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INDIANAPOLIS, IN - Day 2 swimming prelim starts with the Golden Bears winning its 200 Free relay heat with a time of 1:26.67 (Farida Osman, Amy Bilquist, Valerie Hull, and Kristen Vredeveld). Stanford (Simone Manuel, Lia Neal, Janet Hu, and Ally Howe), of course, has upstaged the Bears by winning their heat (one earlier) with a better time of 1:26.15. Tonight’s final swim is the one that counts. That should be a great race.
Katie Ledecky of Stanford has been pencilled in as the winner of 500 Free when she committed to collegiate swimming. She sets easily a pool record this morning with a time of 4:28.37 (she can easily go 3 seconds or more faster). Unfortunately for the Golden Bears, Katie McLaughlin is the top finisher at 22nd and Chenoa Devine places 41st. Bears will not score in this event to offset Stanford (Ledecky and two swimmers in the B-Final: Byrnes and Stevens). Interestingly, former Bear Cierra Runge (now at Wisconsin) also finishes outside the scoring range (top 16).
In 500 free prelims, Katie McLaughlin finished 22nd in 4:41.16 and Chenoa Devine 41st in 4:44.08.
— Cal W Swim/Dive (@CalWSwim) March 16, 2017
Kathleen Baker has the 5th best time in the 200 IM. Stanford’s Ella Eastin had the 4th best time. I still expect the two Bay Area rival to battle it out for this title. Texas’ Madisyn Cox has the top time with two Texas A&M Aggies in 2nd and 3rd (Pickrem and Galat). Stanford has an additional swimmer, Ally Howe, in the B-Final. Baker would likely need to win this race to prevent Stanford from earning more points than the Bears in this event.
.@KathleenBaker2 qualifies for the A final tonight in the 200 IM, swimming 1:54.61. #GoBears
— Cal W Swim/Dive (@CalWSwim) March 16, 2017
50 Free saw the Bears land 3 in the A-Final. Abbey Weitzeil, one of the favorite for this event along side Stanford’s Simone Manuel, led the way. Senior Farida Osman and freshman Maddie Murphy both just got in this really tight race. Sophomore Amy Bilquist will have to race in a swim-off to make the B-Final. Stanford has Manuel in the A-Final as expected. They also have Lia Neal in the B-Final. Should Bilquist wins the swim-off, I like the Bears to make up 15 points or so in this event.
In the 400 medley prelim, Bears effortlessly wins its heat with a time of 3:27.97. Kathleen Baker (back) lead to Marina Garcia (breast) to Noemie Thomas (fly) to Abbey Weitzeil (free). That time is the best of the prelim, ahead of Georgia and Louisville. Stanford has the 5th best prelim time.
In the best case scenario of the Golden Bears winning both relays, Weitzeil winning 50 Free, and Baker winning 200 IM - California should only fall behind Stanford by about 10 points or less. Of course, Stanford winning a number of these events can push their lead to 50 that by the end of Night 2 (not counting diving).
Here are your links to view this meet online:
Prelims starts at 7 AM PT, Finals starts at 3 PM PT
My Preview of the 2017 NCAA Championships: CGB
Thursday Prelims/Finals: IUPUI
Friday Prelims: IUPUI
Friday Finals: ESPN3
Saturday Prelims: IUPUI
Saturday Finals: ESPN3
Live results: Meet Results
Schedule: Indiana Sports Corp
Check back later on this page for updates as the day progresses (diving and Bilquist’s swim-off which will take place after the first round of diving).
GO BEARS!