Cal Women's Swimming and Diving in Championships Season
4th place at first ACCs into potential return into top 10 at NCAAs?
For a year full of uncertainties and firsts, Cal women’s swimming and diving finds themselves back in Federal Way at Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Center, the long-time home of the Pac-12 Championships. While the pool won’t be an uncertainty for the Bears, a big unknown for Cal is whether the extra time between ACC Championships and NCAA Championships could raise issues for their rest and taper protocols, which head coach Dave Durden previously had nailed down as a science. The answer to that question is paramount to knowing whether the 4th-place ACCs finish is clearly indicative of Cal struggling to keep up with the current titans of the sport in recruiting elite talent or if it’s the first step to returning to the standard that the Bears established throughout the 2010s.
The NCAA Championships with its 21 events (5 relays, 3 diving, 13 individual swimming) will start today and run through Saturday, 3/22. All sessions will be streamed via ESPN+. Event results are updated live.
Schedule of Events (Time in PDT)
March 19 — 6 pm finals
200-yard Medley Relay
800-yard Freestyle Relay
March 20 — 10 am prelims | 6 pm finals
500-yard Freestyle
200-yard Individual Medley
50-yard Freestyle
One-meter Diving
200-yard Freestyle Relay
March 21— 10 am prelims | 6 pm finals
100-yard Butterfly
400-yard Individual Medley
200-yard Freestyle
100-yard Breaststroke
100-yard Backstroke
Three-meter Diving
400-yard Medley Relay
March 22 — 10 am prelims | 6 pm finals
1,650-yard Freestyle
200-yard Backstroke
100-yard Freestyle
200-yard Breaststroke
200-yard Butterfly
Platform Diving
400-yard Freestyle Relay
Here are the Cal women competing in Washington along with their events (in order), according to the official psych sheets:
Freshmen
Mary-Ambre Moluh (FR): 50y freestyle, 100y backstroke, 100y freestyle
Finley Anderson (FR): 100y backstroke, 200y backstroke
Violet Williamson (FR): 3M dive
Mia West (FR)*: relays
Sophomores
Ava Chavez (SO): 500y freestyle, 200y freestyle, 200y butterfly
Kathryn Hazle (SO): 500y freestyle, 400y individual medley, 200y breaststroke
Juniors
Abby Herscu (JR): 100y breaststroke, 200y breaststroke
Seniors
Lizzy Cook (SR): 100y butterfly, 200y butterfly
Leah Polonsky (SR): 200y individual medley, 200y freestyle, 200y butterfly
McKenna Stone (SR): 50y freestyle, 100y butterfly, 100y freestyle
Graduate Students
Maya Geringer (GS Transfer): 500y freestyle, 1,650y freestyle
Margaux McDonald (GS Transfer): 200y individual medley, 100y breaststroke, 200y breaststroke
Lilou Ressencourt (GS): 100y butterfly, 200y butterfly
Isabelle Stadden (GS): 100y backstroke, 200y backstroke
* indicates not on psych sheets, but will participate according to calbears.com
Cal hasn’t been in the hunt for a NCAA team championship for quite a few years; however, there are still some interesting storylines for Cal and the championships as a whole.
Battle for 2nd
Virginia is in the hunt for a fifth-consecutive NCAA Championship, and frankly, there’s no legitimate threat to that quest. The Cavaliers have a legitimate case for being one of the most dominant programs in any collegiate sport, which unfortunately takes away from the suspense and excitement of team races for the championship (just wait for next week’s men’s meet).
However, the battle for second by Texas, Tennessee, Stanford, and, to a lesser degree, Florida is a much more compelling story. If you score out the psych sheets (i.e., assigning the point value for seeds as though that’s the final placement), Texas, Tennessee, and Stanford are within 60 points of each other. Historically, Stanford has outscored their seeds while Texas and Tennessee generally haven’t. Combined with a relay disqualification being a potential 48-point swing, the 60-point range is nearly imperceptible.
Last of the Walsh sisters
Alex and Gretchen Walsh have been collegiate swimming’s most dominant siblings (at least in recent memory), and they have one last opportunity to wreck the NCAA and American record books. The Walsh sisters have been foundational buoys for Virginia’s dynasty and fans should be on the edge of their seats as they compete for Virginia one last time.
Fifth-year Alex Walsh can legitimately win three individual titles despite having surgery at the beginning of the season. She’s the top seed in the 100y breaststroke, an event she hasn’t competed at in an NCAA Championship previously. But, younger sister, Gretchen Walsh, has been on an absolute tear. She has season bests in the 100y freestyle and butterfly that are over a second faster than the next best swimmer (Stanford redshirt junior Torri Huske). And, if she’s well-rested for this week (there’s no reason to believe she won’t be), Gretchen should lower the records by enough that her name will stay in the books for many years.
Will Cal return to the top 10?
In 2021, Cal’s streak of top-three finishes ended at 11 years by finishing 4th. In 2022, it was 8th, the team’s worst since 2005. That was followed up by back-to-back 11th place finishes, the first time that Cal finished outside of the top-ten since 1996. But with this year’s squad, the Bears can reasonably return to the top-ten.
Mary-Ambre Moluh and Isabelle Stadden — Cal’s projected top two individual scorers — weren’t quite at their season’s best at conference championships, but that’s most likely because they weren’t fully-rested for ACCs. With a month since then to taper and to increase their anaerobic threshold, it’s plausible that Moluh and Stadden can reach their peaks this week in Washington. When you factor in Israeli Calympian Leah Polonsky (for her versatility and consistency) and Ohio State graduate transfer Maya Geringer (for her top time in the mile), the Bears should be one of 7 or 8 teams that should score more than 100 points individually.
Maybe burgeoning diving team under Coach Pei Lin
Cal doesn’t always have a diver qualified for the NCAA Championship, but starting with the men’s program the last couple years, the Bears are beginning to qualify divers more consistently. The last woman qualifier was Briana Thai in 2021, but that was before Coach Lin was named diving coach at Cal. Violet Williamson, who qualified in the 3-meter event, is just a freshman. That’s far from the consistency of programs such as Purdue, Indiana, and Stanford, but it’s a start if Coach Lin can continue to recruit and develop divers into NCAA Championship scorers.
Bridge to the next era
Isabelle Stadden, Lizzy Cook, McKenna Stone, and Leah Polonsky are the last of the Cal swimmers still competing that previously trained under former coach Teri McKeever. While Stadden and Polonsky have been two of the highest individual scorers for Cal the last couple years, there’s a new girl on the block, Mary-Ambre Moluh. The French Calympian has adjusted well to short-course yards, appearing to inherit the backstroke throne as the newly-minted school record holder in the 100y backstroke. Moluh’s sprint freestyle ability is also a vital component to Cal’s relays and could be the reason she’s the top individual scorer for Cal at this year’s NCAA Championship.
But, equally as important, is that the underclassmen gain the experience needed for the incoming recruiting class, which features five of SwimSwam’s Top 20 for the Girl’s High School Class of 2025 (the top recruit, Alex Shackell, was previously committed to Cal but has since committed to Indiana). With times already faster than some school records and projected to score at this year’s NCAA Championships, the new era of Cal swimming is upon us and the Bears could go back to top-three finishes, if not better.