NCAA Championships
Date: Wednesday-Saturday, March 15-18
Time: Prelims: 7:00 am PT; Finals: 3:00 pm PT
Location: Indianapolis, Ind.
Site: IU Natatorium
TV: ESPNU (delay, Tuesday, March 28, 4 pm PT)
Streaming: ESPN3 (Friday and Saturday finals); indianasportscorp.org/ncaasd (all other sessions)

California takes aim for the top of the podium this week when it travels to Indianapolis for the 2017 NCAA Women's Swimming & Diving Championships. The Golden Bears, currently ranked second, have finished among the top three teams in the country each of the last eight years - the longest current streak in the nation.

Competition gets underway Wednesday night with a timed final in the 800-yard free relay. The schedule shifts on Thursday through Saturday to morning prelims starting at 7 a.m. PT and finals at 3 p.m. PT.

Cal last won the team title in 2015, and the Bears finished third last year. They are the two-time defending champions in the 200 free relay and enter the meet ranked No. 1 in the event. Cal's lineup of 13 swimmers and one diver features 19 individual swims and all five relays seeded among the top 16. Leading the list is sophomore Kathleen Baker, a two-time Olympic medalist who paces the country in the 200 back and is ranked second in both the 100 back and 200 IM. 

• 8 IN A ROW AMONG NCAA TOP 3
Cal has finished among the top three at the NCAA Championships eight years in a row - the longest current streak in the country. Included in the run are four national titles, coming in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2015. The Bears were also second in 2013 and third in 2010, 2014 and 2016.

• 24 SWIMS AMONG NCAA TOP 16
Coming into the NCAA Championships, Cal has 19 individual swims plus all five relays ranked among the top 16 nationally. The Bears are perhaps strongest in the 100 fly with three ranked swimmers - Farida Osman (3rd), Noemie Thomas (4th) and Maddie Murphy (14th). Cal also has two each in six different events:

• 50 free - Abbey Weitzeil (2nd), Osman (4th)
• 100 free - Weitzeil (6th), Osman (7th)
• 200 free - Kristen Vredeveld (9th), Katie McLaughlin (10th)
• 100 back - Kathleen Baker (2nd), Amy Bilquist (8th)
• 200 back - Baker (1st), Bilquist (4th)
• 200 fly - McLaughlin (6th), Thomas (9th)

• NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP EXPERIENCE
Of the 14 Golden Bears traveling to Indianapolis for the NCAA Championships, nine are making repeat appearances, six have been on a national champion relay and five were members of Cal's 2015 NCAA title team. The most decorated is senior Farida Osman, who has helped three relays to first-place NCAA finishes. She anchored the 200 free relay and 200 medley relay in 2015 and led off the winning 200 free relay last year. In addition, Marina Garcia and Noemie Thomas joined Osman on the 2015 medley relay, and Kristen Vredeveld, Valerie Hull and Amy Bilquist were on last season's 200 free relay.

• BAKER WINS 200 BACK PAC-12 TITLE
Sophomore Kathleen Baker captured the 200 back title at the Pac-12 Championships in 1:48.33, giving a Golden Bear the crown for the fifth year in a row. She joins a list that features Elizabeth Pelton (2013-14), Missy Franklin (2015) and current teammate Amy Bilquist. Only Pelton (1:47.84) and Franklin (1:47.91) have ever gone faster in the event.

• TWO BEARS AT "HOME" IN INDY
Two Cal swimmers can stake a claim to the Indianapolis area as their hometown - senior Farida Osman and sophomore Amy Bilquist. Osman grew up in Cairo, Egypt, but was born in Indianapolis while her parents were attending dental school at IUPUI. Bilquist, meanwhile, was born in Arizona before her family moved to nearby Carmel. She swam for the Carmel Swim Club and graduated from Carmel HS where she set numerous state records.

• 2016 NCAA RECAP - BEARS PLACE 3RD
California finished third at the 2016 NCAA Championships, marking the eighth year in a row the Bears have been among the top three at the meet. Rachel Bootsma completed her career as a three-time national champion in the 100 back, and the foursome of Farida Osman, Kristen Vredeveld, Valerie Hull and Amy Bilquist defended Cal's title in the 200 free relay. The Bears had two runner-up finishes with Osman in the 50 free and Kathleen Baker in the 200 IM, and a total of 17 swims in A finals (including relays) with Osman accounting for three of them. In addition to her 50 free, she was third in the 100 fly and seventh in the 100 free, while Noemie Thomas (6th, 100 fly; 8th, 200 fly), Amy Bilquist (4th, 100 back; 5th, 200 back), and since-graduated Kelly Naze (5th, 200 fly; 5th, 200 IM) Bootsma (1st, 100 back; 7th, 100 fly) had two A final races each.

