ATLANTA – The Cal women's swimming & diving team didn't win another national championship in 2016. But what the Bears did do is a reflection of the staggering level of consistency head coach Teri McKeever's program has reached.

Cal finished in third place after the final day of the 2016 NCAA Championships at the McAuley Aquatic Center at Georgia Tech University. That means the Bears have placed in the top-3 for eight consecutive years, the top-5 for 11 straight seasons and the top-10 for 19 consecutive years.

“I'm just so proud of the consistency,” McKeever said. “It speaks volumes to a number of classes, an institution, a program, a culture where young women have come in and been successful in the classroom and in the pool. To be able to have a trophy at the end of it is just really, really special.”

The Bears finished with 358 points, trailing NCAA champion Georgia (414 points) and runner-up Stanford (395 points). Cal claimed one individual championship and one relay crown, as senior Rachel Bootsma captured her third NCAA title in the 100 backstroke while the Bears' 200 freestyle relay team of junior Farida Osman, freshman Amy Bilquist, junior Kristen Vredeveld and sophomore Valerie Hull also won the national championship.

“I'm really proud of this group,” said senior Kelly Naze, who tied for fifth Saturday in the 200 butterfly. “We've had quite a year. We've had a lot of ups. We've had a lot of downs. I'm really proud of this group for staying consistent, and being in the top-3 for so long is really important.”

The Bears, who won the 2015 NCAA Championship and have taken the national title in four of the past eight years, battled injuries and obstacles all season. They came on with some terrific swims at last month's Pac-12 Championships and entered the Saturday still in contention for the NCAA crown.

“There are more than a couple of times where we could have just said this isn't our year, that things aren't going our way,” McKeever said. “We just kind of found a way to keep getting knocked down and keep getting back up. This team has been resilient all year. They stuck together. I'm really proud. We worked hard for this one.”

The Bears had four individual finalists Saturday, with Naze tying for fifth and sophomore Noemie Thomas placing eighth in the 200 butterfly. Bilquist was fifth in the 100 backstroke and Osman finished seventh in the 100 freestyle.

Cal's 400 freestyle relay team of Bilquist, Bootsma, freshman Kathleen Baker and Osman finished sixth.

“We're really excited. For this group, this was definitely success,” Naze said. “We're really proud of everything we did. We came together and we were all in. That was our motto all season, and I'm really that we were all in for this.”