200 IM- Wilson finishes 3rd (1:54.51), behind Walsh and Hartman

50 Free- Emily Gantriis finishes 2nd in the B-Final (21.90)

So, does CAL have a chance of winning the NCAA swimming title? I don't much about college swimming, but I love following it.

A few random comments on Swimswam, for your collective enjoyment

Swimswam readers said:

---

"Cal's consistency in the 200 free relay has been amazing. They've been top 2 in the event for 6 consecutive NCAA championships and won the event 5 times since 2015. I can't think of another team that's had that kind of consistency in a relay event"

"3rd best time in school history, which is quite the achievement considering you're down a Weitzel and Bilquist. Also, that whole relay comes back next year."

"Cal and the sprint free dynasty!!!!"

"Ecstatic as a Cal fan, but that 21.09 leadoff from Douglass means an awesome race is coming later. Really glad to see the Bears win this relay even in a post-Weitzeil world!"

"All credit to Ivey for that clutch anchor, but WOW Gantriis and Garcia both put the hammer down on the 2nd & 3rd legs to set her up for that. Last three Cal legs went 21.23 (Gantriis), 21.24 (Garcia), 21.22 (Ivey). Gantris was only 22.18 in the individual and Garci was way back in 22.32" ... "Those middle two legs were the heroes."

"Honestly, big congrats to not only Ivey but Garcia, Riley and Gantriis, who bounced back brilliantly from this morning" ... "No kidding. That's a comeback"

"The last 3 legs were all within .02 of each other so it was a team effort, not just her (Ivey). But yeah. Amazing. Shaking my head and smiling kind of amazing."

"And Eloise led off with a best time."

"Elise Garcia 22.3 individually this morning and then a flying 21.2 for the relay. That's impressive!" ... "Huge props to Garcia."

"Rowdy literally just named Kyla Valls (actually from UVA) instead of Elisa Garcia both in post-race commentary and then in the interview with Cal. Fortunately Ivey played it off to save (his) face...Ivey handled it well tho...Is there anything this young woman can't do?" ... "Rowdy you have one job can you not get it right for Elise Garcia please wow" ... "" ... ""

"Cal has 3 swimmers total swimming the 500 tonight. I don't think they've had any swimmers core in the 500 since 2015" ... "Yes strange to see more Cal finalists in 500 than 50" ... "and then they win the 200 Free Relay! Nice!"

"Gantris' swim in consols of the 50 gives me hope for the Cal sprint legacy.
That relay win is going to fire up the team. I think they'll take the next one as well."

"After Gantriis's swims in the relay and individual I'm interested to see what she has in her."

---

btw, I believe Emily Gantriis' 21.90 runner-up finish in the B final of the *50 Free* was a personal best for her

Thanks!!! I really enjoyed reading that. GO BEARS!!

Uh oh... Cal DQ on the 400 MR for early exchange

BRUTAL

Ouch, the DQ really hit me in the feels. Isa led off, great splits from Ema and Izzy in the middle (57.61 and 49.95), but Emily jumped a tiny bit early, -0.06. Cal would've taken third behind NCSU and UVA and sat squarely in second without the lost points. Oof

Cal slides to 4th place now with the loss of 32 points in the 400 medley relay. Maybe they can still climb up into the top three finishers. Other than the exceptional upset by Cal in the 200m freestyle relay, my observation is that the overall team has been struggling. Only a couple of swimmers have matched their personal best marks of the 2021 season while most are missing those times considerably. Even if the Bears weren't DQ'd, they finished 3rd in the medley relay. NC State broke Standford's record and upset both Virginia and Cal. Relays have carried Cal consistently in recent years. It appears that the ACC has young teams on the rise in Virginia & NCS. GO BEARS!

SoCalie said:

---

BRUTAL

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HBear said:

---

Ouch, the DQ really hit me in the feels. Oof

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Amen.

HBear said:

---

Isa led off, great splits from Ema and Izzy in the middle (57.61 and 49.95), but Emily jumped a tiny bit early, -0.06. Cal would've taken third behind NCSU and UVA and sat squarely in second without the lost points.

---

Rajic & Ivey did come thru at their end with nice splits (they went 57.68 & 50.44 respectively @ Pac-12s), although Stadden wasn't quite at her best here (51.14 here v. 50.86 @ Pac-12s).

Actually Gantriis' 47.56 anchor (47.72 @ Pac-12s) was superior to her counterpart's from that record-setting NC State team (Poole's 48.22) as well as from 4th place Michigan (Glass' 48.63), and comparable to 3rd place Texas (Pash's 47.57)...

