2014 Conference Champ Primer – Division I

It’s February, and that means we’re in for an onslaught of college conference championships. Stay on top of what’s going on with this handy SwimSwam primer, with dates, times, locations, live results and more for conference championships happening all across the country this month. Many of the conferences have yet to post live results or live feed links – if you have links to any that aren’t yet listed, leave them in the comments! Bookmark this primer and check back, because we’ll continue to update the lists as more links and information come in.

You can check out the rest of our NCAA conference previews in our Division II and Division III primers.

In addition, keep an eye on SwimSwaam for more detailed, full length previews for each of the major conferences coming over the next few weeks.

America East Women

• Dates: Thursday, February 13th – Sunday, February 16th; prelims 10AM/Finals 5:30PM (6PM on Thursday and Friday)
• Location: WPI Sports and Recreation Center, Worcester, MA (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: New Hampshire (results)
• Live Results: 
  
• Live Video (If available):
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: The America East conference is down to five women’s programs and just three men’s, leading to the men’s championship meet being discontinued. Binghamton, UMBC and Maine will meet instead at the ECAC meet at the end of February. New Hampshire has returned with a vengeance, looking like the cream of the crop in the conference so far after winning the meet in 2013. Their top competition will be last year’s runners-up UMBC. Binghamton and Vermont look locked into a solid battle for third, with Vermont perhaps holding an edge due to their tough relays – they hold the conference’s top times in 4 of the 5 relay events this year.

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Men and Women

• Dates: Thursday, February 13th – Saturday, February 15th (Co-Ed); prelims 9AM/Finals 5PM
• Location: Erie Community College, Buffalo, NY (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Rider (men, 2x),  Marist (women, 4x) (results)
• Live Results: 
  
• Live Video (If available): Here
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: On the women’s side, this looks like another Marist/Rider shootout. Both sides graduated some big points scorers last year, but the freshman classes have really stepped up, especially for Marist. For the men, Rider looks like the favorite to repeat, with some tough freshmen looking like major forces in the freestyle events through multiple distances. That also bodes well for the relays, big points for the two-time defending MAAC champs.

Missouri Valley Conference Women

• Dates: Thursday, February 13th – Saturday, February 15th; prelims 11AM/Finals 6PM
• Location: Southern Illinois University – Carbondale, Carbondale, IL (Central Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Missouri State (recap and links to results here)
• Live Results: 
  
• Live Video (If available): Here
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: The MVC looks like a classic three-team battle, with host SIUC and defending champ Missouri State the lead dogs and Illinois State maybe just a tick behind. Missouri State has some outstanding medley relays and looks firmly in control of the breast and fly races, while Carbondale seem to be the team to beat in the freestyle events, particularly sprints. Illinois State is pretty well-balanced, and their best shot might be stealing freestyle points from SIUC – this should shape up to be an entertaining contest to see who can best leverage their strengths against opposing weaknesses.

SEC Women

• Dates: Tuesday, February 18th – Saturday, February 22nd (Co-Ed); prelims 10AM/Finals 6PM
• Location: Gabrielsen Natatorium, University of Georgia (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Georgia (4x) (results)
• Live Results: Available.
  
• Live Video (If available): Here Tuesday, Wednesday; ESPN3 on Friday, Saturday.
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: Georgia goes for its 5th straight women’s championship with a revamped roster that has absorbed some big graduations remarkably well. The Bulldogs get home pool advantage, but may not have coach Jack Bauerle, who has been suspended most of the second semester. They’ll have their work cut out for them, with tough squads from Florida, Texas A&M and Tennessee all breathing down their necks.

SEC Men

• Dates: Tuesday, February 18th – Saturday, February 22nd (Co-Ed); prelims 10AM/Finals 6PM
• Location: Gabrielsen Natatorium, University of Georgia (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Florida (results)
• Live Results: Available.
  
• Live Video (If available): Here Tuesday, Wednesday; ESPN3 on Friday, Saturday.
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: Florida ended Auburn’s 16-year SEC Championships winning streak in 2013 with some dominant post-season performances. The only major conference running a 5-day event lineup, the SEC should be primed to put up some fast swims. Auburn and Florida will no doubt try to rekindle last year’s SEC rivalry, but keep an eye on Georgia, which has star Chase Kalisz back after an early-semester absence.

