The Cal women swept tonght’s events, including finishing 1st and 2nd in both relays to further pad their lead. On the men’s side, Stanford continues to extend its lead with big swims from Connor Black and David Nolan, but UNLV also had some high points, like David Szele‘s 53.83 breaststroke.
Women’s Meet
California swept the top three spots in the 200 medley relay to open the night. The team of Rachel Bootsma, Marina Garcia Urzainqui, Cindy Tran, and Kaylin Bing went 1:38.56 for the win. Bootsma was 24.6 on backstroke. Freshman Farida Osman was fast from the B relay, going 23.6 on the butterfly split for the Golden Bears. UCLA took fourth behind the Bears in 1:42.22, and UNLV was fifth in 1:42.37.
Two of California’s stable of stars clashed in the 400 IM, with Liz Pelton beating Missy Franklin 4:10.83 to 4:13.13. Pelton jumped out to a lead of butterfly, but Franklin roared back in the backstroke. But Pelton’s breaststroke was the clinching leg, and even a hard-charging finish from Franklin wasn’t enough to overcome the defecit. Cal swept the top 4 spots in the race, with Marina Garcia Urzainqui coming off the medley relay to take third in 4:16.31 and Kelly Naze going 4:17.96 for fourth.
Another of Cal’s talented freshmen was on display in the 100 fly. New Zealander Sophia Batchelor took home the win in 52.49, touching out Liz Pelton. Pelton, swimming her second straight event, went 52.64. Neither of those times is an A cut, but both should have a good shot to qualify for NCAAs based on last year’s invite times. UNLV’s Katelyne Herrington had a nice swim to take third; she went 52.78 after going a few hundredths faster in prelims.
Cal once again went 1-2 in the 200 free. Caroline Piehl won in 1:46.44 followed by Rachel Acker in 1:48.01. Arizona State freshman Kat Simonovic went 1:48.26 to take third, and UCLA’s Ally Loper took fourth in 1:49.04.
Marina Garcia Urzainqui won the 100 breast, her third swim of the evening. She went 1:01.27, the only swimmer under 1:02 in the field. ASU’s Tory Houston was second (1:02.17) and UCSB’s Carissa Metcalf was third (1:02.55). Two Cal swimmers went 1:02 from the B final, Yvette Kong and Taylor Young who went 1:02.40 and 1:02.94 respectively.
The 100 backstroke was another chance for Cal’s stars to shine. Cindy Tran won a tight, three-way race in 52.22 over defending NCAA champ Rachel Bootsma (52.52) and Melanie Klaren (52.70). Tran was just .01 off of her 400 medley relay split from last night. Freshman Missy Franklin finished fourth in 53.32 and Hoi Shun Au went 53.79 to complete the 5-spot sweep for the Berkeley Bears.
Cal completed the sweep of the day’s events by winning the 800 free relay to close the evening. The team of Liz Pelton, Rachael Acker, Catherine Breed, and Melanie Klaren went 7:09.85. Cal’s B relay was second – its leadoff swimmer, Missy Franklin, went 1:45.33, the fastest split of all the Cal women. Arizona State got to the wall third in 7:20.67.
Note: Relay lineups were initially listed incorrectly. They are correct on live results.
With one day of swimming to go, Cal holds a commanding lead with UCLA and ASU battling for second.
Men’s Meet
UNLV opened up the men’s meet by winning the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:26.50, just a half-second off of the NCAA A cut. The team of Henrique Machado, David Szele, Dillon Virva, and Gui Passos held off Stanford’s top relay for the win. David Nolan was 21.6 leading off for Stanford, but Szele was 24.2 on the breaststroke leg and Virva 20.6 on the butterfly to make up ground. Stanford’s B team was third and Arizona State took fourth.
Stanford took the top two spots in the 400 IM, with Drew Cosgarea winning in 3:44.32. That’s only a second away from an A cut and has a good shot to get invited to the championships come March. He beat out teammate David Nolan, who came off the medley relay to go 3:46.09. Nolan had to run down UNLV’s Giacomo Gremizzi in the freestyle to complete the 1-2 sweep. Gremizzi went 3:47.81.
Stanford freshman Connor Black was fast in the 100 fly, going 47.32 for the win. That’s not far off his lifetime best and ranks just inside the top 5 times in the NCAA season before factoring in a few other fast times posted this weekend. ASU’s Alex Coci touched out UNLV’s Dillon Virva for second, 47.92 to 47.98.
The Wyoming Cowboys were the dominant team in the 200 free, taking first and third with Adam Kalms (who went 1:35.23) and Ethan Griffel (1:36.74). Breaking up the duo was Thomas Stephens of Stanford, who went 1:36.60. Kalms’ time was within a second of his lifetime best and could possibly get an NCAA invite even if he can’t better it later this season.
UNLV’s David Szele posted the second-fastest 100 breast time in the NCAA this season, going 53.83 to win the event by a half-second. The returning NCAA point-scorer was followed by a trio of Stanford swimmers, Mason Shaw (54.37), Daniel Le (55.57), and Max Williamson (55.86).
