Pac 12 Recap: Cal’s Golden Bears Come Away with Second Straight Conference Championship

Photo Courtesy: California Athletics Photo Courtesy: California Athletics

By James Sica, Swimming World Intern

The Pac 12 Championships concluded this past Wednesday, with Cal’s Golden Bears defending their title from last year to grab their fourth overall conference championship. This was a very fast conference meet that saw several school, meet, and even an NCAA record fall during competition.

Below is a Pac 12 recap of the five races to watch featured in our preview as well as a run-down of other impressive performances from the meet. See SW’s Pac 12 Championship Central for full results.

PAC 12 FINAL SCORES

California Berkeley – 1629.5
Stanford – 1401
Southern California – 1109
Arizona – 954.5
UCLA – 951.5
Utah – 652
Arizona State – 610
Washington State – 369.5
Oregon State – 286

The Relays

california-american-record-800-free-relay-2015

Photo Courtesy: Pac 12 Conference

Cal started the meet off with a bang, capturing both the 200 medley and 800 free relays on the first night of competition, the latter in American record fashion. In fact, Cal won the first 3 relays of the meet (200 medley, 800 free, 200 free), with Stanford fighting back and taking both the 400 medley and 400 free relays.

Notable splits included Cal sophomore Farida Osman splitting a 21.19 in the 200 medley to make-up a half second deficit over Stanford, Cal freshman Cierra Runge leading off the 800 free relay in a personal best of 1:42.73, and Stanford freshman Simone Manuel splitting a 46.15 to chase down Cal in the 400 medley relay.

These relays were fast: Cal’s 200 Medley Relay (1:35.24) is the number one time in the country and broke Cal’s own meet record from 2011, and their 200 free relay (1:27.18) is ranked #1 and broke Arizona’s meet record from 2009. Stanford’s 400 free relay (3:10.69) was also a meet and school record and just under their #1 ranked time from the Art Adamson Invite. Perhaps the most impressive was Cal’s 800 free relay, which set the American record and had four incredible splits from the Golden Bears, including a 1:40.68 from sophomore Missy Franklin.

200 IM

As predicted, this event was grudge match between Cal teammates Missy Franklin and Elizabeth Pelton, with Franklin coming away with the win 1:53.47 to 1:53.80. Both swimmers split the race similarly, distancing themselves from the rest of the field on the backstroke leg.

Pelton actually turned slightly ahead of her teammate after the breaststroke, but she couldn’t match Franklin’s closing split of 26.90. While both these times were slightly off of their top ranked times from the Georgia Invite (Pelton has the top time in the country with a 1:52.93 to Franklin’s 1:52.99), this was a great preview of what we can expect on the first day of NCAAs now that Franklin seems to have shifted away from the 500 freestyle.

Aside from grabbing the top 2 spots, this was a huge event for Cal, with sophomore Celina Li touching third (1:55.52) and junior Kelly Naze grabbing fifth (1:57.01).

200 Freestyle

Photo Courtesy: Griffin Scott

This event had a definite Golden Bear feel, with 5 of the top 8 in the A final of the event representing Cal. Come race time, however, all eyes were on Missy Franklin and Stanford freshman Simone Manuel, the top two seeds in the event. Franklin actually led the race at the 100, splitting a 49.72 to Manuel’s 50.19.

But Manuel stayed in the race with an incredible back-half, coming home in 50.96 only to run out of room at the very end. Franklin came away with a meet record 1:41.09 while Manuel was only .06 back in 1:41.15. These are by far the two fastest times in the country, and come NCAAs, this could be the race to watch as both of these women surely have their eyes set on Franklin’s American and NCAA record of 1:40.31.

100 Breaststroke

This was the sole event of the meet that lacked a Cal Bear in the top 8, and the Stanford Cardinal took advantage by placing three swimmers in the A final of the event. Junior Sarah Haase, freshman Heidi Poppe, and senior Katie Olsen were all top 8 in the event, with Haase coming away with the win with a 58.60.

That time moved Haase to second in the country in the event behind Patricia Burchell of Alabama. Expect this to be another event for Stanford to capitalize on at NCAAs as they look to improve on their second place finish from last year.

200 Backstroke

Similar to the 200 IM, this event was all about Missy Franklin and her teammate Elizabeth Pelton. The two came into the meet with the top two times in the country (Pelton – 1:49.00, Franklin 1:49.23), and while neither eclipsed those times they still gave us a great race.

Both were out about a second ahead of the field, with Pelton leading in 54.11 to Franklin’s 54.55. However, Pelton couldn’t hold off her teammate in the second 100, with Franklin taking the lead the last 50 with a monstrous 27.45. Franklin won in 1:49.94 to Pelton’s 1:50.27 to secure her third individual Pac 12 title of the meet and her sixth overall individual conference title in her collegiate career. T

eammate Melanie Klaren captured third for the Golden Bears, securing a 1-2-3 sweep of the event while fellow Bear Kelly Naze was sixth overall in 1:54.73.

100 Freestyle

Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr

Simone Manuel was able to put an exclamation point of her Pac 12 meet, coming away with her first individual Pac 12 title in the 100 free en route to setting a Pac 12 meet and conference record with a 46.70. Teammate Lia Neal was right behind her in 47.16 (also under Missy Franklin’s meet record from last year), securing a 1-2 finish for the Cardinal in this event.

With Missy Franklin looking to focus on backstroke this season, this could be another race for the Cardinal to pick up some major points in March. Given that Manuel likely wasn’t fully rested for this meet and was still just off her personal best of 46.62, expect her sights to be set on soon-to-be competitor Abbey Weitzeil’s American Record of 46.29 at NCAAs in a few weeks.

Other Standout Performances

Photo Courtesy: David Farr

We would be remiss if we did not mention Cal freshman Cierra Runge, who had an absolutely stellar meet. Runge claimed individual titles in the 500 (4:31.90) and 1,650 (15:40.17) freestyles, was fourth in a packed 200 free final (1:43.31), and led off the American record-setting 800 free relay (1:42.73). Runge’s time in the 500 free was a new NCAA record and her 1,650 time was just a second off of legendary Janet Evans’ Pac 12 record.

Other notable performances included Farida Osman’s win in the 50 freestyle (21.65), Rachel Bootsma’s win in the 100 backstroke (50.84), and Kendyl Stewart’s win in the 100 butterfly (51.10). Be sure to watch all Pac 12 swimmers and divers when they compete at the women’s NCAA Championships, held March 19-21 in Greensboro, North Carolina.

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