Anyway, cheering on the whole team to rebound mentally (esp Emily!) - tomorrow is another day as they say.

Relay DQs happen to even the very best teams, in particular to a frosh exposed to the highly-charged atmosphere & pressure-cooker environment of the National Championship for the very first time, caught up in the excitement of the moment trying to anchor her squad to victory coming from behind...

Still massively proud of all our swim & dive ambassadors, and look forward to them continuing to give their best for the team & school in the next couple of days all the way to the finish line - Go Bears!

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SEED VS. PERFORMANCE: DAY 2 OF NCAAS SEES DRAMATIC SWINGS OF MOMENTUM

"...after a Cal relay DQ, it appears that the team title battle isn't going to be in question, barring a disaster for the Virginia Cavaliers.

While Virginia looks ready to win the team title, there are great team battles brewing for the minor positions at the meet.

NC State took over 2nd place thanks their session-ending relay win, and now they and the Cal Bears are separated by just 10 points after each had an 'empty' relay (NC State didn't score in the 800, though that was a function of their lineup choice rather than a DQ).

Squarely in between them are the Texas Longhorns, with the best diver of the trio.

Aside from the DQ, none of those three teams are blowing away their seeded points, but none are getting beat up too bad by their seeded points either. Each team had a highlight on day 2 (Cal and NC State each won relays, Texas' Evie Pfeiffer picked off Brooke Forde to place 2nd in the 500 free), and each team missed some opportunities to take control.

It's going to come down to the wire between those three.

We'll get some more crucial data on day 3, but after the relay swim from Sophie Hansson, the Wolfpack look really great.

Izzy Ivey has a tough double with the 100 fly and 100 back scheduled for Friday, and she'll need to upset some swimmers to keep Cal in the hunt for 2nd.

There are opportunities. While the opportunities to catch Virginia have all-but-evaporated, there are smaller opportunities all around the last 2 days of this meet owed in part to an overall lag in times (very few personal bests have gone on the board)."

----------

To end on a positive note:

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VIRGINIA TAKES CHARGE WITH 3 INDIVIDUAL WINS, CAL RELAYS HAVE UPS AND DOWNS

Virginia has pulled into the lead after the first full day of swimming and diving, with the Cavaliers well on their way to their first NCAA title in school history. A UVA win would also be the first for the ACC, and the Cavaliers started things off today by winning all three individual swimming events.

The Golden Bears, meanwhile, experienced emotions on both ends of the spectrum.

First, their 200 free relay reminded everyone why Cal has been so good for so long. Their poise in the relay saw two swimmers massively out-perform expectations, as freshman Emily Gantriis and Elise Garcia both split 21.2s, giving way to Isabel Ivey for a 21.2 anchor leg and giving Cal the upset win over Virginia. Even after Douglass's shocking 21.09 lead-off, the Bears swam their own race.

SCHOOL | SWIMMER | SPLIT | LEAD-OFF?
Virginia | Douglass | 21.09 | Y
Michigan | MacNeil | 21.13 | N
Cal | Ivey | 21.22 | N
Cal | Gantriis | 21.23 | N
Cal | Garcia | 21.23 | N

Historically, a Cal win here makes sense; it's their fifth win in six years in the 200 free relay.

In the 400 medley relay, though, they had looked good for a top-three finish before being called for a DQ on their fly-to-free exchange. While it wipes them out of competing with Virginia, Cal still has a strong two days left in the meet to try to move back into second, but it's a significant blow for the Golden Bears to cap off the night.

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----------

UrsusArctosCalifornicus said:

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Rajic & Ivey did come thru at their end with nice splits (they went 57.68 & 50.44 respectively @ Pac-12s), although Stadden wasn't quite at her best here (51.14 here v. 50.86 @ Pac-12s).

Actually Gantriis' 47.56 anchor (47.72 @ Pac-12s) was superior to her counterpart's from that record-setting NC State team (Poole's 48.22) as well as from 4th place Michigan (Glass' 48.63), and comparable to 3rd place Texas (Pash's 47.57)...

---

DQ aside in the 400 Medley Relay :p, Ema would have laid down the *3rd fastest* breast split of the field (swifter than Wenger's 57.71 for Virginia, and only bested by NCSU's Hansson & Tenn's McSharry), whilst Izzy busted out the *2nd fastest* fly leg (losing only to Alons' amazing swim for NCSU - the pair being the only ones to break the 50 sec barrier here), with Emily arguably representing the *3rd fastest* anchor split (well if one was to factor in that 0.04 over-the-legal-limit of a reaction time, the *4th fastest* then... )

Alicia Wilson finished the 400 IM prelims in 22nd place in a time of 4:11.29. She was seeded #4 w/ 4.04.10 PR.

