The NCAA released psych sheets for the Division II Championships Saturday, with variable cut lines in the events.
The meet will be held March 17-20 at Alabama CrossPlex in Birmingham. The University of Montevalle is the host, though it has no swimmers entered.
The cut line in events is variable. On the men’s side, there are between 16 and 18 participants in each individual event. The women’s meet has between 20 and 22 per individual events.
The reason for the changes is in the name of social distancing. Per the Pre-Championships Manual (pdf), the selection criteria is crafted to make sure the number of men’s and women’s participants doesn’t exceed 130 swimmers each. Relays will be selected from institutions with at least four qualifiers, hence lists of relay eligibility that accompany the announcements for the men and women.
A total of 29 men’s teams and 31 women’s teams are represented in the selections (men’s and women’s). The schools with the most are:
Men’s top teams
- Drury 15
- Indy 14
- Queens 14
- Lindenwood 9
- Wingate 9
- Delta State 6
- Florida Southern 6
- McKendree 6
- Nova Southeastern 6
Women’s top teams
- Queens 13
- Drury 12
- Tampa 11
- Indy 10
- Lindenwood 9
- Winate 9
- Grand Valley 8
- Colorado Mesa 6
- Delta State 6
Queens has won the last five NCAA Division II Men’s Championships dating to 2015 (last year’s meet was not completed). Drury, which won 10 straight crowns from 2005-14 and was a runner-up as recently as 2017, figures to give Queens a run.
Queens has likewise won the last five women’s titles, the last three with Drury as the runner-up. It looks like those two, which have occupied the top two spots of ever Division II Championships save for one since 2014, will do battle again.
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