• BAKER PAC-12 SWIMMER OF THE MONTH
Sophomore Kathleen Baker was named the Pac-12 Swimmer of the Month for January. She won both the 200 back and 200 IM in Cal's victory over USC Jan. 27 and also captured the 100 and 200 back events in a win at Arizona State Jan. 21. This is Baker's second career nod and Cal's 14th all-time.

• LaMAY PAC-12 DIVER OF THE MONTH
Sophomore Phoebe LaMay was named the Pac-12 Diver of the Month for November. LaMay won the 1-meter board competition in Cal's dual meet against Texas Nov. 11 with a school-record score of 314.18 (she's since broken it again). At the Texas Diving Invitational two weeks later, she totaled 335.80 on 3-meter for another Cal record. LaMay is Cal's third Pac-12 Diver of the Month, and first since Anne Kastler earned the honor in January 2014.

• BEARS EARN NEWMARK GPA AWARD
In October, the Bears learned they had won the Newmark Award for having the highest GPA among all 30 of Cal's intercollegiate athletic teams for the 2015-16 academic year. When combined for the 24 women on the squad, the figure came to an impressive 3.376. The Bears have also been named a CSCAA Scholar All-America team for their academic performance during the fall 2016 semester.

• RIO RECAP: 8 MEDALS AT THE OLYMPICS
A total of 10 current and former Bears qualified for the 2016 Olympics in Rio, and together they came home with an impressive eight medals. Sophomore Kathleen Baker grabbed a silver medal in the 100m back and a gold medal on the 400m medley relay, while freshman Abbey Weitzeil claimed silver on the 400m free relay and gold for her role on the medley relay. Two other current Bears - senior Farida Osman (Egypt, 50 free, 100 fly) and junior Noemie Thomas (Canada, 100 fly, 400 medley relay) - also donned their country's colors in Rio. In addition, alum Dana Vollmer earned gold in the medley relay, silver in the 400 free relay and bronze in the 100 fly, while Missy Franklin took home gold in the 800 free relay.

• LEGENDS AQUATIC CENTER OPENS
The Legends Aquatic Center, which features a pool with a bulkhead and diving tower, locker rooms and a team room, opened in mid-October. The facility, which was completely funded by private donations, primarily hosts training sessions, giving Cal Aquatics student-athletes more flexibility with class scheduling and opening up additional time for campus use at Spieker Aquatics Complex. 

• FODDER FOR FEATURES
Kathleen Baker and the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America - Kathleen Baker has battled the effects of Crohn's disease since she was first diagnosed at age 12. She went public with her story just before the Olympics, where she went on to win a silver medal in the 100m backstroke and a gold medal on the 400m medley relay. Baker now wants to use her status to help others with Crohn's know that they can succeed and has been working with the CCFA, including an hour-long Twitter chat during the foundation's annual Awareness Week Dec. 7 that generated more than 4.4 million impressions.

Vredeveld to Teach for America - Senior Kirsten Vredeveld, who is on track to earn her history degree this May, has been accepted into the Teach for America program and will begin her work over the summer in Atlanta. Following her two-year commitment, she plans to attend law school.

Ocean Swimming - Freshman Chenoa Devine is an accomplished ocean swimmer and finished 11th in the 10K at the 2016 Open Water World Junior Championships in Hoorn, the Netherlands, this past summer.

Cal Connections - Freshmen Courtney Mykkanen, Maddie Murphy and Aislinn Light each bring a long legacy to Berkeley with family connections to the University that in one case goes back nearly a century. Mykkanen's father, John, won a silver medal in the 400m free at the 1984 Olympics, while her great grandfather, Harmer Davis, earned a degree from Cal in 1928 and served as a professor of civil engineering for 43 years. For Murphy, both parents, as well as 32 aunts, uncles and cousins have graduated from Cal. Her father, Matthew Murphy, was a two-time NCAA champion on the men's water polo team. Light's older brother, Austin '12, was a Cal men's basketball team manager and her older sister, Audrey, is a current student.