Cal Women Open Expanded Cal Poly Aquatic Center

California freshman Caitlin Leverenz claimed the Queen of the Pool title as the 2009 NCAA champion Golden Bears opened the new season on Friday morning in a pentathlon of events in the first meet held in the newly expanded Anderson Aquatic Center on the Cal Poly campus, Friday.

The Tucson, Ariz., product had the lowest combined time (4:49.55) after swimming five 100-yard events: the freestyle, butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and individual medley. A total of 37 Golden Bears and Mustangs competed today, with Cal sophomore Sara Isakovic (4:54.53), junior Erica Dagg (4:56.55) and sophomore Shelley Harper (4:56.85) finishing second, third and fourth, respectively.

"That's a good way to kick off her Cal career," Cal head coach Teri McKeever said of Leverenz. "I thought that Shelley Harper and Amanda Larson did nice jobs, too."

Larson, a Cal senior, finished sixth, behind Cal Poly's Angie Haven, with a combined time of 5:01.38.

"Caitlin is going to be critical for our team success over the next four years," McKeever added. "She will really benefit from the people around her, and they'll benefit from having a presence like her in the pool."

Isakovic and Leverenz each won two events, with the latter taking the 100-yard breaststroke in a time of 1:03.41 and the 100-individual medley in a time of 57.95. A 2008 Olympian for her native Slovenia, Isakovic won the freestyle (51.66) and butterfly (55.16) races. Dagg won the backstroke (57.06).

Leverenz also placed second in the fly (55.95), Harper took second in the IM (59.06) and Dagg finished second in the freestyle (51.81) just 15 hundredths of a second behind Isakovic. Another Cal freshman, Samantha Pearson, was second in the backstroke (58.53).    

Cal, which also won the 2009 Pac-10 championship last season, returns to the pool when it hosts its first home dual meet of the season against Pacific at noon on Oct. 10 at Spieker Aquatics Complex. It will be a co-ed meet, as the Cal men's team will also battle the Tigers on Oct. 10.