All the screaming over three days and nights came to a crescendo in the 400-yard freestyle relay, the final event of the NCAA Women's Swimming & Diving Championships.
Twenty events were not enough to decide a champion, so it came down to the finale for California, Georgia and Arizona to sort out a winner.
In the end it was California that was cheering loudest, collecting their first title after winning the decisive relay and thus the meet at the Texas A&M Rec Center Natatorium on Saturday.
"This is pretty damn good," said 17-year Cal coach Teri McKeever. "I know a lot of [past swimmers] made this happen. These guys got to experience it tonight but they know and I know it took a lot of commitment and a lot of trust [from everyone]."
Cal won the 400 free relay in a meet-record 3 minutes, 9.88 seconds. Dana Vollmer, who earlier touched first in the 100 freestyle for her second individual gold, anchored the Bears to victory.
"I know that before I even got up there I was shaking and I knew if I held it together we could do it," said Vollmer, a native of Granbury. "I knew I love anchoring relays and it was going through my mind that it was my last official Cal relay, so it meant so much to me.
"So many emotions go through my mind in a relay like that, senior year winning Pac-10 [conference championship], winning [the national championship] and in Texas, getting to come home. I had more family here than any other meet."
Other members of the relay were sophomores Hannah Wilson and Erica Dagg and freshman Liv Jensen.
Cal finished with 411.5 points. That was 10 ahead of Georgia, which has won four of the last 11 NCAA meets, and 22.5 ahead of Arizona, the defending champion which led after the first day.
Texas A&M finished eighth overall after a seventh-place finish in the 400 free relay (3:15.05) and one of the best swims in A&M history, Alia Atkinson's 200 breaststroke.
Atkinson finished second for the third silver medal in swimming in the Aggies' history. The other two came last year when A&M placed a school-best fourth overall.
"That was outstanding, fun to see, almost a three-second time drop from last year," A&M coach Steve Bultman said. "She just somebody getting better and better, particularly in the 200 breast. It was fun for her to get close to Rebecca Soni a little bit."
Southern Cal's Soni, the defending Olympic champion and world record holder in the 200 meters, won the race in 2:05.52.
Atkinson finished at 2:06.99 after being nearly two seconds behind going into the final 50 yards. Atkinson's performance ranks her third in the 200 breaststroke in NCAA history.
"It's amazing I can actually say that I was somewhat catching up to [Soni's] feet or hips," Atkinson said. "It was exhilarating, because even though I knew I was tired, hearing [teammates] scream carried me to the wall."
The final relay was also a special moment for the Aggies, who moments after the meet was over were able to have their four seniors up on the award stand together. Christine Marshall, Marissa Jasek, Codie Hansen and Triin Aljand had earned their final points, 24, as Aggies.
"I was thinking about it and then realized, 'Wow, it is all four of them.' It didn't occur to me right away, but then absolutely it was," Bultman said. "I think it's a good way for them to finish."
Georgia made its move early in the longest event of the competition, the 1,650. Wendy Trott, who had finished second in the 500 on Thursday, swam a pool-record 15:45.49 for first place and 20 points, while teammate Chelsea Nauta was fifth for 14 points.
The Bulldogs, who entered the night second to Cal, were quickly up by 27.5 points over the Bears and 37 points ahead of the first day leaders, Arizona.
The 200 backstroke was owned by Florida, as Gemma Spofforth, a two-time winner, led a Gator sweep with a meet-record 1:49.11.
Arizona made up ground in the team chase with a fourth-place finish in the 200 back by Any Agy, who missed breaking up the Florida party by 0.18 seconds, and a consolation victory by Jenny Forster.
Arizona passed Cal but was still 31 points behind Georgia.
It was then Cal's turn to tighten the race. Vollmer, the 200 free champion on Friday, claimed her second gold with a 47.17 in the 100. Texas' Karlee Bispo was second.
Texas finished fifth overall with 307 points, 4 1/2 behind Stanford.
Georgia got a fourth out of Morgan Scroggy to keep its lead, while Arizona's Lara Jackson, the 50 free champ, was seventh.
Cal showed it was going to be tough to beat in the final event of the evening, with three others scoring points in the 100 including Wilson with a sixth-place performance.
Cal, the Pac-10 champ for the first time in McKeever's tenure, passed the Wildcats and moved to within 15.5 points of Georgia.
The Wildcats came right back in the 200 breaststroke with a fifth and seventh to move back into second and tighten the team race. At that point, only 15 points separated the top three.
Elaine Breeden won her second gold of the meet, edging Texas' Kathleen Hersey in the 200 butterfly. Her 1:50.98 was a meet record and beat Hersey by 0.2.
California regained the lead by a point over the Bulldogs in the 200 butterfly. Amanda Sims, with her fourth-place swim, and Sara Isakovic put the Bears in front. Georgia stayed ahead of the Wildcats by 7.5 points with a 10th-place performance by Annie Broome.
"Their points and [Alexandra Ellis] in the breaststroke was huge," McKeever said. "That doesn't happen unless you get it done in the morning [prelims], you create that opportunity to do what we did tonight and that's one of the things we talked a lot about."
The platform diving was won by North Carolina State's Kristen Davies, who qualified last (eighth) in the morning with 272 points and then posted a 339.65 in the final. Davies beat two Longhorns for the title -- Jessica Livingston was second and Shelby Cullinan third.
Morning session winner and pool record-holder Chen Ni of IUPUI placed fourth in the final.
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NOTES -- In the final event Friday, the 800 freestyle relay, the Aggies finished sixth. One of their two second-place finishes last season came in that race. The foursome this year included Marshall, Melissa Hain, Hansen and Jasek. ... Cal's most prominent swimmer, Natalie Coughlin, has won 11 Olympic medals, including three golds. ... Cal's best finish prior to this year was third in 2007.
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