2018 WOMEN’S PAC-12 SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, February 21 – Saturday, February 24
- Federal Way, WA (Pacific Time Zone)
- Defending Champion: Stanford (1x) (results)
- Live Results
- Live Video
- Championship Central
- NCAA Qualifying
The Cal women have shown great speed in their relays at the 2018 Pac-12 Championships. They’re now 3-for-3 in relay titles at this meet, with an American Record going down on Thursday night. Cal blew away the field in the 200 free relay, touching in 1:25.87. That took down the former mark of 1:25.91 set by Stanford in 2017. They were about 3 tenths shy of the NCAA Record set by the Bears at 2017 NCAAs.
Bilquist, Weitzeil, and Murphy all return from last seasons winning NCAA 200 free relay. With Farida Osman now graduated, McLaughlin has stepped into the lineup. Tonight, they beat rival Stanford by nearly a full second, as the Cardinal earned silver in 1:26.81. Below is a splits comparison from tonight’s American Record relay, the former American Record relay, and the current NCAA Record relay.
SPLITS COMPARISON: WOMEN’S 200 FREE RELAY
| Team | 1st Leg | 2nd Leg | 3rd Leg | 4th Leg | Final Time |
| Cal (2018) | Maddie Murphy- 21.96 | Amy Bilquist- 21.24 | Katie McLaughlin- 21.67 | Abbey Weitzeil- 21.00 | 1:25.87 |
| Stanford (2017) | Simone Manuel- 21.47 | Lia Neal- 21.35 | Janet Hu- 21.80 | Ally Howe- 21.29 | 1:25.91 |
| Cal (2017) | Abbey Weitzeil- 21.59 | Maddie Murphy- 21.83 | Amy Bilquist- 21.26 | Farida Osman- 20.91 | 1:25.59 |
Is that Weitzel’s fastest split yet? Or has she broken 21 on a flying start before?
Saw the answer on the other recap post. Yes, Weitzeil has broken 21 before. Still a wicked fast split though and bodes well for her confidence going into NCs.
Sidenote: I almost wish McLaughlin would just stop swimming the 500 and focus on her speed more (maybe drop it in favor of the 2free?). It’s impressive to see her bust out a 21.6 after also throwing down a 4:41 500 earlier in the same session, but it’s gotta be tough to train for both. Might help her 2Free too if she focused on building easy speed? But I get that she comes from a high-volume background.
1 fly 2 free double is death. See Tom Shields 2010. Would be better if she could just develop pure speed enough for a 21+ flat start 50 which should score near the top of the B final.
Dalhke handled it really well at women’s ivies last week
Her race in 800 relay in Kazan that was after successful 200 fly race is still fresh in my memory.
American records must be performed by US citizens. For relays, all four participants must be US citizens. Some college teams use one or more foreign athletes on their relay teams. Thus the resulting records qualify as NCAA records but not American records.
All swimmers have to be American to set an American record. Farida Osman is Egyptian so that team couldn’t set the American record. NCAA records encompasses swimmers of all nationalities.
Farida Osman is actually a dual citizen, both American and Egyptian. She represents Egypt internationally, however. I am not 100% sure, but I believe American records can only be set by those who are American AND are registered with USA Swimming (i.e., would swim for Team USA internationally).
Funny that Cal has both the NCAA and American records now since Osman represents Egypt nationally, but go Bears in both cases! Has this ever been the situation with another team (having both records with different teams of swimmers)?
Hint of Lime – Most recent example I can think of is with the Texas men and the 800 free relay record. When the 2016 team broke the US Open record, they had Schooling swimming, which meant the American Record that the Texas men set in 2009 still stood.
Where are some race videos!
All I can say is Go Bears! Winning the relays will help soothe the sting of earning 2nd place at this conference championships.