Cal WSwim & Dive Marching on Atlanta for Championship Season
The quest for a top-five finish at NCAAs is on
To most, March sports is madness, literally. And, for a small, yet mighty, tribe of sports fans in humid natatoriums, things are at their pinnacle of rabidness. Just around a month ago, the Cal women’s swimming and diving team competed at the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta, where they finished 3rd, 11.5 points behind runner-up, Stanford, and 383 points behind overall conference champion, Virginia. Now, they find themselves back at the McAuley Aquatic Center with their chance to swim themselves back into the top 5 at NCAAs for the first time since 2019.
Results
Here is how every swimmer placed at the ACC Conference Championships:
Mia West (SO) - 200 IM (3), 400 IM (8), 200 Fly (1)
Mary-Ambre Moluh (SO) - 50 Free (9), 100 Back (3), 100 Free (5)
Teagan O’Dell (FR) - 200 IM (4), 400 IM (6), 200 Back (9)
Claire Weinstein (FR) - 500 Free (5), 200 Free (3), 100 Free (10)
Violet Williamson (SO) - 3 mtr Diving (16), 1 mtr Diving (8), Platform Diving (8)
Ava Chavez (JR) - 200 IM (9), 200 Free (14), 200 Fly (8)
Annie Jia (FR) - 50 Free (29), 100 Fly (6), 200 Fly (9)
Elle Scott (FR) - 200 IM (13), 100 Breast (6), 200 Breast (19)
Ella Cosgrove (FR) - 500 Free (9), 200 Free (10), 200 Back (20)
Kathryn Hazle (JR) - 500 Free (14), 400 IM (13), 1650 Free (14)
Ariana Drake (JR) - 3 mtr Diving (12), 1 mtr Diving (35), Platform Diving (6)
Lilou Ressencourt (5Y) - 100 Fly (12), 200 Fly (6)
Abigail Herscu (SR) - 100 Breast (14), 200 Breast (11)
Alexa McDevitt (FR) - 500 Free (13), 400 IM (15), 200 Breast (27)
Silje Slyngstadli (FR) - 50 Free (26), 100 Breast (9), 200 Breast (20)
Camille Henveaux (SO) - 500 Free (17), 200 Free (30), 1650 Free (19)
Sydney Griscavage (SR) - 50 Free (17), 100 Free (81)
Arielle Brotman (SO) - 100 Fly (39), 100 Breast (19), 200 Breast (39)
Rebecca Ciancaglini (SO) - 1 mtr Diving (20)
Jessica Davis (5Y) - 100 Back (45), 200 Back (46)
Finley Anderson (SO) - 100 Back (38), 200 Back (26)
Storylines
Elite Freshmen Class
Even without factoring in international swimmers, this was the best freshman class coming into the season and the best since 2015 when Cal signed Abbey Weitzeil (#2), Kathleen Baker (#3), Katie McLaughlin (#4), and Amy Bilquist (#5). And, this year’s freshmen class delivered at ACC Championships, with 5 of SwimSwam’s top 20 recruits (#2, #3, #5, #12, and #18) coming out of high school, by scoring the most points out of any program’s freshmen group. When you add SwimSwam’s BOTR Alexa McDevitt and Norwegian record holder Silje Slyngstadli, half of the 14 Bears competing at the NCAA Championships are part of this electric freshmen squad.
It’s hard to say there’s a leader of the group, but if you had to pick one purely off past accolades, the conversation starts with Claire Weinstein, an all-around freestyler. She’s already an Olympic silver medalist and has established herself as Team USA’s premier mid-distance freestyle option after Katie Ledecky. Her best time in the 500 freestyle is already faster than the school record and faster than anyone else has been in NCAAs this year, so she has the potential to score more at NCAAs than her 5th (500 freestyle), 3rd (200 freestyle), and 10th place (100 freestyle) at ACCs.
Weinstein won’t be the only NCAA scorer, nor the only Cal freshman who will contend for an individual national championship. Teagan O’Dell could find herself earning a second swim in all three of her individual events, even with the changed format at NCAAs, where only the top 8 swimmers in every event will partake in the finals session. Elle Scott and Slyngstadli are first and second, respectively, in Cal’s all-time top 10 in the 100 breaststroke, only separated by .02 seconds.
While there may be some pressure given the inexperience, the scoring potential for this freshman class is high. If the conference championships were any indication, though, the future is now, and it’s alive and kicking up a storm.
