Bears Head to Sunshine State for 3-Day Meet

California makes the first of two cross-country trips this fall when the Golden Bears travel to Gainesville, Fla., for the All Florida Invitational Friday-Sunday. The meet, which marks Cal’s first-ever visit to the state, will feature squads from Florida State, Miami (FL), Villanova, North Carolina and Florida Gulf Coast, in addition to the Bears and host Gators.

Florida flew to the Bay Area last year to take part in a two-day dual meet with the Bears, an event Cal won by a score of 238-210 at Spieker Aquatics Complex, The Bears went on to placed third at the 2014 NCAA Championships, while Florida was sixth. Among the other schools Cal will see this weekend, North Carolina was 19th, Miami 21st, Florida State 30th and Florida Gulf Coast 32nd at the ‘14 NCAA meet.

Following four dual meets in October and November, including home dates vs. Oregon State and BYU on Oct. 23, vs. Texas on Oct. 31 and vs. Wisconsin on Nov. 7, Cal will return to the Eastern Time Zone for the Georgia Invitational Dec. 4-6, which will conclude competition for the fall.

• Celina Li Keeps Her Crown
Retaining the crown she won last September, sophomore Celina Li again captured the Queen of the Pool title at Cal’s season-opening meet held at Cal Poly Sept. 19. The unique competition, featuring swimmers from Cal and Cal Poly, combines 100-yard times from five races – 100-yard free, 100-yard back, 100-yard fly, 100-yard breast and 100-yard individual medley – to determine an overall winner.

Despite not claiming an individual event, Li finished first in 4:42.90, improving on her mark of 4:43.10 from last year. Junior Elizabeth Pelton was second in 4:45.34, followed by junior Rachel Bootsma (4:47.02), junior Kelly Naze (4:50.20) and freshman Jasmine Mau (4:51.59).

Five different Bears won individual races with freshman Noemie Thomas claiming the 100 fly (53.59), Bootsma the 100 back (54.67), sophomore Marina Garcia the 100 breast (1:03.84), sophomore Missy Franklin the 100 free (50.27) and Pelton the 100 IM (56.21). Li was either second or third in each event.

• 6 Bears on USA Pan Pac Team
Six Golden Bears traveled to Australia in August as part of Team USA for the Pan Pacific Championships - swimmers Rachel Bootsma, Missy Franklin, Elizabeth Pelton, Cierra Runge and alumna Caitlin Leverenz, plus head coach Teri McKeever, who led the U.S. women’s squad. The total doesn’t include two others who also swam for their native countries in alumna Lauren Boyle (New Zealand) and senior Camille Cheng (Hong Kong).

In all, Cal representatives came away with nine total medals:

• Franklin (4) - 100 back (bronze), 4x200 free relay (gold), 4x100 free relay (silver), 4x100 medley relay (silver)
• Boyle (3) - 400 free (bronze) 800 free (silver), 1500 free (silver)
• Leverenz (1) - 200 IM (bronze)
• Runge (1) - 400 free (silver)

• 6 Straight Years among NCAA Top 3
With a third-place showing at the 2014 NCAA Championships last March, Cal has now finished among the top three teams in the country six years in a row. The streak started with the Bears’ first national crown in 2009. They followed up with third in 2010, back-to-back titles in 2011 and ‘12 and a runner-up showing in 2013 before last year’s result. In 2014, Cal also came home with a pair of individual titles with Missy Franklin setting an American record on her way to victory in the 200 free, and the quartet of Rachael Acker, Caroline Piehl, Elizabeth Pelton and Franklin winning the 800 free relay.

• Academic Honors Abound
Collectively and individually, the Golden Bears accumulated a number of academic honors for their performance in the classroom this past year. With an overall GPA of 3.27, Cal earned Scholar All-American status from the CSCAA. In addition, 12 team members were chosen Scholar All-Americans for having a GPA above 3.50 - Rachael Acker, Rachel Bootsma, Camille Cheng, Missy Franklin, Melanie Klaren, Celina Li, Kelly Naze, Elizabeth Pelton, Caroline Piehl, Cindy Tran, Melissa Bates and Kristen Vredeveld. The Pac-12 All-Academic team featured 15 Bears, and Acker was chosen a third-team Capital One Academic All-American.