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Cal Women's Swimming claims back-to-back Pac-12 Championship with a school record 12 wins in 21 events

This just in, Cal Women's Swimming is very very good.

By Ruey Yen
Golden Bears are back-to-back Pac-12 Champions in women's swimming and diving!
Golden Bears are back-to-back Pac-12 Champions in women's swimming and diving!
Cal Women's Swimming Twitter

With 3 more Pac-12 individual championships won on Saturday, the Bears set a school record with 12 total wins which results also in a school record 1629.5 points. Simply put, the Golden Bears have dominated this Pac-12 Championship at Federal Way, Washington this past few days.

On Saturday, the Bears had freshman Cierra Runge winning the 1650 Free to open the day. Her time of 15:40.17 was merely another meet and school record.  Runge ends up winning the Pac-12 Swimmer of the Meet honor thanks to this performance and her record breaking 500 Free swim on Thursday in addition to helping the Bears to a record setting 800 Free relay swim. The good (and fast) time rolled on with Missy Franklin winning her 3rd Pac-12 title of this meet when she won the 200 Back. Another freshman standout in Noemie Thomas took the 200 Fly title.

Back on Friday, the Bears also won 3 events. Celina Li won the 400 IM. Missy Franklin edged a tough Stanford rival in freshman Simone Manuel in 200 Free. Bears also added another title in the 100 Back when Calympian Rachel Bootsma was able to win that event.

On the first two days of the meet, the Bears took 6 of 6 swimming events to open the competition. On Wednesday night, the Bears won both of the relays: Bootsma, Garcia, Thomas, and Osman took the 200 medley relay and Runge, Pelton, Piehl, and Franklin broke the record in the 800 free relay. Thursday night started with the Bears continue their winning way. Cierra Runge took the 500 Free. Missy Franklin then won the 200 IM. In a bit of a mild upset, Cal's Egyptian Calympia Farida Osman won the 50 Free.

Bears end the meet with a school record point total of 1629.5. Stanford was 2nd with 1401 points. USC was 3rd with a distant 1109 points. Stanford was able to edge the Bears for 2nd place at the NCAA last year. They also managed to just out touch the Bears in two relays in this meet. Bears would have to worry about them a bit in the NCAA, although their diving points would be a whole lot less at the NCAA's given the level of competition.

In addition to the 12 event wins, the Bears also captured the team title thanks to great swimming across the board. Plenty of Golden Bears contributed points and made the leap to get into the A-Finals. This is the precisely the kind of results that the Bears would need to reclaim the NCAA team title in 3 weeks in Greensboro, NC.

Full List of 2015 Golden Bears Individual and Relay Pac-12 Champions:

  1. 200 Medley Relay: Rachel Bootsma, Marina Garcia, Noemie Thomas, and Farida Osman - 1:35.25 - Meet Record
  2. 800 Free Relay: Cierra Runge, Elizabeth Pelton, Caroline Piehl, and Missy Franklin - 6:50.18 - American Record, NCAA Record
  3. 500 Free: Cierra Runge - 4:31.90 - NCAA Record
  4. 200 IM: Missy Franklin - 1:53.47
  5. 50 Free: Farida Osman - 21.65
  6. 200 Free Relay: Kaylin Bing, Missy Franklin, Rachel Bootsma, and Farida Osman - 1:27.18
  7. 400 IM: Celina Li - 4:06.09
  8. 200 Free: Missy Franklin - 1:41.09 - Pac-12 Record
  9. 100 Back: Rachel Bootsma - 50.84
  10. 1650 Free: Cierra Runge - 15:40.17 - Meet Record
  11. 200 Back: Missy Franklin - 1:49.94
  12. 200 Fly: Noemie Thomas - 1:54.10

GO BEARS!

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