Leah Polonsky Shines as Cal Women Finish 8th at NCAA Swim

The Cal women’s swim team, spearheaded by a splendid performance from senior Leah Polonsky, finished eighth Saturday night at the NCAA swim championships, the Bears’ highest team finish in three years.

Polonsky, who had never previously competed in an NCAA `A’ final, earned first-team All-America honors in three events, including a third-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley and fourth place in the 200 freestyle.

Her time of 1 minutes, 51.51 seconds in the 200 IM was the second-fastest in program history while her freestyle mark of 1:41.85 sits fourth all-rime at Cal, and was faster than Golden Bear Olympians Natalie Coughlin and Abbey Weitzeil ever clocked.

Polonsky, an Olympian for Israel, swam the breaststroke leg in the 200 medley relay with fifth-year senior Isabel Stadden (backstroke), senior McKenna Stone (butterfly) and freshman Mary-Ambre Moluh (freestyle) to finish fourth in a program-record time of 1:33.54.

Polonsky completed her productive week at Federal Way, Washington, by securing second-team All-America honors with a 10th-place finish in the 200 butterfly and another 10th place in the 400 free relay, where she teammed with Moluh, freshman Mia West and Stone.

Virginia won its fifth consecutive NCAA women’s swim title, compiling 544 points to easily outdistance runner-up Stanford with 417. Cal wound up with 202.5 points, totaling 16 All-America performances and eight times that rank among the program's all-time top 10.

During Saturday night’s final session, Cal graduate student Maya Geringer, formerly of Ohio State, touched fifth in the 1,650 freestyle with a first-team All-America clocking of 15:48.27 that improved her own No. 2 mark in program history.

Junior Abby Herscu posted third-fastest time by a Golden Bear with a 2:07.60 clocking in the morning prelims of the 200 breast before finishing eighth in the evening final. Stadden made the `A’ final of the 200 back for the fifth straight year, placing eighth.

Earlier, Moluh placed seventh in the 100 backstroke (51.13), and the quartet of Moluh, West, Stadden and Stone placed seventh in the 200 freestyle relay (1:26.96), both of those performances earning first-team All-America honors.

The Cal men’s swim team ventures to Federal Way this next week as a favorite to win at the NCAA meet. The Golden Bears, coming off Cal's first Atlantic Coast Conference team title in any sport at the ACC championship meet last month, have finished first or second at the NCAAs a remarkable 14 consecutive years, with six titles during that run.

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