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Cal Women Smashing on Day One of PAC-12's

California opened the Pac-12 2015 Women’s Swimming and Men’s and Women’s Diving Championship with a pair of record breaking relay performances. In the night’s opening event the Golden Bears set a Conference Championship record in the 200 medley relay, and followed up with an American-record breaking performance in the 800 freestyle relay. Stanford as the runner up in the both races.

California, the reigning Pac-12 Champions, started its title defense off fast, picking up a win in the 200 medley relay to kick off the event. Golden Bear swimmers Rachel Boostma, Marina Garcia, Noemie Thomas and Farida Osman combined for a time of 1:35.25, a Pac-12 Championships’ record. The previous record was also set by the Golden Bears in 2011. Stanford was close behind, finishing just five hundredths of a second back at 1:35.30. UCLA grabbed the third spot to earn some hardware, recording a time of 1:37.17.

In the night’s second event—the 800 freestyle relay— the Bears followed with another win, besting the next fastest team, Stanford, by 10 seconds, en route to an American record. Cal’s winning relay team of Cierra Runge, Elizabeth Pelton, Caroline Piehl and Missy Franklin earned a time of 6:50.18 to smash the Pac-12 meet record of 6:53.57 (also set by a Bears’ relay squad in 2014) and the previous NCAA record of 6:52.64. The Cardinal squad posted a time of 7:00.84 to finish in second place while the Arizona took third with a time of 7:03.64. 

Heading into day two, California sits at the top with 128 points, followed by Stanford (112), Arizona (104), USC (100), Utah (96), Washington State (92), Oregon State (88), UCLA (54), Arizona State (52)

Action continues tomorrow as preliminaries and finals for the 500 free, 200 individual medley and 50 free will take place in the morning and evening session, respectively. The men’s and women’s diving portion of the event will also kick off tomorrow morning and afternoon with the women’s three meter preliminaries and the men’s one meter preliminaries and finals. Capping the late session on the first full day of competition will be the women’s three meter diving finals followed by the 200 freestyle relay. 

 

USC

USC’s 800y free relay posted an NCAA automatic qualifying time to highlight the No. 14 USC women’s swimming and diving team’s first evening of competition at the 2015 Pac-12 Championships at the Weyerhauser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash., on Wednesday (Feb. 23).
 
The Trojans are in fourth place after the two-event opening act of the championships with 100 points. California is first (128) and is followed by Stanford (112), Arizona (104), USC, Utah (96), Washington State (92), Oregon State (54), UCLA (54) and ASU (52).
 
USC’s 800y free relay of sophomore Chelsea Chenault and juniors Kasia Wilk, Joanna Stenkvist and Jasmine Tosky finished fourth in 7:04.65. Cal won in 6:50.18, an American record.
 
Troy’s 200y medley relay didn’t go off as planned as freshman Hannah Weiss slipped at the start. But Weiss churned after that and she and senior Andrea Kropp and juniors Kendyl Stewart and Wilk finishing sixth in the nine-team race in 1:38.88.

 

Stanford

The Stanford women’s swimming and diving team put up two second-place showings on the first day of the Pac-12 Championships Wednesday evening at Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center. California won both events of the night, the 200-yard medley relay and 800-yard freestyle relay, to stand in first place.

“I’m really pleased with our session tonight,” said head coach Greg Meehan. “We had some great splits on our relays; Jane Hu and Sarah Haase in particular were awesome on the medley.”

Stanford, the No. 3 ranked dual meet team in the nation, opened the meet with a 1:35.30 in the 200 medley, as freshman Ally Howe, junior human biology major Sarah Haase, freshman Janet Hu and sophomore Lia Neal combined for an A-cut. The time would have been a meet record; however California clocked a 1:35.25 to finish first.   

The top-ranked Bears followed with an NCAA record 6:50.18 in the 800 free. Stanford’s best group, sophomore Nicole Stafford, Neal, sophomore Grace Carlson and freshman Simone Manuel, easily touched the wall in second place at 7:00.84. 