Ema Rajic didn't fall off in time that much but did not qualify for the A final, finishing in the 12 spot (B heat).

Three other Bears qualified for their four A finals tonight in the middle of their fields (3rd place to 5th). Hopefully
Cal can add some significant points to close the gap (especially on Texas). NC State looks formidable in 2nd. In the final 200 Medley Relay tonight, CAL has the sixth fastest time vs NCS's second fastest...GO BEARS!

Schroeder71 said:

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Alicia Wilson finished the 400 IM prelims in 22nd place in a time of 4:11.29. She was seeded #4 w/ 4.04.10 PR.

Ema Rajic didn't fall off in time that much but did not qualify for the A final, finishing in the 12 spot (B heat).

Three other Bears qualified for their four A finals tonight in the middle of their fields (3rd place to 5th). Hopefully Cal can add some significant points to close the gap (especially on Texas). NC State looks formidable in 2nd. In the final 200 Medley Relay tonight, CAL has the sixth fastest time vs NCS's second fastest...GO BEARS!

---

Thanks for the update.

Full results from this morning...

400 IM: Alicia fell off quite a bit from seed, falling out of finals altogether as noted above. Sarah DiMeco also struggled, falling to 40th place (4:17.25) and adding 4.5 seconds from her seed time.

100 Fly: Izzy with a strong 50.75 to tie Rhyan White (Bama) for 3rd going into finals tonight. Rachel Klinker with a 52.31 to place 26th, and Elise Garcia 53.00 for 35th.

200 Free: Robin with a strong 1:43.73 to place 5th heading into tonight's A-Final. Ayla on the wrong side of the bubble (1:44.47 to lead the B-Final).

100 Breast: Ema with a 58.96 (about a half second add) to place 12th, as mentioned.

100 Back: Izzy finishes off her morning double with a 51.09 for 4th into the A-Final. Isabelle Stadden right behind in 5th (51.18). Tea Laughlin adds half a second (53.09) for 30th.

Schroeder71 said:

---

Alicia Wilson finished the 400 IM prelims in 22nd place in a time of 4:11.29. She was seeded #4 w/ 4.04.10 PR.

Ema Rajic didn't fall off in time that much but did not qualify for the A final, finishing in the 12 spot (B heat).

Three other Bears qualified for their four A finals tonight in the middle of their fields (3rd place to 5th). Hopefully Cal can add some significant points to close the gap (especially on Texas). NC State looks formidable in 2nd. In the final 200 Medley Relay tonight, CAL has the sixth fastest time vs NCS's second fastest...GO BEARS!

---

Yup, a rather rough morning for our Bears, perhaps still fighting to shake off the rollercoaster ride and massive emotional downer from last night + coping with the interrupted training base from COVID restrictions which may have impacted those who are attempting a double taper.

Every single Bear swam slower than their seeded times this morning, other than Izzy in her 100 Fly/Back double!

Now not being able to produce your personal or even season best @ NCAA prelims is relatively commonplace, but what impacts the team race is getting pushed into the B final from your seeded A berth, or more significantly, not qualifying at all for finals when one's originally seeded to contribute to the scoring.

For example, here are some quick stats on those who had added to their seeded time in the morning heats:

400 IM (no Bears made it to this evening's finals session)
- Alicia: 7+ sec
- Sarah: 4.5+ sec

100 Fly (Izzy will be the sole rep for the Blue & Gold tonight)
- Rachel: 1/2+ sec
- Elise: 0.22 sec

200 Free
- Robin: 1/2+ sec -> A final
- Ayla: 0.37 sec -> B final
- Eloise: 0.29 sec

100 Breast
- Ema: 0.51 sec -> B final

100 Back
- Isabelle: 0.32 sec -> A final
- Tea: 0.58 sec

Wishing our Bears the best in going hard and giving it their all for the team in the looming, very tough battle for 2nd & 3rd overall behind Virginia!

Oh, some more comments from Swimswam on last night's DQ and morning heats earlier today:

Swimswam readers said:

---

"UVA has pretty much ended this meet now. Swimming well and they're even getting the good breaks with 8th/16th place 3 times already"

"And then for Cal on top of yesterday's DQ
IM Wilson 22nd when her seed time would have her 1st (was seeded 4th)
Fly Ivey in A, but Klinker 26th down from 16th seed
2Fr Neumann in A, but Spitz 9th"

"Cal and State just bonked the 400IM"
"Rough round for Cal's Wilson. Wow."
"Weird because she looked very solid in the 2IM (3rd) yesterday"
"To be fair she might not be fully tapered for this. She's so close to the GB Olympic QT for 200IM. Her focus might be there."

