Women's Swim & Dive

After breaking Stanford’s four-year reign as conference champions, the Bears will hope lightning strikes twice; they’ll seek to disrupt the Cardinal’s three-year streak of NCAA Championship wins.

Winning this championship in dominant fashion was definitely well deserved, but breaking Stanford’s four-year championship run is perhaps the most gratifying aspect for Cal fans.

While Cal has been dominant, Stanford will most definitely be swimming its hardest throughout the meet, so the Bears will need to hold strong in the areas they know they will score points.

For the first time in six years, the Bears outswam the Cardinal in a 178-117 landslide at Stanford’s own Avery Aquatic Center.

In this special joint meet, the Bears raced both USC and UCLA twice. Styled after the Pac-12 championship meet, this arduous weekend opened and closed with the Bears on top.

Cal has high expectations this year, a result of its No. 7 national rank and the fact that it was runner-up at the 2019 and 2020 Pac-12 championship meets.

“We still have at least 10 people every single day that drown, and 25% of them are children. It is the leading cause of accidental death in children ages 1 to 4.”

After a record-breaking season in which she became the first woman in history to break the 21-second barrier during the 50-yard freestyle event in Minnesota, it is no surprise that Cal senior Abbey Weitzeil is the recipient of the 2020 Honda Sport Award for swimming.

At the end of the regular season, the Bears had 14 swimmers and one diver qualify for the NCAA championships and all have been named All-Americans.

The Bears didn’t get a shot at redemption, nor did they get a chance to compete for a National Championship. Instead, they got nothing.