Bears Open Meet With Two Pool Records

FRESNO – Pool records in the 200-yard medley relay and 200-yard free relay bookended Cal's opening session at the Chick-Fil-A Invitational Friday morning. The meet continues with another session Friday at 6 p.m., followed by a 10 a.m. concluding session on Saturday morning. Fans can follow with live streaming on the Mountain West Network.
 
In the first race of the meet, the foursome

of Isabelle Stadden, Ema Rajic, Isabel Ivey and Elise Garcia won the 200 medley relay in 1:39.69, shaving more than a second off the previous mark of 1:40.97 set by Ivey, Rajic, Maddie Murphy and Abbey Weitzeil in 2019.
 
The Bears concluded the morning with their second pool mark, completing the 200 free relay in 1:30.85 with a group featuring Ella Mazurek, Emily Gantriis, Garcia and Ivey. They lowered the old record of 1:32.15 from 2018 established by Cal's Keaton Blovad, Garcia, Katie McLaughlin and Weitzeil.
 
In between, Golden Bears captured three other individual events. Ayla Spitz claimed the 500 free in 4:52.54 as Cal took the top eight spots. Freshman Lea Polonsky then won the 200 individual medley in 2:02.77, with Garcia prevailing in the 50 free in 22.72.
 
The Chick-Fil-A Invitational includes six teams with Cal joining UCLA, Washington State, San Diego State, San Jose State and host Fresno State.