---

• UPDATE =>

2021 NCAA Division I Women's Championships: In Changing of Guard Year, Cal Still Among Top Four Halfway Through

Even when the Golden Bears lose an all-time talent like Missy Franklin in 2015, the team re-loads and finishes no lower than fourth. Even losing superstar Kathleen Baker, the team wins three relays in 2019 and almost snaps Stanford's winning streak. Even after losing relay beasts like Abbey Weitzeil, Katie McLaughlin and Amy Bilquist, the Golden Bears are still national champs in the 200 free relay, having won five of the last six. Even in a pandemic when Cal is out of competition for most of the year, and even when a tornado delays the start of finals by 30 minutes, Cal shows out every single year. It is time to give Teri McKeever the recognition she has earned as one of the top coaches in the entire NCAA.

"It is such a great honor to win," anchor Izzy Ivey said after the race. "We wanted to keep up the Cal legacy in the 200 free relay so we went for the gold on this one. We had that tornado delay and Teri (McKeever) has really prepared us for scenarios like that, so we were one of the best prepared teams."

McKeever's Cal teams haven't finished outside the top four since 2008 when the team was fifth. And even with a relay DQ last night in the 400 medley, the Golden Bears are in a solid position to challenge for the top two. Consistency on the national stage is hard to obtain, and especially in a pandemic when so many swimmers have opted out and so many have struggled to swim personal best times.

In Cal's 200 free relay, third leg Elise Garcia was a 22.4 split last season on Cal's B 200 free relay at Pac-12s. Before this season, she had never broken 23 from a flat start and has improved all the way to playing a key leg on a national championship winning relay. Alicia Wilson scored in her first NCAA final with a third in the 200 IM. Ayla Spitz scored in her first NCAA final with a fifth place in the 500 and will be back in the B-Final of the 200 free, while Emily Gantriis seemingly transitioned from meters to yards coming from Denmark in swimming a 21.2 on the 200 free relay and scoring 10th in the B-Final of the 50 free.

Cal has a rich history in women's swimming and diving. Since McKeever took over in the fall of 1992, the team has won four national titles, and has had individual Olympic gold medalists Franklin, Natalie Coughlin and Dana Vollmer walk the deck. In addition to 11 straight top five finishes, Cal hasn't finished outside the top ten since getting 17th in 1996.

Even in a historic year for the current top three of Virginia, NC State and Texas, who are all seeking their first top four finish either in school history or in two decades, the Golden Bears from Cal are still in the top four a testament to how well Teri McKeever prepares them for any scenario, and a testament to the culture in place in Berkeley.

Great point about the Olympic Trials being so close. Great Britain's Trials are in less than one month. I would imagine that Alicia is training heavily at this time so she can actually have a taper for their Trials. The Netherlands and Denmark also have their Trials in April - so this would impact Robin (especially as a middle-distance to distance swimmer) and Emily. I didn't realize how close they are to trials right now, but this is a HUGE factor. This is very likely the case for any of the other Bears that are Olympic hopefuls for another country, as well.

Frankly, I would imagine that, even for Americans, anyone that swims the 200 and above, in any stroke, isn't well-tapered for this NCAA meet. Our Olympic trials are in June. That's not a lot of time to build back up and taper again, especially for middle-distance to distance swimmers.

There are a lot more great racing opportunities for our Bears this week, and they can only help them at their respective Trials. GO BEARS!!

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NCAA DAY 3 UPS/DOWNS: 100 FLY A BIG POINTS RACE FOR VIRGINIA AND MICHIGAN

Virginia is looking to extend their lead over NC State, which was of 60 points last night, while NC State is projected to narrowly fend off Cal.

DAY 3 PRELIMS SCORING

Here's the points breakdown if the swimmers maintain their places from the morning. Note that these do not include diving or tonight's relays.

1. UVA: 124.0
2. NC State: 75.5
3. California: 72.5
4. Texas: 64.5
5. Kentucky: 50.0
6. Michigan: 45.0
7. Ohio State: 39.5
8. Alabama: 39.0
9. Tennessee: 30.0
10. Northwestern: 25.5
11. Georgia: 24.0
12. Stanford: 22.0

SCORED PRELIMS + ACTUAL SCORES

1 | UVA: 308.0
2 | NC State: 199.5
3 | California: 186.5
4 | Texas: 183.5
5 | Ohio State: 141.0
6 | Alabama: 129.0
7 | Michigan: 123.0
8 | Kentucky: 115.0
9 | Georgia: 109.0
10 | Stanford: 106.0

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BACON LEADS AGAIN, TEXAS SCORES ONE DIVER BUT MISSES SECOND DIVER ON DAY 2

• #3 Texas gets Pineda into the A final.

