In a team of NCAA champions and experienced veterans, the Cal women’s swimming team’s freshmen were the ones to step up in last week’s Pac-12 Championships.
Last year, the Bears won the meet with six individual titles — three titles belonging to seniors, two to a junior and one to a sophomore. This year, the youngest members of the team won a vast majority of Cal’s individual titles with five of the six.
Though No. 2 Cal finished third in the Pac-12 championships on Saturday, the Bears sent a message that the freshman class will be a threat for many more years.
Freshman Elizabeth Pelton led the Bears in the effort to defend their Pac-12 title by setting an American record in the 200 back for the title.
Earlier in the competition, Pelton defeated teammate Caitlin Leverenz by two hundredths of a second in the 200 IM. Pelton was named Swimmer of the Meet for her two individual wins as well as her contribution as the lead off in the 400 free relay, the only relay race Cal won.
Her freshman teammate Bootsma also won two individual titles in the 200 fly and 100 back.
Even with this effort, the Bears were not able to come out on top in arguably one of the most talented conferences in women’s swimming. At the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash., No. 4 Stanford upset No. 1 USC for the Pac-12 title.
Six of the nine Pac-12 teams are ranked in the top 25, three in the top five. In the four-day long competition, Cal won seven total titles.
But the Bears suffered in team points because of low diving scores and a slow start from beginning the first two days of competition. Cal ended its second day of competition in fourth place.
Like this year, the Bears won six individual titles for the Pac-12 team title in 2012. But the difference between this year and last is the two additional relay titles Cal won last year.
Once in fourth place, there was not much room for the Bears to make up for the points lost from the first day of relays. Two individual wins is the equivalent of one relay win, so the lack of relay races in the last two days wins hurts Cal’s chances.
Despite disappointing team results, the Bears had qualifying times from many of their swimmers outside of the usual stars in Pelton, Leverenz, Rachel Bootsma and Cindy Tran.
Since team titles do not directly affect the NCAAs, the main importance of Pac-12s for Cal was to push its athletes to qualify for NCAAs.
Sophomore Kaylin Bing medaled in the 50 free with an NCAA B time. Melanie Klaren proved to be vital to Cal’s effort by racking up a total of 71 points individually with three NCAA B times. Freshman Rachael Acker also took the Pac -12 title for the 200 free with an NCAA B time.
Though the Bears finished the Pac-12 championships in third and a full 100 points behind the two leaders, the championships at least aided Cal in a different way with several additional NCAA qualifications.
Despite being unable to reach first, the Pac-12 championships overall may have helped the Bears’ chances against the Trojans and the Cardinal in their final push for the NCAA title.
Jessica Lim covers women’s swim. Contact her at [email protected].