lot of diving points including 3 A-Finalist in 1-meter diving (3rd, 5th, 7th), 3 A-Finalists in 3-meter diving (2nd, 5th, 8th), and a win in platform diving (1st, 3rd, 7th). That's already a difference of 230+ points. Stanford also has a 4th diver scoring points just outside the top 4. Cal's senior Phoebe LaMay and sophomore Briana Thai could only earn points in the B-Finals.
Of course, without diving, Stanford would have narrowly edged the Golden Bears thanks to their dominance in 500 Free (4 A-Finalists), 1650 Free (3 A-Finalists), 400 IM (5 A-Finalists), and 200 Back (5 A-Finalists, including 1-2-3 finish).
Good thing for the Bears is that for the NCAA, there is expected to be more competitions to dilute the events where the Cardinal has dominated (although the same can probably said about Cal), especially in diving.
The NCAA Championships to be raced during March 20th to 23rd from Austin, Texas should be an exciting event that may come down to a relay or two...IF that's the margin, it's a great confidence boost to the Bears to have won all 5 this past week.
ROLL ON YOU BEARS!----------
Bears take home silver at Pac-12 Championships despite 9 winsThe Bears will travel to Austin for the conclusion of their season the 2019 NCAA championships from March 20 to 23. There, they will face the nation's best in Texas, Texas A&M and Michigan not to mention their familiar rivals in Stanford. Yet again, Cal will be projected to play second fiddle to their Bay Area neighbors, but the Bears will give everything they have left to upstage the Cardinal and make a statement at the national championships this year.
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ZUMO Performance of the Week: Cal Surprises With NCAA Record In 400 Free RelaySwimming on the final night of the Pac-12 Championships, the four Cal Bears touched the wall in 3:07.41 to take down the NCAA record by exactly two-tenths. Neumann led off in a 48.17 and was followed by three impressive splits of 46.5 or better from McLaughlin (46.55), Bilquist (46.30), and Weitzeil (46.39).
And while the record itself may have been somewhat unexpected, what may be more amazing is that these four have the opportunity to take the record even lower at NCAA's later this month. Weitzeil's split (46.39) was actually a few hundredths slower than her flat start win earlier in the evening (46.35), as was Neumann's lead-off leg (48.17 vs. 47.78 earlier in the evening).
This foursome's win also made Cal 5-for-5 on relay wins during at Pac-12's, something that
Weitzeil identified as their goal heading into the race after the meet.
Stanford won all five relays at NCAA's last season en route to their second straight NCAA Team Championship, and the record that fell this weekend belonged to a star-studded Stanford relay of
Simone Manuel,
Katie Ledecky,
Janet Hu, and
Lia Neal that
helped secure the Cardinal's first NCAA Championship title since 1998 in 2017.
But while repeating all five relays again may be a goal for the Bears in a few weeks, it doesn't seem to be their sole focus.
"The best thing we've done this week is to have fun as a team," added senior Katie McLaughlin. "So, we're going to keep rolling with that, having fun and enjoying each other throughout the next few weeks."
Congratulations to Robin Neuman, Katie McLaughlin, Amy Bilquist, and Abbey Weitzeil on earning ZUMO's Performance of the Week!
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