By Dan D’Addona.
The Pac-12 Conference has been perhaps the strongest conference, top to bottom, in the country, especially in women’s swimming & diving.
The Stanford women reached new heights with a national title let by Katie Ledecky, Simone Manuel and Ella Eastin.
Meanwhile, Cal has continued to put together a national title-contending program and will be in the mix again this year.
But the biggest strength of the conference is teams like USC and UCLA, which proved to be national powers, too, even if they happened to be strong the same year Stanford was putting together a team of historical proportions.
It will be interesting to see the improvements of teams like Oregon State and Washington State this season, too.
Here is a look at this week’s meets:
Cal at Fresno State
After opening the season against Cal Poly in the Queen of the Pool meet, the Cal women will travel to Fresno State for the Bulldogs’ two-day invitational on Oct. 6-7.
National champion Kathleen Baker kept her crown as Queen of the Pool, winning the pentathlon of events last week. Baker held off a talented group of teammates that includes Abbey Weitzeil, Amy Bilquist and Noemie Thomas.
CSU-Bakersfield, Oregon St. at USC
On Oct. 6, USC will host Cal-State Bakersfield and Oregon State for a double dual on the women’s side. The men will host Cal State-Bakersfield in a dual.
Dylan Carter returns for his senior year to lead the Trojans. He was a major factor last season after sitting out two year ago to focus on training for the Olympics. Carter will lead the Trojans to what looks to be another season of challenging for a top 10 spot at the NCAA championships.
Meanwhile for the women, Louise Hansson will look to build on her stellar freshman season as a sophomore as the Trojans look to hang with the Pac-12 powers.
The Oregon State women have been trapped in this powerhouse conference but have quietly made strides the past few years and will look to continue that trend this season.
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