POQSWIM:Cal women’s swim hosts No. 12 USC and No. 13 UCLA

A buzzer fades in the background as the regular season starts to come to a close.

The top-ranked powerhouse of the Cal women’s swim team competes Friday and Saturday against nationally ranked No. 12 USC and No. 13 UCLA, respectively. This will be one of sophomore Missy Franklin’s last collegiate swim meets, as she plans to renounce her amateur status and then pursue a professional swimming career.

The meet will take place in the familiar territory of Spieker Aquatics Complex, as the Bears seek to justify their top-seeded ranking. The Bears will compete in their home aquatic center in two of their last three dual meets, the last being a home meet against Stanford.

For team captain and senior Melanie Klaren, defeating USC would be a tremendous accomplishment because it is a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since her freshman year.

“We’re heading into the final part of our dual season,” Klaren said. “Even though we have been training really hard, having our last three meets at home gives us a strong advantage.”

The team as a whole has been working extremely hard in preparation for the most important part of the season, when the Pac-12 Championships and NCAAs take place at the end of February and through March. Because of the intensity of this training, the team’s times have not been as consistently fast.

Associate head coach Kristen Cunnane expressed her concern regarding the health of the team after a quick turnaround from competing in Arizona against the Wildcats and Arizona State.

“Physically, it’s a lot to travel down to Arizona and get ready to go the next week into a meet against USC and UCLA,” Cunnane said. “We are going to need to turn around and get ready to go.”

Cal will unleash many of its superstars in the water during these upcoming meets. The team maintains its dominance in both the freestyle and backstroke events, with many of the Bears placing in the NCAA top-8 in terms of times. In the 200-yard freestyle, a couple of seconds separate first-ranked Missy Franklin with a time of 1:41.23 from fellow teammate and third-ranked Elizabeth Pelton with a time of 1:43.13.

This dominance translates into the 100-yard backstroke, in which four swimmers — Rachel Bootsma, Pelton, Franklin and Klaren — all place in the NCAA’s top-8 times. It is these talented swimmers, alongside the rest of the team, that makes Cal a force to be reckoned with.

As an essential part of the team and a well-accomplished leader, Klaren elaborated on her team’s preparation for the Friday and Saturday meets. Klaren placed 11th in the 500-yard freestyle and sixth in both the 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke events at last year’s NCAA Championships.

“I think that racing is really important in this part of the season,” Klaren said. “We are working on starts, turns, things that are really important come March. We are really just trying to fine-tune the little things.”

Cunnane emphasized the importance of every member of the swim team’s contribution to the upcoming meet in order to come away with a win.

“We’re really going to rely on the whole team,” Cunnane said. “I think what we did a good job of against Arizona State and the University of Arizona was that everyone stepped up.”