Some race videos as they are being uploaded right now...

And photos...





Phoebe (& Robin?)



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https://instagr.am/p/BvaU6ATgXZJ

https://instagr.am/p/BvaGT_4Alrb

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Ali (& Billy?)



Speaking of Ali, reminds me of this tongue-in-cheek post I had thrown out there back in 2016:

UrsusArctosCalifornicus said:

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Was thinking when I first saw some of Ali's photos that she could sort of be mistaken for being a long-lost relative of Katie McL...or does my eye-sight require a serious checkup lol For example:

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Well, guess what lol - even Lizzie agrees w/me

https://instagr.am/p/BvaHEx9B-56
aliharrison17 posted: "This season was definitely an emotional rollercoaster of highs and lows, but I couldn't think of a better way to go out than getting to pose as @katiemclaughlin21
Go Bears always"
katiemclaughlin21 commented: "Hahahhaa omg this is perf"
aliharrison17 commented: "@katiemclaughlin21 YOU'RE awesome. best Tuesday morning twin there ever was!!!"
epelton16: "Literally twins"


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Cal performed with lots of heart and clutch performances. It's too bad that Abbey Weitzeil injured her arm on the final race on Friday night. One question-the Bears finished 2nd, 4th & 9th in the 100 m backstroke but didn't enter
Bilquist or Ivey in the final day's 200m back? Does anyone know why? Cal had like three "empty" events on Saturday (breaststroke, back & distance free) which helped seal the final result . GO BEARS!

Schroeder71 said:

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One question-the Bears finished 2nd, 4th & 9th in the 100 m backstroke but didn't enter
Bilquist or Ivey in the final day's 200m back? Does anyone know why? Cal had like three "empty" events on Saturday (breaststroke, back & distance free) which helped seal the final result .

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The maximum # of individual events is limited to 3 per swimmer @ NCAAs.

Billy's best in the 200 Back is a 1:49.90 (2016 Pac-12). That time would have been good for 4th @ 2019 NCAAs, and would also have pushed down Voss & Nordmann's scoring for the furdettes by a total of 2 points.

However, Amy's backstroke speed has been significantly impacted by her ongoing stress fracture health issues (to a much greater extent than her freestyle), esp in the longer back event where there are more walls, so it'd been a challenge for her to return to her 2016 form in this event, not to mention potentially re-aggravating her injury.

The 100 Free was a better choice overall, protecting Bill's health, where her 6th placing there meant a potential "loss" of just 2 points v. going her best times in the 200 Back.

Swimming the 100 Free instead of the 200 Back also left Amy' legs much fresher, and that would come into significant play in the 400 Free relay finale where Bilquist had reduced UM's Catie DeLoof's 1 sec lead to half that by the end of her leg, thus opening the door for Abbey to throw down her heroic anchor split, and well, the rest is history

Izzy had already used up her 3 event quota by Friday (200 IM-9th, 100 Fly-6th, 100 Back-4th), thus was ineligible to be entered in an individual race on Sat (but did make a key contribution to the 400 FR @ both prelims ~PB~ & @ finals). Super versatile as our Baby Bear has proven herself, Ivey's strengths aren't tuned to the longer Back anyway - Alicia & Sophie are both actually faster than Iz there.

With Chenoa off the roster this season, Cal basically had no one in the mile (help forthcoming in this area from the 2019 class tho).

Froski Ema, who's more of a sprinter, had actually bested her pre-Cal record by almost 4 seconds in the 200 Breast, but not quite there yet to get within scoring range at the highest levels of competition.

Day 4 of NCAAs has historically been the best scoring day for the Furdettes (whereas it tends to be Day 2 & 3 for Bears), and Meehan has built a pretty deep squad of potential scorers in the less "glamorous" events such as 500 Free, 400 IM...and on Day 4, the 1650 Free, 200 Back, 200 Breast & 200 Fly.

Teri's strategy has traditionally been more focussed on relay, the sprints, and the shorter free & stroke races (well other than the 100 Breast lol, which Ema & Ali hopefully will remedy given time & development).

A few more links to finish up summaries of the meet:



Izzy talking about graduating early and her enrollment mid-year at Cal (can't say enough good things about how hugely she stepped up the plate -- block? -- for herself and her new teammates), SwimSwam link here: https://swimswam.com/izzy-ivey-on-graduating-early-big-returns-after-1-semester-at-cal/

And https://swimswam.com/2019-w-ncaas-how-did-swimswams-power-rankings-hold-up/ in an examination of how the Power Rankings stacked up against actual performance at NCs. Biased, obviously, but I feel like SwimSwam, myself, and all sources were low on Cal -- nobody ever saw the Bears challenging as closely as they did for the team title.

Great meet, season, and performances again by all this season.

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Watch Select Race Videos From 2019 Women's Division I NCAAs

by ANDY ROSS

Because of strict copyright rules, race videos at finals are hard to come by because of ESPN holding the broadcasting rights. Swimming World has searched through the depths of YouTube to find a couple of the races from the meet last week in Austin, Texas.

Texas A&M and Louisville used a team videographer to capture their athletes in the water so all finals with those swimmers in the water are posted below. The University of Wisconsin and University of Southern California also posted the videos of the events they won this week in Austin with Beata Nelson and Louise Hansson winning a couple events.

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800 Free Relay


200 Free Relay


50 Free


400 Medley Relay


100 Fly

200 Free


100 Back


200 Medley Relay


100 Free


200 Fly


400 Free Relay


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