UNLV won its second consecutive event with Henrique Machado‘s 47.79 win in the 100 backstroke. He won by almost a second over Stanford’s Will Gunderson, who went 48.60. A pair of ASU backstrokers got under 49 seconds, Richard Bohus in 48.84 and Alex Coci in 48.97.
Stanford won the final event of the night, the 800 free relay. Powered by David Nolan‘s 1:35.77 leadoff leg, the Cardinal A team went 6:30.23 to start a train of four Stanford relays to finish before any other team. Drew Cosgarea kept up with Nolan, leading off the runner-up C relay in 1:35.86. Tom Kremer went 1:37.86 leading off the B relay, which finished third overall.
With one day of swimming to go, Stanford has an almost-400 point lead over UNLV, which has separated itself from the rest of the pack.
Live meet results available here.
Is Cal suiting up at night? they all seem to be swimming much faster between prelims and finals
These ho hum results will serve as a much needed wake up call to McKeever and her crew. My sources confirm the Golden Bears are competing with a few days of rest for this mid season meet so no excuses like being beaten down or anything like that!
Other than a handful of individual swims these pedestrian times show that whatever training program they have been through isn’t really working out right now for most of the team. There’s still time to turn things around but CAL has an awful lot of catching up to do by next Spring judging from the spectacular A cuts from their much underrated Stanford rivals who are looking more and more like legit contenders… Read more »
WOW!!
My sources confirm to me that you are a rabid Georgia Bulldog fan who has spent all season trying to rip down Cal, including using fake email addresses to do so.
Just some context for others who might read the comment.
And here we all thought he was a complete idiot who knew nothing about swimming!! LOL
There are a few impostors on swimswam! 😆
GOUSA, I think you’re looking a LITTLE too far into things haha
“My sources” is almost as hilarious as the whiny prior screeds about the main stream swimming media blue and gold conspiracy rants. Where is the pirate swimming media located-Mogadishu?
Teri’s such an incompetent coach that she rested her team, but put them in off events (Acker and Au in the 500 free, Missy in the 400 IM).
Multiple email addresses and names to trash college swimmers and coaches?!? Georgia swimming stakeholders must be bursting with pride. Woof, woof, woof!
I can’t decide if GOUSA is trolling or just failed to recognize that Cal is going to US Nationals in a couple weeks, which is almost certainly their fall focus…
I was answering my own comment Braden, not yours. Nad reply timing. I agree
Wow!! I didn’t realize they were still in full training. Incredible swims for full training before a meet. They took off 2 seconds or better per 100 from their previous best back times of the season (which they all went right at their season best times in prelims) except for missy who only dropped a half second). Cannot wait to see what they do rested or tapered.
I can’t say for sure how much rest each swimmer has had…but my guess would be that those swimmers who would be competitive at Winter Nationals, which does count as an NCAA Championship qualifying meet, are probably saving the bulk of their ‘mid-season rest’ for that meet.
Wow. I just realized if they dropped 2 seconds per 100 with no rest in the last 3 weeks, when they taper for Nationals in 2 weeks, we could see 5 girls from 1 team go under 50 seconds in the 100 back breaking Natalie Coughlin’s 49.97 NCAA record. Truly amazing!! Psyched for Nationals
They’re good but not that good. I could maybe see one girl do that with an amazing swim.
I think it is obvious that some of the cal girls are not rested at all. I would bet Pelton, Franklin, and Li for sure have had 0 rest. They aren’t even swimming the events they would in a championship setting. Cals focus meet is clearly going to be Nationals. I can’t tell if bootsma and tran are resting a little, those 52s look a lot different than the 54-55s from earlier this season. I’m not worried however.
Pelton is an animal. There is no other words to describe her. I think she will be the greatest short course swimmer ever, hands down.
I predict at nationals Liz will go 1:52 IM/1:43 free/1:48 backstroke. I hope she does… Read more »
Cal’s going to miss Nick Folker more than people think. No offense to Colleen Fotsch, but Pelton’s physically stronger and more fit than Missy and Li thanks to having a year with Folker in the weight room. Teri’s trying to make Missy and Li mentally tougher by throwing them in off events or swimming consecutive events and they’ve finally both hit a little bit of a wall this week. Thought it might have happened earlier when they swam against Florida on consecutive days. Will be extremely interesting see how those two swim with a mini-taper at Nationals. Doesn’t look like Teri will given her team much rest if any at Pac-12s given the decent results they’re getting this week.
Thought… Read more »
I don’t think any are tapered. You wouldn’t put them in consecutive events like this if they were and they’d be wearing jammer suits. See how Stanford and A&M are staffing their line ups as they are tapered.
Wow = Batchelor’s “non rested” (assuming) 52 100 fly. Also, did anyone know Pelton was ALSO that fast in fly?!?
Is there ANY intel into Bootsma? A bit worried on how flat she’s been this season.
Betting out of that group, Missy was the only one they didn’t bring all the way down for this meet. Guessing she only had 3 days rest while the others were near full taper.