Nov. 17, 2009

On the Pool Deck
The California swimmers (2-0) return to action when they compete in the Toshiba Classic hosted by UC San Diego from Thursday, Nov. 19 through Saturday, Nov. 21 at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool in Long Beach, Calif. The Golden Bears last competed in a dual-meet win over Fresno State on Nov. 5 in Berkeley. As a team, the Cal swimmers and divers are ranked No. 6 in the first national poll released by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) today.

The Toshiba Classic will consist of men's and women's competition, with the women's side involving 26 teams. Besides Cal, the meet's notable Division I teams include three that did well at the 2009 NCAA Championships in Stanford (4th place), UCLA (41st) and Hawaii (29th). In Long Beach, the preliminary races for flight A women will start at 11:30 a.m. and the prelims for flight B women will start at 1:30 p.m. each day. Finals for everyone, the men and all the women, will begin at 6 p.m. every day.

Results will be posted on CalBears.com as well as on the meet page on the UCSD Web site:

Toshiba Classic Meet Central

Here is the schedule of events for the Toshiba Classic:

Thursday, Nov. 19
200 Freestyle Relay
500 Freestyle
200 Individual Medley
50 Freestyle
400 Medley Relay

Friday, Nov. 20
200 Medley Relay
400 Individual Medley
100 Butterfly
200 Freestyle
100 Breaststroke
100 Backstroke
800 Freestyle Relay

Saturday, Nov. 21
1650 Freestyle
200 Backstroke
100 Freestyle
200 Breaststroke
200 Butterfly
400 Freestyle Relay

Scouting the Golden Bears
Cal, the defending NCAA and Pac-10 champion, has had a strong start to the 2009-10 season, with freshman swimmer Caitlin Leverenz winning the Queen of the Pool title in a season-opening competition at Cal Poly, home dual-meet victories over Pacific, 158-87 on Oct. 10, and Fresno State, 166-111 on Nov. 5, success in a relay meet at San Diego State and, most recently, impressive diving results against Fresno State and at USC.

Leverenz claimed the meet title as the Bears opened the season in a pentathlon of events at Cal Poly's Anderson Aquatic Center. She had the lowest combined time (4:49.55) after swimming five 100-yard events: the freestyle, butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and individual medley.

The Bears have posted seven NCAA B qualifying times. They collected four against Pacific, from Leverenz (1st in 200-yard breaststroke in 2:13.13 and 1st in 400-yard individual medley in 4:13.96), senior Heather White (400 IM, 4:19.12) and sophomore Sara Isakovic (1st in 200 freestyle in 1:47.45). Against Fresno State, Leverenz (1st in 1:59.69) and Isakovic (1:59.86) swam B qualifying times in the 200 butterfly and senior Lauren Boyle notched a B qualifying time in the 500 free (1st in 4:50.33).

Cal junior Amanda Sims, the NCAA champion in the 100 butterfly last season, won the 100 fly (55.56) and swam on the winning 200-medley relay (1:43.72) against Pacific.

The Cal divers made their season debut against Fresno State, with sophomore Molly Hayes winning the one-meter springboard (257.33) and freshman Kelsey Heiken winning the three-meter springboard (262.58) events. Heiken then collected a pair of impressive results in the Trojan Diving Invitational, taking fourth place at one meter (253.75) and eighth place at three meters (251.00) at the USC meet.

Cal Inks 8 New Golden Bears
Cal signed a talented and diverse group of seven swimmers and one diver to National Letters of Intent, Cal head coach Teri McKeever and Cal diving coach Ben Herdt announced on Nov. 12. The swimmers include two Golden Bears - Samantha Shellem (La Verne, Calif./Lutheran High School) and Deborah Roth (Corte Madera, Calif./Redwood High School) - who recently competed with the U.S. youth national team and one Bear - Stephanie Au (Hong Kong, China/Sacred Heart Canossian School) - who was a 2008 Olympic teammate of Cal junior Hannah Wilson.

McKeever's recruits include Melissa Bates (Tustin, Calif./Mater Dei High School), Kearsten Livingstone (Canyon Country, Calif./Canyon High School), Mikkel-Ane Stipe (Oceanside, Calif./La Costa Canyon High School) and Cindy Tran (Westminster, Calif./Edison High School). Herdt signed diver Lena Kardos (Aliso Viejo, Calif./Laguna Beach High School).

Roth and Shellem were members of the U.S. Youth World Cup Team that swam in FINA World Cup meets in Stockholm, Sweden, and Berlin, Germany. Shellem's best result in those meets was an eighth-place finish in a time of 4:10.69 in the 400-meter freestyle final in Stockholm. Roth placed 13th in the 50-meter backstroke preliminary heats in a time of 27.59 in Berlin.

Next Time
The Cal divers compete in the Texas Invitational from Dec. 3-5 in Austin, Texas, while the Cal swimmers head to the USA Swimming Short Course National Championships from Dec. 3-5 in Federal Way, Wash. The Bears will also swim in a long-course meet on Dec. 6 in Federal Way.