FULL FRIDAY UP/DOWNS

TEAM | ALL | 400 IM | 100 FLY | 200 FREE | 100 BREAST | 100 BACK | 3 MTR DIVING
UVA | 7/4 | 1/0 | 2/2 | 2/1 | 1/0 | 1/1 | 0/0
Texas | 5/3 | 1/0 | 1/1 | 1/0 | 0/1 | 1/1 | 1/0
NC State | 4/2 | 0/1 | 1/0 | 0/0 | 2/1 | 1/0 | 0/0
California | 4/2 | 0/0 | 1/0 | 1/1 | 0/1 | 2/0 | 0/0
Michigan | 3/1 | 1/0 | 2/0 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0
Kentucky | 2/5 | 1/3 | 0/1 | 1/1 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0
Ohio State | 2/3 | 1/1 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 1/0 | 0/1 | 0/1
UNC | 2/1 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 1/1 | 1/0
Alabama | 2/1 | 0/0 | 1/0 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 1/0 | 0/0
Texas A&M | 2/1 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 1/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 1/0
Georgia | 2/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 1/0 | 1/0 | 0/0 | 0/0
Indiana | 1/3 | 1/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 0/2
Stanford | 1/2 | 1/0 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 0/0
Tennessee | 1/2 | 0/1 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 1/0 | 0/0 | 0/0
Northwestern | 1/2 | 0/0 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 1/1 | 0/0 | 0/0

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Will unfortunately miss much of this evening's finals session - but good thoughts & wild cheering go out to our Bears for their endeavours tonight. The Bear never quits, the Bear never dies!

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2021 WOMEN'S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS: DAY 3 FINALS LIVE RECAP


----------

Friday W Swim Finals Heat Sheet

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Izzy- 4th in the 100 fly (50.68). New PB!

Apologies, had to step out for a moment. Some more results from the night...

200 Free: Robin finishes 6th in the A-Final (1:44.26), Ayla 3rd in the B-Final (1:45.17). Both added time from their morning swims.

100 Breast: Ema places 6th in the B-Final (59.17), adding time from her morning swim.

100 Back: Izzy (50.85) and Isabelle (50.87) place 4-5, both dropping time from this morning. Stadden was only 0.01 off her best time from Pac-12s.

Bears 1:34.98 200 MR with Isa (23.91), Ema (26.8), Izzy (22.76), Elise (21.51) - 4th overall, won heat 4 of 5. Great job, Bears!

swimmer19 said:

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Bears 1:34.98 200 MR with Isa (23.91), Ema (26.8), Izzy (22.76), Elise (21.51) - 4th overall, won heat 4 of 5. Great job, Bears!

---

Per twitter, the 200 MR time was a season best.

swimmer19 said:

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400 IM: Alicia fell off quite a bit from seed, falling out of finals altogether as noted above. Sarah DiMeco also struggled, falling to 40th place (4:17.25) and adding 4.5 seconds from her seed time.

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The British Swimming Championships which double as the Olympic trials for the Great Britain team for Tokyo 2021 will be held at the London Aquatics Centre from 13-18 April 2021

And yet Wilson is still here swimming ncaa for Cal.
It's understandable if she didn't taper for this meet.

ncbears said:

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swimmer19 said:

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Bears 1:34.98 200 MR with Isa (23.91), Ema (26.8), Izzy (22.76), Elise (21.51) - 4th overall, won heat 4 of 5. Great job, Bears!

---

Per twitter, the 200 MR time was a season best.

---

Also the 6th fastest time in school history: (with the 2021 Pac-12 time of 1:35.18 making #9)

