Cal Takes 4th At NCAA Championship

Cal earned a spot in 5 finals on the final day of the season.

WSWIM3/21/2026 7:59 PM | By: Cal Athletics

Bears Get Highest Finish In 5 Years

ATLANTA – It was per week to recollect for the upward-trending Golden Bears, who completed the 2026 NCAA Championships in fourth place Saturday at McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
 

It got here right down to the ultimate race of the season, and when the lights had been at their brightest, the underclassmen-led California ladies’s swimming & diving group rose to the event and earned its highest end because it headed house with fourth-place {hardware} in 2021.
 
The fourth and closing day of the meet started with the Golden Bears getting 5 finals qualifiers within the morning prelims, their most this week, to offer them their finest shot of climbing the ultimate group standings. Cal ended Thursday in sixth place with 199 factors trailing each Tennessee (240.5) and Michigan (228).
 
Sophomore Mia West and freshman Teagan O’Dell received the Bears off to the right begin punching their tickets to the 200 IM closing with West getting the highest time within the subject at 1:52.40. O’Dell adopted that up by incomes a spot within the 200 backstroke closing with the fifth finest time in Cal historical past at 1:49.51. Then the Bears’ two resident French National Team members got here up massive with graduate scholar Lilou Ressencourt qualifying within the 200 butterfly to achieve the primary A closing of her profession in her final prelim swim and sophomore Mary-Ambre Moluh advancing within the 100 freestyle.
 
The closing session of the season began with Cal’s first two-Bear podium of the meet. O’Dell (1:52.76) completed second and West (1:52.96) took third within the 200 IM giving them two particular person podium finishes every this week.
 
Moluh was subsequent breaking Cal’s 100 freestyle file with a time of 46.30 to take sixth place. The sophomore now has her identify on 4 complete Cal information together with two relays. Her fellow countryman Ressencourt secured some invaluable factors within the closing race of her profession taking eighth within the 200 fly with a time of 1:54.01.
 
With only one extra occasion to go within the 2026 season, Cal trailed Tennessee 279.5-273 for fourth place. The clutch, underclassmen quartet of West, Moluh, O’Dell, and freshmen Claire Weinstein stepped to the blocks for the 400 freestyle relay and clocked a time of three:07.47, the third quickest in Cal historical past, to take fourth place whereas the Volunteers completed in eighth.
 
Cal ended the meet with 303 factors to Tennessee’s 301.5.
 
The week was highlighted by 5 of the Bears’ underclassmen incomes 11 particular person First Team All-America honors together with a 500 freestyle National Championship by Weinstein final night time. It was Cal’s first particular person title since 2019 and was considered one of thrice Weinstein discovered the rostrum within the meet. In complete the Bears reached six podiums, earned 21 All-America nods, and broke 4 program information.
 
This concludes a really promising season for a younger Bears group that welcomed in one of the best recruiting class within the historical past of the game this yr and has extra promising younger expertise becoming a member of it within the pool subsequent season.