Isabel Ivey Captures Queen of the Pool Title to Kick Off Cal Season
Senior Isabel Ivey, who earned Pac-12 Swimmer of the Year honors last year, picked up right where she left off by demonstrating her prowess in all four strokes to claim the Queen of the Pool title Friday in Cal’s opening women’s swim meet of 2021-22. The meet, which includes teams from Cal and Cal Poly, features each swimmer taking part in 100-yard races in free, fly, back and breast events, plus a 100-yard individual medley. The person with the lowest total time is crowned queen.
Ivey came through with a time of 4:39.91, the fastest of her career and third best in the history of the event. Abbey Weitzeil set the all-time mark at 4:38.76 in 2019, while Kathleen Baker went 4:39.54 in 2017. On Friday, junior Ayla Spitz took second in 4:45.26, while sophomore Isabelle Stadden was third in 4:4711, followed by sophomore Emily Gantriis (4:48.74) and freshman McKenna Stone (4:19.12).
Ivey finished first in the 100 fly (54.20), 100 free (49.84) and 100 IM (56.49), second in the 100 back (54.07), and fourth in the 100 breast (1:05.31). The other event winners were Stadden in the 100 back (53.45) and senior Ema Rajic in the 100 breast (1:02.66).
This year’s meet marks the 11th Queen of the Pool competition between Cal and Cal Poly. Caitlin Leverenz won the inaugural races in 2010 and 2011, with the other winners being Rachel Bootsma (2012), Celina Li (2013-15), Baker (2016-17) and Weitzeil (2018-19).
Cal returns to action Oct. 8-9 when the Golden Bears travel to Fresno for the Chick-Fil-A Invitational.
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