200-YARD MEDLEY RELAY
1. Kathleen Baker (23.56), Abbey Weitzeil (26.68), Noemie Thomas (22.66), Amy Bilquist (20.95) | 1:33.85 | 2018
2. Kathleen Baker (23.62), Abbey Weitzeil (26.67), Noemie Thomas (22.70), Farida Osman (21.11) | 1:34.10 | 2017
3. Cindy Tran (23.44), Caitlin Leverenz (26.63), Colleen Fotsch (22.97), Liv Jensen (21.20) | 1:34.24 | 2012
4. Amy Bilquist (23.81), Abbey Weitzeil (27.00), Noemie Thomas (22.52), Farida Osman (21.09) | 1:34.42 | 2017
5. Isabel Ivey (24.07), Ema Rajic (27.28), Maddie Murphy (22.63), Abbey Weitzeil (20.45) | 1:34.43 | 2019
6. Isabelle Stadden (23.91), Ema Rajic (26.80), Isabel Ivey (22.76), Elise Garcia (21.51) | 1:34.98 | 2021 (NCAA)
7. Amy Bilquist (24.14), Abbey Weitzeil (26.62), Noemie Thomas (22.45), Katie McLaughlin (21.63) | 1:35.04 | 2018
8. Rachel Bootsma (23.36), Marina Garcia (27.95), Noemie Thomas (22.68), Farida Osman (21.12) | 1:35.11 | 2016
9. Isabelle Stadden (24.29), Ema Rajic (26.56), Isabel Ivey (22.74), Emily Gantriis (21.59) | 1:35.18 | 2021 (Pac-12)

...and a mere 0.02 sec behind 3rd placed Ohio State's 1:34.96!

btw, Cal was one of only 3 teams in the field who had dropped time from their seed in this race (the other 2 were the winning squad from NCSU + 8th= placed Tennessee)

In other news:

Cal W Swim said:

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Briana Thai, battling an injury that held her out of Thursday's 1-meter springboard event, competed on 3-meter and finished 46th.

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2021 NCAA WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIPS: DAY 3 SEED VS. ACTUAL ANALYSIS

Digging into the data, the first thing that jumps out is how much that relay DQ hurt the Cal women: if things went exactly to seed on Saturday (they won't), the difference between Cal and NC State would be 32 points. That's exactly the equivalent of a 3rd-place relay finish, which is exactly where Cal finished in the 400 medley relay before being disqualified for an early start.

Cal will then face an uphill battle to finish in the top 3, with Texas having Paola Pineda diving well and competing on the platform on Saturday. That's the Longhorns' best chance at catching NC State for 2nd place, which is still a very real possibility (unless NC State stays as hot as they were on Friday).

If Cal does finish 4th, that will be the first time since 2008 where they finish outside of the top 3, an 11-straight championship streak. They look like they'll still keep their top 5 streak (which dates back to 2006) alive either way.

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200 Back- Isabelle 4th out of prelims (1:50.33), but Alicia 2nd alternate (1:53.94). Ayla 1:55.56 for 30th and Tea Laughlin 1:56.09 for 38th

100 Free- Izzy seeded 2nd (47.30), Robin 13th (48.29) and Emily 15th (48.54). Elise 1st alternate (48.62), Eloise 27th (48.92)

swimmer19 said:

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100 Free- Izzy seeded 2nd (47.30), Robin 13th (48.29) and Emily 15th (48.54). Elise 1st alternate (48.62), Eloise 27th (48.92)

---

Drat - Elise shut out out of a scoring berth by 1 spot and just 0.06 sec!

On the bright side, Garcia's 48.62 is a lifetime best, her former PB being a 48.71 from Pac-12s. Prior to this season, Elise's 100 Free record was a 49.68 from her pre-Cal days.

On the basis of today's swims and indeed throughout the meet thus far, would reckon Elise & Emily stand a brilliant chance of joining Izzy & Robin in the 400 Free Relay finale tonight, although Eloise wouldn't be a bad choice either.

I compared Cal vs Texas for the six events this evening. It appears that both Cal & Texas could pick up points in 3 events. Cal should add points in the 200 back, 100 free & the 400 free relay. Texas should score in the mile free, 200 breast & clinch the meet-3rd place-in the 200 fly. I'm your novice swim fan so I don't know exactly the scoring methodology so IF the Bears could finish high with Ivey in the 100 free, also w/ team in 400 free relay, plus if Stadden could finish top 2 in her best event (200 back) maybe Cal has a chance...

Saturday's six finals:
---------------------------
1) mile free: Texas #3 (Pfeiffer) vs Cal #13 (Dimeco)
2) 200 back: Cal #4 Stadden in A heat; Texas #12 in B heat. A. Wilson failed to make cut-off (#18)
3) 100 free-Cal #2 Ivey; Neumann #13 & Gantriis #15 could score in B heat. E. Garcia barely missed cutoff #17 & E. Riley #27. * Texas shutout here*
4)200 breast- E Rajic #28 vs Texas #10 in B heat. *Cal shutout here*
5) 200 fly-pac 12 champion Klinker #10 vs Texas in A final w/ #3, #5 & #6. Klinker was 1 of 5 seeds that had prior times in the 1:52+ range. Four made the A final and Klinker added 1.5 seconds. The B heat Rachel is in has all 1:54 & 1:55 swimmers! This event (along with the DQ) could end up being Cal's achilles heel.
6)400 free relay-Cal #3 vs Texas #8

Will Cal's top 3 streak end or will the Bears come through in the clutch? GO BEARS!

