Cal Women Hit Again: #7 Annie Jia Commits to Golden Bears for Fall 2025

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The Cal women have hit again on their historic class of 2025, with the 7th-ranked recruit in the country Annie Jia announcing her verbal commitment to the Golden Bears. This gives Cal commitments from the #1, #2, #3, #7, #13, and a handful of “Best of the Rest” ranked recruits.

• See Also: Cal’s Women’s Class of 2025 Is Shaping Up as One of the Best In History

Jia swims for the Upper Dublin Aquatic Club in suburban Philadelphia at Hatboro Horsham High School. This is an area that Dave Durden has recruited hard in his time as Cal’s men’s coach, and is now parlaying that into top female recruits as well. Past Cal Bears from UDAC include Michael and Matthew Jensen, and Mike Thomas. Thomas and Michael Jensen were both All-Americans at Cal, while Matthew Jensen is a current senior on the team.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CzYnUThuW34/

Primarily a butterflier, Jia is the two-time defending Pennsylvania High School 3A State Champion in the 100 yard fly and one-time defending champion in the 200 IM. She swam 52.04 in the 100 fly to break the PIAA State Record as just a freshman in 2022, breaking the record of 52.99 by almost a second.

She is also the defending Middle Atlantic LSC Champion in the 50 yard fly, the 2022 champion in the 100 yard fly and 100 yard free, and the 2022 champion in the 100 meter fly.

She capped her summer of 2023 by placing 3rd in the 100 fly at the summer Speedo Junior National Championships.

Jia’s best times in yards and meters:

Cal is building a class around swimmers who can do freestyle “and” something else (with the exception of maybe Claire Weinstein, who is a very good 400 IMer but doesn’t have a single stroke time that would put her anywhere but anchor on a medley relay). This gives Cal a ton of relay options and plan Bs when they need them.

Jia fits that mold and projects as a likely sprint freestyler and 100 butterflier for the rebuilt Cal Golden Bears. Her best time in the 100 fly would have earned her an invite to last year’s NCAA Championship meet but would have missed scoring by about three-tenths of a second – keeping in mind that the time comes from her sophomore year of high school.

The Full Class:

• #1 Alex Shackell
• #2 Teagan O’Dell
• #3 Claire Weinstein
• #13 Elle Scott
• BOTR Sprint Free – Gracyn Aquino
• BOTR Distance Free – Ella Cosgrove
• BOTR IM – Alexa McDevitt

The Cal women finished 11th at last year’s NCAA Championship meet in the first year of the newly-combined program after long-time head coach Teri McKeever was fired amid an abuse investigation. That was the team’s lowest NCAA Championship finish since placing 17th in the 1996-1996 season.

By the time Jia arrives in Berkeley, the Golden Bears will be in the ACC – home to the three-time defending NCAA Champion Virginia Cavaliers.

If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].

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