No. 14 Bears Qualify Relay Teams For NCAAs

MINNEAPOLIS – The No. 14 Cal women's swimming & diving team got the Minnesota Invitational off to a resounding start Wednesday evening, qualifying both their 200 medley relay team and 800 freestyle relay team for the NCAA Championships in March.

The Golden Bears' 200 medley relay team of Isabelle Stadden, Jade Neser, McKenna Stone and Emily Gantriis clocked a time of 1:35.62, which was better than the NCAA automatic qualifying cutline of 1:36.24. The team finished in second place behind Texas, which entered the event ranked No. 1 in the nation. The mark was also just outside the program's all-time top-10 in the event – the No. 10 mark is 1:35.18, set last season.

Stadden was also part of Cal's 800 free relay team that qualified for NCAAs. She was joined by Leah Polonsky, Ayla Spitz and Mia Motekaitis to complete the race in a time of 7:02.94. That also was good for second behind the Longhorns.

The Bears' B-relay teams also registered top-5 finishes in each race Wednesday.

The Minnesota Invitational, which also features No. 13 Wisconsin, Minnesota, Arizona, UNLV, Pittsburgh and Harvard, gets going in earnest Thursday with the 500 freestyle, 200 individual medley, 50 freestyle, 200 freestyle relay and 1-meter diving events. Swimming prelims begin at 8 a.m. PT, diving prelims take place at 10 a.m. PT and the finals begin at 4 p.m. PT.