Schroeder71 said:

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I compared Cal vs Texas for the six events this evening. It appears that both Cal & Texas could pick up points in 3 events. Cal should add points in the 200 back, 100 free & the 400 free relay. Texas should score in the mile free, 200 breast & clinch the meet-3rd place-in the 200 fly.

---

Unfortunately for our Bears, Pineda have qualified for the Championship final of the Platform Diving event, with 2 other Texas divers padding their scoring from the Consolation final tonight (our very own Briana ended last in prelims, no doubt impacted by her injury from earlier).

Sarah has added to her seeded times in the 500 Free & 400 IM, and Rachel hasn't bested her entry times thus far either...

Bears will need to step it up massively to even stand a chance of snatching that 3rd spot from the favoured Horns, and perform better than seed all across the board when it comes to the crunch.

A decent opportunity should come in the 100 Free...and also the 400 Free relay, where Alabama, Virginia & NC State are looking strong...the question will be where Cal ends up placing in that relay v. the UT squad.

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2021 NCAA WOMEN DAY 4 UPS/DOWNS: UVA EARNS ALL 6 SCORERS IN THE A-FINALS

DAY 4 UPS/DOWNS

Stat Breakdown provided by Andrew Mering.
TEAM | ALL | 200 BACK | 100 FREE | 200 BREAST | 200 FLY
UVA | 6/0 | 1/0 | 1/0 | 3/0 | 1/0
NC State | 5/1 | 2/1 | 1/0 | 2/0 | 0/0
Alabama | 4/0 | 1/0 | 3/0 | 0/0 | 0/0
Texas | 3/2 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 0/1 | 3/0
Kentucky | 2/3 | 1/1 | 0/0 | 0/2 | 1/0
California | 2/3 | 1/0 | 1/2 | 0/0 | 0/1
Georgia | 2/2 | 0/0 | 0/1 | 1/1 | 1/0
Michigan | 2/1 | 0/1 | 1/0 | 0/0 | 1/0
Texas A&M | 2/1 | 0/0 | 1/0 | 0/0 | 1/1

DAY 4 PRELIMS SCORING
Here's the points breakdown if the swimmers maintain their places from the morning. Note that these do not include diving or tonight's relays.
1. UVA: 91.0
2. NC State: 82.0
3. Alabama: 61.0
4. Texas: 55.0
5. California: 45.0
6. Georgia: 44.0
7. Kentucky: 43.5
8. Michigan: 42.0
9. Texas A&M: 32.0

SCORED PRELIMS + ACTUAL SCORES
1. UVA: 435.0
2. NC State: 323.0
3. Texas: 279.0
4. California: 255.0
5. Alabama: 216.0
6. Ohio State: 177.5
7. Michigan: 169.5
8. Georgia: 159.0
9. Kentucky: 157.5
10. Stanford: 147.5

The 1650 free timed finals will also take place in between preliminaries and the start of the last finals session.
TEAM | UPS/DOWNS | POINTS
Michigan | 2/0 | 26
UVA | 1/0 | 20
Tennessee | 1/0 | 17
Texas | 1/0 | 16
Alabama | 1/0 | 15
Arkansas | 1/0 | 13
Stanford | 1/0 | 11
Georgia | 0/1 | 9
Florida | 0/2 | 8
Kentucky | 0/1 | 7
Texas A&M | 0/1 | 5
Cal | 0/1 | 4
Louisville | 0/1 | 3
NC State | 0/1 | 1

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• UPDATES =>

Swimswam Readers said:

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"Texas just went 6th, 9th, 10th in prelims of platform diving. If those places hold, and you count their 3rd place seed in the 1650, that puts them 1 point ahead of NC State before the relay."
- "Texas 10th and 12th in consolations (platform) it appears so 12 points along with big finalist"

"Any chance Alabama catches Cal?"
- "Not mathematically impossible, but very unlikely at this point."

"Firstly, congrats to both Virginia and NC State. I've seen some great swimming from both.
So yes, a bit of a down year for the Cal women but in looking for the silver lining, I see a lot of potential in the underclassmen (underclasspersons?):
Ayla Spitz: top returning scorer in the 500 free.
Emily Gantriis (are the really 2 i's?): fastest freshman in the 50 Free. Potentially part of 4 out of 5 relays for 3 more years.
Sara Dimeco: not sure what happened at NCs. Illness? Big distance/400IM potental next year.
Isabelle Stadden: backstroke stud, huge points in 2 events already, looking forward to her scoring in a 3rd event.
Rachel Klinker: if she can peak at NCAAs and not Pac-12s, I think she can easily score in 3 events.
Returning all 200FR swimmers. Losing only 1 leg out of all 5 relays.
I can't think of a better year to focus on getting experience at the big meets and planning for a comeback next year. Lots to look forward to!
Go Bears! See you in a few hours."

