March 19, 2012

BERKELEY - Caitlin Leverenz won the first two individual NCAA titles of her career and swam on two winning relays to lead California to its second straight national title and third in four years at the NCAA Championships in Auburn, Ala., making her this week's California Muscle Milk Student-Athlete of the Week.

Along the way, Leverenz collected the NCAA Swimmer of the Meet award. A potential 2012 U.S. Olympian, captured both the 200-yard individual medley and 200-yard breaststroke in record time and swam on record-setting and victorious 200- and 400-yard medley relays.

On the first night of the meet, she clocked a time of 1:51.77 to win the IM and set new NCAA, American, U.S. Open, Pac-12, school and pool records and swam the breaststroke leg of Cal's victorious 400-medley relay, which posted an NCAA, U.S. Open, Pac-12, school and pool record of 3:28.10 and edged the record time of 3:28.14 that the Bears swam in the morning preliminary.

The next night, Levernz swam the breaststroke leg of Cal's 200-medley relay, which likewise won an NCAA title in record (American, U.S. Open. NCAA, Pac-12, school and pool) time (1:34.24). She also posted an American and school record of 3:57.89 in finishing second in the 400 IM.

On the final night, Leverenz swam a school- and pool-record time of 2:04.76 to win the 200 breast on the final night of the national meet. Overall in Auburn, Leverenz garnered five All-America honors, four individual/relay titles and the second NCAA team championship of her career.

2011-12 California Muscle Milk Student-Athletes of the Week