“Our 200 medley time for us this time of year is fantastic,” added Meehan. “We came back with a solid second-place finish in the 800. We look forward to getting the ball rolling tomorrow morning with lots of individual swims.”

The Cardinal trails Cal, 128-112, in the overall standings. Arizona is in third at 104 and USC sits fourth with 100 points.

Stanford is looking for its second Pac-12 title in the last three years, while Cal is seeking back-to-back championships. 

 

Utah

After one evening of completion, the Utah women’s swimming and diving team sits in fifth-place at the 2015 Pac-12 Championships, which began Wednesday evening at Weyerhaeuser King Country Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash.
 
Utah tallied 96 total points in two events and trails California, who sits in first-place, by 32 points following Wednesday’s action. Stanford (112 points) is currently in second-place, Arizona (104) follows in third-place and Southern California (100) is just ahead of the Utes in fourth. Washington State (92) follows Utah in sixth-place, with Oregon State (88), UC Los Angeles (54) and Arizona State (52) rounding out the remaining scores, respectively.
 
Right out of the blocks, Utah opened the event setting a new school record in the 200 medley relay, as the team of Shayla Archer, Stina Colleou, Melissa Paakh and Maddie Jamora, finished with a time of 1:39.36 to break the previous record of 1:40.42 that was set at the Mountain West Championships back in 2011. The squad finished in seventh-place for a total of 46 points.
 
In a 200 back time trial, senior Amanda Barrett secured a NCAA B-standard with a time of 1:57.45, which broke the school record time of 1:57.52 that she previously set at the Pac-12 Championships just a season ago.
 
Also in time trials, Junior Ashlyn Karosas would later record a season-best time of 55:42 in the 100 fly and sophomore Jenna Griffith recorded a season-best time of 56.96 in the same event. In the 100 free time trial, sophomore Rhianna Williams finished with a time of 50.93.
 
Utah closed out competition on Wednesday in the 800 free relay with its “A” squad touching in fifth-place in a season-best time of 7:14.63. The team consisting of Giuliana Gigliotti, Dorien Butter, Maddie Meisel and Maryssa McArthur tallied 50 points in the event to give Utah a total of 96 points on Wednesday.
 
“I think we got off to a really great start tonight,” said Utah head swimming coach Joe Dykstra. “We broke two school records right away in the relay and with Amanda breaking her own record in the 200 back. We are really excited about the medley relay record. That was a four year-old record and our ‘B’ team even came close to breaking it. I think this really bodes well for what we are going to see here out of the individual races over the next three days.
 
“Our 800 [freestyle] relay was our best time of the season by five seconds and we had a couple of lifetime bests splits within it, as well. We are sitting in fifth place after one day, so we are all really excited to get into the individual races and diving tomorrow.”

 

Washington State

The Washington State swim team opened the Pac-12 Championships, Wednesday, in sixth place. The Cougars earned 92 points in the evening’s two events and sit behind No. 20 Utah in fifth (96 points). WSU leads Oregon State (88), UCLA (54), and Arizona State (52).
 
The Cougars opened the four-day event with an eight-place finish in the 200 medley relay. WSU’s quartet of Alison Mand, Frederikke Hall, Anna Brolin, and Hannah Bruggman clocked a time of 1:40.68, the fastest 200-medley-relay time of the season for the Cougars.
 
In the 800 free relay, WSU recorded its fastest time of the season in the event, touching the wall in 7:21.78. The Cougar team of Rachel Thompson, Nicole Proulx, Elise Locke, and Kendra Griffin finished in sixth place, just under two second shy of the WSU school record. The Cougars benefited from disqualifications of both the Arizona State and UCLA relay teams in the event.
 
“We had a solid night of swimming,” WSU Head Coach Tom Jager said. “The team is feeling good and ready to get back after it tomorrow.”

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