Even with a screaming group of fans and a coach yelling and waving his arms on the side of the pool for motivation, going head-to-head with defending national champions is no easy task.

The No. 16 Washington State swim team fell to the No. 3 California Golden Bears this weekend at Gibb Pool by a final score of 299.50-131.50. The Cougars went into the meet as a ranked team for the first time in school history, but would be overwhelmed by an extremely talented Cal squad.

California kicked off the meet on Friday by winning the first nine events.

Despite not winning an event until the 10^th race, the Cougars made a habit of finishing just behind the Cal swimmers.

“They may beat us but we want to get better that way,” Head Coach Tom Jager said at the end of Day 1.

Jager also credited the breaststroke swimmers for the fight they put in on the first day with senior Presley Wetterstrom gaining a first place and a second place finish in two of the events.

The first day of the meet ended with a score of 139-66 in favor of California.

Saturday started somewhat sluggish for the Cougars before picking up later in the meet.

Freshman Linnea Lindberg and senior Fredderikke Hall secured the first and second place finishes in the 50-yard breaststroke event, which gave the Cougars 13 points.

Junior Elise Locke had a nice weekend, picking up four points for WSU as she finished in fourth in both the 200 and 500 freestyles.

“I was swimming different events for the most part so I came in with the goal to beat my 200 free from yesterday. I wanted to see what I could do,” Locke said.

The weekend closed with one of the most exciting finishes of the meet, as Cal and WSU battled for second in the 200 freestyle relay. California started with the lead, and as the gap was beginning to widen, Locke jumped in as the Cougars’ anchor and nearly closed it.

With the crowd going crazy, it seemed like Locke was going to catch Cal sophomore Catherine Ladd, but the race ended before she could gain the ground to do so. Cal’s B team edged out WSU’s A team by just .23 seconds.

“Elise Locke swam great, she’s really coming into her own as a junior,” Jager said.

The Cougars will not return to compete at their home pool again until Jan. 22 when they will take on Oregon State.