Cal Queen of the Pool is Isabelle Stadden Once Again; Zachary Tan Claims King
Graduate student Isabelle Stadden won her third straight Queen of the Pool title as the California women’s swimming & diving team opened the 2024-25 season on Friday afternoon at Cal Poly’s Anderson Aquatic Center.
Stadden, the reigning Pac-12 Swimmer of the Year, amassed an aggregate time of 4:40.36 over five 100-yard events to outdistance freshman teammate Mia West, who came in second place with a combined mark of 4:46.46. Senior McKenna Stone finished in third place (4:48.62) for the second straight season.
The Queen of the Pool, the traditional season-opening meet for the Golden Bears, features 100-yard races in the freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke and individual medley. The swimmer with the best combined time of the five events is crowned the winner.
Stadden, who was the NCAA runner-up in the 100 back last season, won the event Friday in a time of 52.86. She finished second in the freestyle and individual medley, third in the breaststroke and fourth in the butterfly.
Senior Lizzy Cook won the butterfly (54.32), Alicia Henry easily captured the breaststroke (1:02.88), freshman Olympian Mary-Ambre Moluh won the freestyle (50.59) while Stone took the individual medley (56.93).
King of the pool
California freshman Zachary Tan began his collegiate career on a high note after he earned the King of the Pool title as the California men’s swimming & diving team opened the 2024-25 season on Friday at Cal Poly’s Anderson Aquatic Center.
Tan came out on top of the unique pentathlon, which tasked each swimmer with taking part in five 100-yard races – the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle and individual medley. Tan won the 100 IM (49.97) and finished amongst the top in the 100 fly (50.06), 100 back (50.01), 100 breast (54.98) and 100 free (46.33), earning a total time of 4:11.35.
Tan is ninth Bear to earn King of the Pool honors since 2010, joining former and current Cal standouts Marcin Tarczynski (2010-12), Ryan Murphy (2013), Will Hamilton (2014), Matthew Josa (2017), Andrew Seliskar (2018), Zheng Quah (2019), Hugo Gonzalez (2021), and Destin Lasco (2022-23).
Freshman August Vetsch won the 100 fly (49.03), senior Evan Petty claimed the 100 back (48.69), while freshman Nans Mazellier won the 100 free (44.58). The Bears placed first in four out of the five events.
The Bears return to action on Oct. 11 at UC San Diego for their first dual meet of the season.
— The above press release was posted by Swimming World in conjunction with Cal Athletics. For press releases and advertising inquiries please contact Advertising@SwimmingWorld.com.
.png "ACC Swimming - logo"){kind=logo}