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2014 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving - Night 1 Finals Open Thread

It is night 1 of the 2014 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving. Can the Bears do well enough in the relays to offset Georgia's edges in the two Freestyle events? Will Missy Franklin become a NCAA Champion tonight? GO BEARS!

By Ruey Yen
Coach McKeever needs to figure out the best way to utilize Missy Franklin tonight.
Coach McKeever needs to figure out the best way to utilize Missy Franklin tonight.
Cal Women's Swimming and Diving Facebook

Day 1 recap from the mouths of Cal Bears:


When: 5 PM PT

Free Online Stream: CBSSports

The 2014 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving began this morning. The most likely scenario has Cal and Georgia, the runner-up and champion from last year, battling it out for the team title for the 4th time in 5 years.

Check out my comprehensive preview of all the actions from this morning. You can find the details on how the scoring works for the NCAA Championships. The lineups for the evening's finals have been set through the prelims swam in the morning. While the team contest does depends on where the swimmers actually place in the finals, the most exciting aspect of the finals is who will win the NCAA title?

Credible swimming websites expect both Cal and Georgia to step up their games at the NCAA's (because that's just how top teams train) with Georgia having a small edge thanks to their better diver and 3 more individual events from their 16 swimmers (same number as Cal). On the other hand, the Bears have the star power and stronger top swimmers to likely win more individual events and/or relays. The main star for the Bears is, of course, Missy Franklin, probably the most famous UC Berkeley undergraduate student on campus.

Schedule for Tonight:

200-yard free relay

  • Both Cal and Georgia are in the A-Final. No surprise here. Will Missy Franklin swim in this relay even though she has the 500 Free next?

500-yard free

  • A-Final: Missy Franklin vs. 3 Dawgs (MacLean with the top prelim time, Vreeland, and McDermott). Missy Franklin is expected to win this event even though she only started to swim this in college.
  • B-Final: Melanie Klaren vs. 2 Dawgs (Matterns and Zilinskas)
  • If anyone has to be scratched for any reason, Cal's Catherine Breed is the next one in.
  • Most likely result: 35 point edge to Georgia (even with a Missy Franklin victory)


200-yard individual medley

  • A-Final: 2 Bears (Elizabeth Pelton and Celina Li) vs. 1 Dawg (Margalis) who had the top time
  • B-Final: Caroline Piehl vs. 0 Dawgs
  • Most likely result: Golden Bears with a 20 point edge

50-yard free

  • A-Final: 2 Dawgs (Smoliga and Locus) vs. 0 Golden Bears
  • B-Final: Kaylin Bing for the Bears
  • Most likely result: 30 point edge to Georgia

1-meter diving

  • Let's just hope that Georgia's Laura Ryan doesn't score any point here (or at least not make the A-Final). Cal's Kahley Rowell is also competing. Georgia's Laura Ryan (who didn't score in this event last year but was projected as capable of making the A-Final) has the best score in the prelim to make it to the A-Final, where everyone starts from scratch. She is guaranteed at least 11 points and could get up to 20. Kahley Rowell didn't score for the Bears.

400-yard medley relay

  • Bears with only the 7th best time. It actually could have been disastrous if not for Missy Franklin's good split.

Speaking of Missy Franklin (again), watch this video if you didn't get the chance as Missy talks about the team and her freshman year in Berkeley.


By how much will the Golden Bears add to the 151 individual titles or 39 relay titles in school history tonight?

GO BEARS!

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