Both the Arizona and Cal women looked dominant in their season-opening victories over the weekend. For new Arizona coach Eric Hansen, this was his first official meet as the head coach of the Arizona Wildcats.
Arizona 174, Kansas 76
Though no official score was posted, by my math the Arizona Wildcats took nearly a 100 point victory, with a few minor exhibition swims at the end of the meet.
The Wildcats looked decent in their first competition. With largely the same crew on deck as they had last season, they were a bit slower across-the-board than they were to kick things off in 2010. Hansen’s old team in Wisconsin also tended to start the season off a bit faster. (It seems like everyone in the country is sort of beginning at the opposite pace of last year though, doesn’t it?).
Sophomore Margo Geer took home three individual wins in the three shorter freestyle events: the 50 (23.12), 100 (50.16), and 200 freestyles (1:50.42). Senior Alyssa Anderson also had a busy first meet with three individual victories of her own: the 500 (4:59.16) and 1000 (10:16.90) yard freestyles, as well as the 200 fly (2:02.56).
The Wildcats swimmer who’s seeing the biggest early dividends, however, is backstroker Sarah Denninghoff, which comes as no surprise. Given the work that Hansen did with backstroker Maggie Meyer last year in Madison (the defending champion in the 200 back), the backstrokers at Arizona might have the most to gain under his mentorship. Denninghoff took wins in the 100 back (56.58) and 200 back (2:01.74), both of which are great starts for her.
For Kansas, they’re back on track rebuilding after the graduation of All-American backstroker Iulia Kuzhil, but with a brand-new locker room, and a new crop of swimmers ready to take over the reigns. They earned a victory from Stephanie Payne in the 200 IM in 2:08.23, which is a nice little bit of motivation for the squad as they head into the new year.
Cal 168, Oregon State 85
The Cal women swept north to dual Oregon State in two distinct meets in two days, though only the Friday competition was scored. Cal got the chance to show off their great young class, and on Friday in 12 individual events, 5 were won by freshman and 2 more by sophomores.
Melanie Klaren was responsible for three of those wins in the 100 and 200 backstrokes as well as the 1000 free. Out of those three races, the 200 backstroke was the most impressive with a time of 2:00.52.
Sara Isakovic furthered the notion that she’s going to put some extra focus on her butterfly swimming to shore up the Cal medley relays in this meet. She took a win in the 100 fly in 54.51, bettered only by Sarah Bateman’s time at the All-Florida Invite on Saturday, and runner-up in the 200 fly (1:59.84). The winner of that 200 fly was Caitlin Leverenz in 1:59.30, which showed the versatility for the IM’er and breaststroker.
On Saturday, the two teams faced off in some alternative events, including 50’s of all four strokes to try and sort out some relay parts.