Celina Li Defends “Queen of the Pool” Title To Start Sophomore Season At Cal

Photo by Griffin Scott

SAN LUIS OBISPO, California, September 19. CELINA Li started her sophomore season by defending her “Queen of the Pool” title today in the first meet of the season for the California Golden Bears.

The meet, a tradition for Cal and host California Polytechnic State University for the past five years, features each swimmer racing 100 yards of each stroke plus a 100 IM. The swimmer with the fastest total time is declared “Queen of the Pool.” Caitlin Leverenz won the title for the first three years before Li took the mantle following Leverenz’s graduation.

Missy Franklin, coming off a Pan Pacific championships in which she swam through the pain of a back spasm, swam only three of the five events today. She posted a 55.96 in the 100 fly, 50.27 in the 100 free and 57.13 in the 100 IM.

Li retained her title by nearly 2.5 seconds over Elizabeth Pelton despite not winning any events. She was second to Canadian freshman Noemie Thomas in the 100 fly, 53.59 to 54.41, with Bootsma placing third with a 54.94. Li was third in the 100 back with a 55.29 behind Bootsma’s 54.67 and Elizabeth Pelton’s 54.86.

Bootsma had a lead of nine hundredths of a second over Li going into the 100 breast, which turned out to be the deciding race. Li’s 1:05.70 in the 100 breast (second to Marina Garcia’s 1:03.84) was two seconds faster than Bootsma’s 1:07.76 to give her the advantage going into the final two events. Pelton posted a 1:07.62 in the 100 breast to keep the race for second close.

Behind Franklin’s winning time in the 100 free Li, Pelton and Bootsma pretty much canceled each other out in this event. Pelton’s 51.02 and Li’s 51.18 just beat out Bootsma’s 51.25. In the 100 IM, Li was touched out by Pelton in the final event, 56.21 to 56.32. Franklin was third while Bootsma wrapped up the day with a fourth-place time of 58.40.

Final top 10:

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Allison de Peralta nearly cracked into the top 10 for Cal Poly, finishing 12th overall with a total time of 5:03.99. She posted times of 58.60 in the 100 fly, 58.64 in the 100 back, 1:09.41 in the 100 breast, 56.09 in the 100 free and 1:01.25 in the 100 IM.

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