Over the course of twelve events Friday and Saturday, the women’s swim team from Cal attended the Bulldog Invitational in Fresno, California. Other teams participating in the Invitational were Fresno State, Boise State and San Jose State.
The small Cal squad had a few standout swims, but ultimately they took 4th overall.
1. Boise State 1232
2. Fresno State 765.5
3. San Jose State 751.5
4. Cal 591
On Friday the A 200 medley relay team of Mikkel-Ane Stipe, Melissa Bates, Farida Osman and Camille Cheng touched in second place behind Boise State A in 1:45.97.
In the 200-yard individual medley, Bates placed fourth in 2:08.07, while Taylor Young was fifth in 2:09.25.
Freshman Osman was Cal’s top finisher in the 50 free, finishing fourth in 23.75, followed by Cheng in 8th, 24.26.
The Bears’ A 800 free relay took in fourth 7:41.11 to end the first day of competition. Cheng’s anchor leg of 1:49.80 was quite the swim after swimming four of the five events on day 1.
Camille Cheng followed up that impressive split in the 800 FR-R in the individual 200 freestyle in day two. She took top honors in the event, finishing at 1:51.20. She held of Felicity Cann from Boise State at the finish.
Cheng would come back later in the meet to finish second in the 100 freestyle in 51.00.
Another event winner of the afternoon was from Sophia Batchelor in the 200 backstroke. She would finish at 2:02.72 over Boise State’s Devin Madsen by .19.
Osman was the top Bear in the 100 butterfly at third (56.69). Teammates Bates in the 100 breaststroke (1:05.61) and Batchelor in the 100 backstroke (58.64) would also finish third as the top Cal swimmer.
Both A relays of the day, the 200 free relay (Osman, Bates, Mikkel-Ane Stipe, Cheng) and 400 free relay (Osman, Abi Speers, Eva Greene and Taylor Nanfria) were third, as well.
The 400 medley relay team finished second behind Boise State, with Stipe, Bates, Osman, Cheng finishing at 3:54.61.
Boise State’s women looked very good at this meet. They started things off by winning the 200 medley relay, with the combination of Jessica Bottelberghe, Heather Harper, Brittany Aoyama, and Katelyn Martin (the latter two of those are freshman) combined for a 1:43.15. That not only broke the Meet Record, but it crushed a full second off of the Cal Meet and Pool Record set a year ago.
The Broncos got a lot of very good swims from a great freshman class. Felicity Cann won the 500 free in 4:56.52 in the meet’s first individual event. In the meet’s 4th event, Aoyama won the 50 free in 23.61, which put her ahead of San Jose State’s Alysha Bush and Cal’s Osman.
Boise State broke another Pool and Meet Record, also both held by Cal, in the 200 free relay, where they swam a 1:34.79 (again with four udnerclassmen). San Jose State took 2nd, also under Cal’s old record, with a 1:35.22, including a 23.30 anchor from Bush.
Aoyama won another race in the 100 fly with a 54.95, crushing Rachel Bootsma’s Meet Record, and yet another Boise freshman Whitney Jorgensen won the 400 IM in 4:26.85.
Continuing the theme of the night, Fresno State freshman Hailee Baldwin won the 200 breaststroke in 2:20.95.
We have to acknowledge at least one junior’s individual accomplishments, though. Bottelberghe from Boise, whose younger sister will join her on the team next fall, swam 9 events in two days, and took 7 wins including relays. That includes the 200 IM in 2:05.30 and the 100 back in 56.48 individually.
Cal will return to action as a full squad next week, 10/17 & 10/18 in a two-day meet against Florida at home.