The Cal Golden Bears have now broken the 400 medley relay NCAA Record on two straight swims, as in prelims on day 1 of the 2012 NCAA Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships they again broke their own mark.
Cal touched in 3:28.14 , which snuck past their 3:28.26 NCAA and U.S. Open Records from the Pac-12 Championships two weeks ago. They were led off by a 50.98 split from Cindy Tran on the backstroke, and followed by swims from Caitlin Leverenz and Sara Isakovic that left them about 8-tenths ahead of record pace headed into the anchor freestyle leg.
Cal, as they’ve been wont to do at NCAA’s, actually broke the record without even their best relay on board – Live Jensen was on the relay at Pac 12’s, but they used Katherine Raatz in prelims here. This leaves room for them to possibly even save Jensen for the other four relays, where the Golden Bears expect a much tighter battle. Teri McKeever will have a big-time decision to make.
Here are the comparative splits:
Pac-12 Record: Tran 51.38 – Leverenz 58.02 – Isakovic 51.47 – Jensen 47.39
NCAA Record: Tran 50.98 – Leverenz 58.06 – Isakovic – 51.03 – Katherine Raatz 48.07