"Agree with all of the above.
Also freshman backstroker Tea Laughlin is looking good. She needs to swim fast in the morning. Her Pac-12 finals times were great, but hope to see some faster swims in the morning to lock in those night time spots.
Elise Garcia looked real good this year after having stagnated the past couple years. Excited to watch her shine as a senior.
Incoming freshmen also have lots of potential. Excited to see what our Bears can do in the coming years. Go Bears!!"

">needs to swim fast in the morning
I think the whole team could improve on that desu. Lots of awesome swims this year that came at non-optimal times.
Having said that, I feel the need to qualify it by saying this has been a wacky and abnormal year for everyone. No one should think I don't trust in Teri. Because I do."

"3 hour time change + coming off Daylight savings weekend. I've always felt that prelims on the East coast should start at 11:00 AM."

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NCAA Division I Women's Swimming Championships: ACC Making Its Voice Heard in Greensboro

For many years in NCAA women's swimming and diving, the Pac-12 and Southeastern Conference dominated the national landscape with dynasties and titles coming from Auburn, Georgia, Stanford and Cal. In the last 20 years, all but two of the national titles went to one of those schools, with Arizona winning in 2008 out of the Pac-12 and Florida winning in 2010 out of the SEC.

But in 2021, in the start of a new decade and the start of a new era, the power has shifted to the East Coast, a little further up the Atlantic to the ACC as Virginia and NC State are in line to finish 1-2 when all is said and done tonight. Before this year, no ACC team has ever won the NCAA women's meet, nor has ever finished second. Now in 2021, the ACC is slated to have the two best teams in the country.

Virginia once again leads the ups, downs as they should be well on their way to the national title tonight with NC State in tow.

The battle for third should get interesting with Texas and California, as Alabama will put a late charge on Ohio State for the top five, which would be Alabama's highest finish since 1983.

NCAA Women's Swimming & Diving Championships Day Four Ups, Downs (Including Platform Diving)

Virginia 6, 0

NC State 5, 1

Texas 4, 4

Alabama 4, 0

Purdue 3, 0

California 2, 3

Kentucky 2, 3

Georgia 2, 2

Michigan 2, 1

Texas A&M 2, 1

Scores Based on Seed:
Data compiled by Price Fishback. The numbers below are the amount of points each team gained or lost this morning based on the psych sheet seeds.

Texas +25

Virginia +21

Texas A&M +18

North Carolina +17

Florida +7

Michigan +5

Tennessee +5

Louisville +4

Alabama +2

Stanford +2

Ohio State -3

NC State -8

Kentucky -13

California -16

Georgia -25

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Sarah DiMeco- 16:13.75 in the mile, currently 11th with the top heat remaining.

swimmer19 said:

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Sarah DiMeco- 16:13.75 in the mile, currently 11th with the top heat remaining.

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Ends up 18th overall, unfortunately out of scoring range. Matching her seed time (16:06) would have clinched 9th. Tough, but trying to find the silver lining in this year being her first championship (alongside with our other sophomores and freshmen). Hoping 200 back and 100 free bode well tonight.

Isabelle picks up bronze in the 200 back, behind Bacon and White (1:49.6).

HBear said:

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Isabelle picks up bronze in the 200 back, behind Bacon and White (1:49.6).

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That 1:49.66 = a personal record for froski Isa too! Well done

(prev best was a 1:49.77 from the 2020 Stanford Invite)

Let's go Izzy!! Places 3rd, breaks 47 for a 46.95

swimmer19 said:

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Let's go Izzy!! Places 3rd, breaks 47 for a 46.95

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9 pts for Klink winning the B final of the 200 Fly by almost a second (Rachel's 1:53.19 here would have been worth 4th place, and her 1:52.82 seed actually good for 2nd, in tonight's A final!)

Wow what a scintillating anchor by Izzy, almost catching up to runner-up Virginia from waaaay behind in the 400 Free Relay finale!!! (Elise had also busted out a studly 47.94)

Compare these splits from the only swimmers who had gone sub-47 seconds:
46.10 - Izzy Ivey (Cal)
46.76* - Kate Douglass (UVa)
46.90 - Cora Dupre (Bama)
46.94* - Maggie MacNeil (Michigan)

*=leadoff