FRESNO, California, October 13. DEFENDING NCAA champion California set four meet records and three pool records en route to winning four of six events and leading the three-team field on the first day of the Early Bird Invitational on Friday at the Fresno State Aquatics Center. The Golden Bears lead the two-day meet with 127.5 points, with San Jose State second (80.5 points) and the host Bulldogs third (55).<\/p>\n
In an interesting albeit early season race, Cal freshman Elizabeth Pelton edged senior and defending NCAA champion Caitlin Leverenz, 1:58.91-2:03.00, for the win in the 200-yard individual medley. Pelton's time set pool and meet records. Kelly Naze – another Cal freshman – took third (2:04.55). Leverenz, of course, won the Olympic bronze medal in the 200-meter IM in London and captured the 200-meter IM at the U.S. Olympic Trials last summer, while Pelton placed third in the 200 IM at trials.<\/p>\n
The Cal A squad won the day's opening race – the 200-yard medley relay – with junior Cindy Tran, Leverenz, Naze and sophomore Caroline Piehl posting a meet- and pool-record time of 1:44.13. Cal's B relay of freshman Rachel Bootsma, junior Melissa Bates, Pelton and sophomore Camille Cheng finished second with a time of 1:44.70, which also eclipsed the previous pool and meet records.<\/p>\n
In the 500 freestyle, Cal sophomore Catherine Breed clocked a meet- and pool-record time of 4:55.97 to beat second-place teammate Lauren Driscoll. The freshman swam a time of 4:57.89, which also surpassed the previous records. <\/p>\n
Cal finished 1-2-3 in the 800-free relay, with the A squad of freshman Alicia Grima, Cheng, Leverenz and Driscoll posting a meet-record time of 7:29.89 to win. The Cal B squad of freshman Rachael Acker, Bootsma, sophomore Kaylin Bing and Piehl was second in a time of 7:31.12 and the Bears' C team of sophomore Taylor Nanfria, sophomore Melanie Klaren, junior Mikkel-Ane Stipe and Pelton was third in 7:32.06.<\/p>\n
Acker claimed Cal's best finish in the 50 free, taking second (23.77) behind Fresno State's Dani Yoho (meet- and pool-record 23.41).<\/p>\n
Fresno State divers placed 1-2-3 on the one-meter springboard; Cal's divers are not competing in the meet.<\/p>\n
The invitational ends on Saturday.<\/p>\n
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FRESNO, California, October 13. DEFENDING NCAA champion California set four meet records and three pool records en route to winning four of six events and leading the three-team field on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-college","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n