BERKELEY – Sophomore Kathleen Baker, who won three individual titles and helped a relay capture another at the NCAA Championships last month, was named California's MVP at the women's swimming & diving team's annual banquet Sunday afternoon.
 
The honor adds to a remarkable year for Baker, who earned two medals for Team USA at the Rio Olympics in August – silver in the 100-meter backstroke and gold on the 4x100-meter medley relay.
 
In February, Baker won the 200-yard back at the Pac-12 Championships, which set the stage for her big national meet. In consecutive nights, she won the 200 individual medley, 200 back and 100 back, in addition to swimming the lead-off leg on Cal's victorious 200 medley relay. Baker also swam a leg on the 400 free relay that set a school record. As a result, she was named the CSCAA National Swimmer of the Year.
 
Other awards at the banquet went to:
 
Warren Hellman Scholastic Award – Kristen Vredeveld
Kathie Wickstrand Leadership Award – Kristen Vredeveld
Most Improved Swimmer – Chenoa Devine
Golden Bear Award – Kristen Vredeveld
Coaches Award (Diving) – Hayden Tavoda
Karen Moe Humphreys Coaches Award (Swimming) – Farida Osman
 
Vredeveld, a senior history, has the highest GPA on the team over the past two semesters (spring 2016, fall 2017) – 3.950 – and she has been accepted into the Teach for America program and will begin work this summer in Atlanta. In the pool, Vredeveld was a member of Cal's NCAA runner-up 800 free relay and she placed 15th in the 100 free.
 
Devine, a freshman distance freestyler, consistently improved her times over the course of the season. She was 19th in the 1650 free at NCAA's with a PR 16:04.34, which ranks as the No. 3 time in school history and was a six-second drop from her Pac-12 Championships race just three weeks earlier.
 
Tavoda set personal bests on both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards during her senior year. Her score of 282.53 on 1-meter ranks in school history, while her 314.55 on 3-meter is fourth on the Cal list.
 
Osman completed her senior year in style, winning her first individual national title with a victory in the 100 butterfly. She also anchored both the 200 free relay and the 200 medley relay to first-place finishes at the NCAA meet. The two-time Egyptian Olympian is the Cal record-holder in the 50 free (21.32) and is second all-time in the 100 fly (50.05).
 
As a team, the Bears finished second in the country at the 2017 NCAA Championships – the ninth year in a row they have placed among the top three.