FEDERAL WAY – The California Golden Bears started day one of the Pac 12 Women’s Championships on fire with an American record in the 800-yard free relay.
California just edged Stanford in the women’s 200-yard medley relay to open up the night, 1:35.25 to 1:35.30.
California’s Rachel Bootsma (23.59), Marina Garcia Urzainqui (27.55), Noemie Thomas (22.92) and Farida Osman (21.19) closed out the race in a meet record time of 1:35.25.
Meanwhile, Stanford’s Ally Howe (24.52), Sarah Haase (26.36), Janet Hu (22.67) and Lia Neal (21.75) finished second in 1:35.30 as the top two times both beat the previous meet record.
California’s loaded 2011 foursome of Cindy Tran, Caitlin Leverenz, Colleen Fotsch and Liv Jensen set the previous mark with a 1:35.62 before going on to set the overall Pac 12 record at 1:35.03.
UCLA’s Madison White (24.78), Allison Wine (27.06), Noelle Tarazona (23.73) and Linnea Mack (21.60) finished third in 1:37.17
Arizona State also clinched an NCAA A cut with a fourth-place time of 1:37.53.
Missy Franklin, in her final conference championship meet, anchored California to an American and NCAA record in the 800-yard free relay.
Cierra Runge (1:42.73), Elizabeth Pelton (1:43.29), Caroline Piehl (1:43.48) and Franklin (1:40.68) crushed the American and NCAA records with a stunning 6:50.18.
That’s a full two seconds off the mark of the NCAA and American record of 6:52.64 previously set by Georgia in 2013.
Comparatively, Shannon Vreeland (1:43.38), Megan Romano (1:42.43), Jordan Mattern (1:44.32) and Allison Schmitt (1:42.51) could not withstand Franklin’s ridiculous anchor leg heroics.
California was swimming by themselves in the event too, as Stanford’s Nicole Stafford (1:46.48), Lia Neal (1:43.54), Grace Carlson (1:46.53) and Simone Manuel (1:44.29) took second in 7:00.84.
Arizona (7:03.64) and USC (7:04.65) also posted NCAA A cuts with third and fourth-place efforts.
UCLA sustained a tough disqualification after having swum so well in the 200 medley relay.
Team Scores
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Splits are insane.
More question than comment, how tall is Ciera Runge? She is towering over everyone, including Missy.
Ciera is listed at 6′-3″
Missy is 6′-1″