Breakout Mia West
Heading into ACCs, Mia West logged personal bests in 21 different races this season. She logged two more at ACCs en route to her first individual conference title in the 200 butterfly and her third-place swim in the 200 IM. For elite swimmers, logging personal bests isn’t a guarantee to happen every year, and much of a swimmer’s success hinges on swimming new lifetime bests at the right moments. West’s progressions in her sophomore campaign have truly been a marvelous storyline throughout the season. She already added an individual conference title in the 200 butterfly, where she held off a surging Tess Howley (Virginia) to hang on for the trophy.
West is not swimming the same individual event lineup at NCAAs as she did at ACCs, but she’s a top contender in the 200 IM, seeded 2nd overall. A year ago, West didn’t swim a single individual event at NCAAs but was clearly blossoming into an essential sprint option on relays. Her role on relays this year will be even more pronounced, as her flexibility and speed suggest she can swim on any of the five relays contested but will only be able to dive off the blocks in four of them.
Year-over-year Team Improvements
For many years, it felt like a foregone conclusion that the Bears would take turns with Stanford at Pac-12s and finish in the top three at NCAAs. But, since the start of the decade, much has changed. Not only has Cal moved on to fighting for a top-three finish at ACCs, but the Bears finished outside of the top 10 at the 2024 NCAAs. In 2025, Cal finished 4th at ACCs and managed to break back into the top ten with its 8th-place finish at NCAAs.
However, all of the turmoil of the last half-decade is supposed to be stabilized this year. So far, the Cal squad is delivering. They improved to 3rd at ACCs this year, and thanks to an untimely Stanford relay disqualification, the Bears were in control of a second-place finish heading into the last day of ACCs. While Cal didn’t hang on, their 11.5-point deficit is just one of many signs suggesting that the Bears will likely find themselves finishing in the top five at NCAAs this week for the first time since 2019.
Conference is deeper than the deep-end
Virginia has dominated women’s swimming. Realistically, no team will challenge their quest for a sixth-straight NCAA championship despite needing to replace the Walsh sisters, who reset the record books throughout the first half of the 2020s. But the ACC conference is much more than just Virginia. After the Cavaliers, Stanford appears to be the clear favorite among the next tier of teams (alongside Michigan and Texas), battling for second. 3 more ACC teams (Cal, Louisville, and NC State) will almost certainly round out the top 10.
Schedule
For the next four days, prelim sessions start at 10am EDT. Finals will begin at 6pm EDT. All sessions will be streamed on ESPN+.
Wednesday, March 18 | Live results
1650-yard freestyle
200-yard medley relay
800-yard freestyle relay
Thursday, March 19 | Live results
100-yard butterfly
400-yard individual medley
200-yard freestyle
100-yard breaststroke
200-yard freestyle relay
One-meter diving
Friday, March 20 | Live results
100-yard backstroke
200-yard breaststroke
500-yard freestyle
50-yard freestyle
400-yard medley relay
Three-meter diving
Saturday, March 21 | Live results
200-yard individual medley
100-yard freestyle
200-yard butterfly
200-yard backstroke
400-yard freestyle relay
Platform diving
Qualifiers
Ella Cosgrove (FR) – 200 freestyle (31), 500 freestyle (13), 200 backstroke (42)
Annie Jia (FR) – 100 butterfly (14), 200 butterfly (12)
Alexa McDevitt (FR) – 400 IM (27), 500 freestyle (54)
Teagan O’Dell (FR) – 400 IM (13), 200 IM (4), 200 backstroke (8)
Elle Scott (FR) – 100 breaststroke (12), 200 breaststroke (24), 200 IM (20)
Silje Slyngstadli (FR) – 100 breaststroke (13), 200 breaststroke (41)
Claire Weinstein (FR) – 1,650 freestyle (8), 200 freestyle (9), 500 freestyle (6)
Mia West (SO) – 200 freestyle (8), 100 backstroke (12), 200 IM (2)
Mary-Ambre Moluh (SO) – 100 backstroke (4), 50 freestyle (18), 100 freestyle (9)
Camille Henveaux (SO) – 500 freestyle (25)
Kathryn Hazle (JR) – 400 IM (22), 200 breaststroke (58), 500 freestyle (55)
Ava Chavez (JR) – 200 freestyle (30), 200 IM (16), 200 butterfly (24)
Abigail Herscu (SR) – 200 breaststroke (20)
Lilou Ressencourt (5Y) – 100 butterfly (31), 200 butterfly (9)