NCAA qualifier Emma Davidson has entered the transfer portal after three seasons at Cal. Davidson has at least one season of eligibility remaining, plus another if she chooses to use the COVID-19 bonus year.
Update: Cal has confirmed that Davidson exploring the possibility to transfer for the 2023-2024 season to use her COVID-19 5th year of eligibility. She plans to stay at Cal and compete during the 2022-2023 season.
Davidson qualified for her first NCAA Championship meet in 2022. She anchored Cal’s 200 free relay with a 22.07 split and led-off their 400 free relay with a 48.92 split. Both relays placed 11th.
While it’s unclear which Cal Bears might return for a 5th season next year, two other members of each of those relays, Elise Garcia and Isabel Ivey, were both seniors. Garcia recently announced her intention to spend her 5th year at USC.
That could mean some holes in the already-thin Cal sprint relays, though the arrival of Michigan transfer and NCAA champion Maggie MacNeil for her 5th year could mitigate that.
Davidson scored 52 points as part of Cal’s runner-up effort at the 2022 Pac-12 Championships, including a high mark of 8th in the 50 free (48.91). That ranked her 10th among all Cal swimmers at the meet. The Golden Bears finished just 27 points ahead of 3rd-place USC.
Davidson’s Best Times Progression
| HS Best | Freshman @ Cal | Sophomore @ Cal | Junior @ Cal | |
| 50 free | 22.95 | 22.76 | 23.44* | 22.39 |
| 100 free | 50.30 | 49.37 | 51.03* | 48.70 |
| 200 free | 1:49.45 | 1:47.96 | N/A* | 1:45.90 |
*Davidson swam only one meet for Cal as a sophomore, the year that started in the peak of the COVID pandemic: the Pac-12 Championships. She swam the 100 breast in 1:03.89 instead of the 200 free at that meet. Her best 100 breast time is 1:02.95.
Davidson was a co-recipient of the Karen Moe Humphreys Coaches’ Award for Cal as a junior, along with Leah Polonsky and Isabelle Stadden.
Davidson is a native of Yorba Linda, California, where she won a number of academic honors in high school. That continued into college, where she was named to the Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll in both 2021 and 2022. She was also an all-league volleyball player in high school before focusing fully on swimming.
Swimmers who enter the NCAA transfer portal are not required to transfer. Doing so allows athletes the flexibility to discuss transfer opportunities with other programs.
What’s wrong with Teri??? I’ve heard she’s a phenomenal coach and person and invests in athlete growth.
That’s their recruiting pitch “we really care about you as a person” . However, this recruiting pitch is far from reality for the girls on the team. That’s why recruiting is suffering and that is why girls are transferring.
How do coaches feel about swimmers that enter the transfer portal and then decide not to transfer?
Do the coaches hold a grudge against them? Just to enter the portal is a vote of no or low confidence in the program.
Teri’s pride must be wounded with some of her better swimmers wanting out of her program. Emma even won a Coaches award. Ouch.
Probably depends on the circumstances.
With fifth years they’ll be applying for Masters programs they may or may not get accepted to so might be no hard feelings if they don’t get in to an ultra competitive Masters somewhere else. Suspect with undergraduates it’s pretty awkward.
What are the chances Davidson and Gantriis both end up joining Garcia there at USC? Could be a good couple of transfers for USC W team.
what was the May 1st date for?
competing right away
It’s hard to recruit kids to one of the most academically competitive public universities in the country. You still need to pass your classes while putting in the swim hours.
She was on the PAC12 Academic Honor Roll, so I don’t think this was an issue for her.
meant to reply to the recruiting comment down the chain.
The revolving door seems to be spinning wildly at Michigan and Cal Women these days.
How does swimswam get this info?
Big J Journalism. They have had “access” somehow or other since it became a thing.
Some coach out there is reallly eager to be in their good graces by feeding them this info. They had Sam Barron in the transfer portal within a couple hours of it happening.
Garrett has access as an NCAA coach, but I don’t know if he’s the one sharing.
Everyone’s acting like it’s some big mystery. Ever heard “2 can keep a secret if 1 is dead”? How many people have transfer portal logins nationally? 3,000 in swimming alone?
Anybody who expects that transfer portal entries won’t get out is fooling themselves.
I’d bet money that there are multiple coaches pinging them with this stuff all day long.
Probably have contacts on various teams.
She is not the only one who has entered the transfer portal for Cal women’s swimmers. There are at least a couple more.
Elise Garcia and who else?