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By David Rieder.
What’s one session of the women’s NCAA championships without a little bit of drama? Even if a video review quickly restored order for the Stanford Cardinal.
When the third heat of the 200 free relay went into review, Stanford fans understandably had a sense of déjà vu. Last season, the Cardinal won the 200 free relay before getting disqualified for a false start.
But it was North Carolina, not Stanford, who got the axe this time. The blow is a major one for the Tar Heels, who would have made the A-final, but Stanford’s new American and NCAA record is official, and the team avoids a major blow and a potential swing of almost 50 points.
That’s not to say Stanford, heavily favored to win a team championship, had a perfect morning. Katie Drabot dropped out of the scoring in a deep field in the 500 free, and Allie Szekely had a disappointing swim in the 200 IM.
As for Stanford’s cross-bay rival and the No. 2 team in the country, Cal had a relatively quiet morning… until the 50 free. The 200 free relay qualified second, Kathleen Baker qualified for the final of the 200 IM, and then the Bears put three into the 50 free A-final.
It was no surprise to see either Abbey Weitzeil or Farida Osman among the top eight seeds for the final, but Maddie Murphy posted a strong 21.84 to sneak into the final by one one-hundredth of a second.
As it turned out, the results from the prelims session left both Stanford and Cal in a position to underperform by a small margin in finals. Both teams will have a chance to bounce back a bit, however, in the 200 IM final, as Ella Eastin and Baker are seeded fourth and fifth, respectively. Stanford also swam the 400 medley relay without 100 back American record-holder Ally Howe and should make a jump from its fifth seed coming out of prelims.
Below is a full list of how teams’ prelims performances compare to their initial psych sheet projections and how teams would stack up if all seeds hold from this point on, courtesy of Price Fishback.
| Team | Day 1 Score | Day 2 Psych Sheet | Day 2 Prelims Seeds | +/- | Day 3 Projected Score | Day 4 Projected Score | New Projected Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (1) Stanford | 40 | 160 | 139 | -21 | 187 | 164 | 530 |
| (2) Cal | 34 | 135 | 126 | -9 | 114 | 116 | 390 |
| (3) Georgia | 24 | 70 | 99 | +29 | 57 | 69 | 249 |
| (4) Texas A&M | 18 | 49 | 92 | +43 | 71 | 64 | 245 |
| (5) USC | 12 | 52 | 50 | -2 | 62 | 100 | 224 |
| (6) Texas | 30 | 66 | 67 | +1 | 54 | 71 | 222 |
| (7) Louisville | 22 | 25 | 73 | +48 | 42 | 56 | 193 |
| (8) NC State | 0 | 80 | 66 | -14 | 68 | 57 | 191 |
| (9) Virginia | 28 | 67 | 39 | -14 | 35 | 59 | 161 |
| (10) Michigan | 32 | 52 | 38 | -14 | 20 | 54 | 144 |
| (11) Indiana | 10 | 33 | 33 | 0 | 48 | 45 | 136 |
| (12) Wisc. | 14 | 43 | 38 | -5 | 24 | 47 | 123 |
| (13) Arizona | 8 | 49 | 45 | -4 | 32 | 13 | 98 |
| (14) Minn. | 6 | 10 | 2 | -8 | 49 | 33 | 90 |
| (15) Kentucky | 26 | 7 | 20 | +13 | 4 | 22 | 72 |
The strongest morning efforts belonged to Texas A&M and Louisville, as each will improve more than 40 points if seeds hold in finals. Just behind in the improvement category is Georgia, which now projects to finish third.
Texas A&M put two individual swimmers into each final, the A and the B, and while the first of the three days of individual events is the Aggies’ weakest, Sydney Pickrem and Bethany Galat will have among the strongest breaststroke legs in the 200 IM.
At the end of the session, it was perhaps surprising to see Texas A&M and Louisville qualify second and third, respectively, in the 400 medley relay, but A&M’s foursome has no glaring weakness with Lisa Bratton, Jorie Caneta, Sarah Gibson and Beryl Gastadello, and Louisville has two major strengths and a good enough fly leg to compensate for the loss of Kelsi Worrell.
And believe it or not, it might end up being breaststroker Andrea Cottrell whose loss hurts the most next season, as Cottrell split 58.38 in prelims, the third-best split in the field behind Lilly King and Laura Simon. Anchoring the Cardinals was Mallory Comerford, who split 46.18, again the fastest split in the field. She also had the fastest splits on the 800 free relay (1:40.21) and in the prelims of the 200 free relay (21.27).
The Georgia Bulldogs, perhaps ironically considering their history, will be earning all of their individual points in the 50 free, where Olivia Smoliga and Chantal Van Landeghem made the A-final. On the other hand of the distance spectrum was Michigan, which put two up in the 500 free with G Ryan and Rose Bi.
The only other team with two A-finalists was NC State, with Hannah Moore making the final of the 500 free and Alexia Zevnik doing the same in the 200 IM, but not scoring anybody in the 50 free will hurt for a team projected to finish the day with 80 points, the third-most of any team.
As for the remainder of the team competition, check out today’s ups and downs. This list shows the number of swimmers each school qualified for the finals, with the first number referring to the championship heat and the second to the consolation final.
Individual Events:
Stanford: 3/4
Cal: 4/0
Texas A&M: 2/2
Georgia: 2/1
Michigan: 2/1
NC State: 2/0
USC: 1/2
Kentucky: 1/1
Ohio State: 1/1
Texas: 1/1
Wisconsin: 1/1
Louisville: 1/0
UNC: 1/0
Virginia: 1/0
Indiana: 1/0
Tennessee: 0/2
Alabama: 0/1
Air Force: 0/1
Arizona: 0/1
Denver: 0/1
Missouri: 0/1
Purdue: 0/1
UMBC: 0/1
Relays:
Cal: 2/0
Georgia: 2/0
Louisville: 2/0
Stanford: 2/0
Arizona: 1/1
NC State: 1/1
Texas: 1/1
Texas A&M: 1/1
USC: 1/1
Auburn: 1/0
Indiana: 1/0
Wisconsin: 1/0
Virginia: 0/2
Boise State: 0/1
Florida Gulf Coast: 0/1
Kentucky: 0/1
Minnesota: 0/1
Missouri: 0/1
Michigan: 0/1
Ohio State: 0/1
Tennessee: 0/1
UNC: 0/1
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