AAC Women

• Dates: Wednesday, February 19th – Saturday, February 22nd (Co-Ed); prelims 10AM/Finals 6PM
• Location: Ralph Wright Natatorium, University of Louisville (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: None – first year conference
• Live Results: Here
  
• Live Video (If available): 
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: The brand-new American Athletic Conference houses several members of the former Big East conference as well as Conference-USA imports SMU and Houston. The Louisville women look like the class of the field, especially in front of their home fans, although SMU has been a powerhouse wherever its been, dating back to C-USA and the WAC before that. This will be Louisville’s first and only season in the AAC before heading to the ACC next season.

AAC Men

• Dates: Wednesday, February 19th – Saturday, February 22nd (Co-Ed); prelims 10AM/Finals 6PM
• Location: Ralph Wright Natatorium, University of Louisville (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: None – first year conference
• Live Results: Here
  
• Live Video (If available): 
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: There are only 4 men’s programs in The American this season, but the competition should still be plenty fast as Louisville is perhaps a top-10 program this season on the men’s side. Defending NCAA 200 freestyle champion Joao de Lucca will be heading things up for the Cardinals, who host the inaugural AAC Championships in their only season with the conference.

ACC Women

• Dates: Wednesday, February 19th – Saturday, February 22nd; prelims 11AM/Finals 7PM
• Location: Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Virginia (6x) (results)
• Live Results: 
  
• Live Video (If available): Available here
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: Virginia will look towards its 7th straight Atlantic Coast Conference championship this season in a field that only got tougher with the addition of former Big East powers Notre Dame and Pitt. The meet will have free admission in its second year at Greensboro, although parking still has a fee attached. The Cavaliers will have to fight off a rising North Carolina squad among others to try to repeat.

Atlantic 10 Men and Women

• Dates: Wednesday, February 19th – Saturday, February 22nd; Prelims 10:30AM/Finals 6:30PM
• Location: SPIRE Institute, Geneva, Ohio (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: St. Bonaventure (men), Richmond (women – 3x) (results)
• Live Results: Available here.
  
• Live Video (If available): Available here.
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: This is a big conference, and a very well-balanced conference, and one where not a lot of the top teams on the men’s side (St. Bonnies, UMass) or women’s side (Richmond, UMass) graduated many points at all. The conference will get a shakeup this year with the addition of George Mason, whose men are their strength. Both St. Bonaventure’s and Richmond were picked in the pre-season coaches’ polls to repeat, and that seems like a still-fair prognostication on the men’s side with St. Bonaventure’s holding the top seed (in many cases, easily the top seed) in 4 out of 5 relays. The women’s meet might be a little dicier; Richmond is one of the few teams left in the country who have no obvious mid-season shave and taper meet, and so just like last year, they’ll enter this year’s championships badly out-seeded. There’s a lot of teams swimming very well on the women’s side, but with a 143-point cushion from last year, the Spiders still are fairly the favorites.

Big East Men and Women

• Dates: Wednesday, February 19th – Saturday, February 22nd; Prelims 10AM/Finals 6PM (diving: Feb 14-15 at Villanova)
• Location: Gloucester County Institute of Technology, Gloucester, NJ (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Louisville women (departed to AAC), Notre Dame men (departed to ACC) (results)
• Live Results: 
  
• Live Video (If available):
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: The new Big East conference looks radically different with the departure of defending champs Louisville, Notre Dame and perennial power Pitt. Georgetown, Providence, Seton Hall and Villanova return from 2013, with Atlantic-10 imports Xavier and Butler (women only) thrown into the mix. Villanova is the top returning team on the women’s side and Georgetown is the highest-returning men’s program, but the new Big East landscape should leave a lot more points up for grabs. Diving will take place a week earlier at Villanova, and Villanova will technically host the swimming portion of the meet, which takes place at the Gloucester County Institute of Technology in New Jersey.

Big Ten Women

• Dates: Wednesday, February 19th – Saturday, February 22nd; Prelims 11AM/Finals 6:30PM
• Location: University Aquatic Center, University of Minnesota  (Central Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Minnesota (2x) (results)
• Live Results: Should be here once meet begins
  
• Live Video (If available): Available here
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: The Golden Gophers will try to three-peat as Big Ten Champions at home, led by the Kier(r)as – freestyler Kiera Janzen and breaststroker Kierra Smith, both Big Ten runners-up  last season. Indiana has the firepower to challenge, with defending conference champ Lindsay Vrooman slated to battle Janzen and Bronwyn Pasloski set to take on Smith. On top of that, Ohio State and Michigan should both be in the hunt, extending the rivalry that brought their dual a few weeks ago down to the wire. And everyone will be taking the opportunity to get comfortable in the Minnesota pool, which will host the women’s NCAA Championships in March.

Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association (CCSA) Men and Women

• Dates: Wednesday, February 19th – Saturday, February 22nd; Prelims 10AM/Finals 6PM
• Location: Alan Jones Aquatic Center, Knoxville, Tennessee, University of Tennessee campus (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Davidson (men) Florida Gulf Coast (women x5) (results)
• Live Results: Here
  
• Live Video (If available): Available for a fee here
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: The conference lost College of Charleston this season, but gained two tough programs in the University of the Incarnate Word and the UMBC men. That mainly affects the men’s meet, where Davidson should battle the two newcomers for the title in 2014, after which they too jump ship for the Atlantic-10. The women’s meet could be as competitive as ever. The 5 time defending champions from Florida Gulf Coast had a lot of big graduations, but also brought in a lot of big help, and could qualify a relay for NCAA’s this year. Liberty, meanwhile, is an even newer program, and is making a name for themselves in a hurry. The big difference-maker could continue to be diving, though sophomore Courtney Fox this year is Liberty’s first ever diver, so she might make some impact there.

Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Men and Women

• Dates: Wednesday, February 19th – Saturday, February 22nd (Co-Ed); prelims 10:30AM/Finals 6PM
• Location: East Los Angeles College, Monterey Park, CA (Pacific Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: UNLV men (departed to WAC), UC-Davis women (results)
• Live Results: Should be here once the meet begins
  
• Live Video (If available): Should be here once meet starts
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: The men’s field is cut down by two-thirds from last year, leaving just Hawaii, Pacific and BYU to compete for the title. Brigham Young was the top finisher of those three in 2013, finishing third, but all three teams will have plenty more opportunities to score this season with the field cleared out as much as it is. The same 8 women’s teams collide this season – in 2013 UC Davis topped BYU by a narrow 38-point margin. A definite team to watch this year is UC-Santa Barbara, led by senior standout Andrea Ward, and Hawaii holds top conference times in a pair of relays as well.

Mountain West Conference (MWC) Women

• Dates: Wednesday, February 19th – Saturday, February 22nd; prelims 11AM/Finals 6:30PM
• Location: Palo Alto College Aquatic Center, San Antonio, TX (Central Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: San Diego State (results: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4)
• Live Results: Here
  
• Live Video (If available): Should be here once meet starts
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: San Diego State still looks like the favorite in what’s been a freshman-dominated 2013-2014 season in the Mountain West. The Aztecs are led by freshman sprint phenom Anika Apostalon, but Air Force (Genevieve Miller) and Boise State (Felicity Cann) have their own stud freshmen to contend with. Boise, last year’s runners-up, probably look like the toughest challenge for San Diego in 2014, although it’s hard to count out Wyoming coming down from altitude without much of a mid-season rest meet. Beyond that, defending WAC champs San Jose State arrives this season as well to further thicken the conference competition.

Northeast Conference (NEC) Women

• Dates: Wednesday, February 19th – Saturday, February 22nd; prelims 11AM/Finals 7PM
• Location: Zesiger Sports & Fitness Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Saint Francis U (4x) (results)
• Live Results:
  
• Live Video (If available): Here once the meet starts
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: Saint Francis won a tight meet in 2013, but runner-up Wagner looks like the team to beat this season. Wagner’s freshman and sophomore classes are outstanding across the board, headlined by last year’s Rookie of the Meet Amanda Lucia. Their young team will take on Saint Francis, and Lucia will renew a rivalry with Saint Francis star Elise Lofgren – the two tied for Outstanding Swimmer of the Meet last season, and their teams were separated by just 17.5 points at the meet’s final touch.

Patriot League Men and Women

• Dates: Wednesday, February 19th – Saturday, February 22nd (C0-Ed); Prelims 10:30AM/Finals 6PM
• Location: Lejeune Hall, U.S. Naval Academy (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Navy (10x men and 2x women) (results: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3)
• Live Results:
  
• Live Video (If available): Will be available here.
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: Tough and deep Navy squads still appear the favorites to repeat, although it’s definitely worth noting that Bucknell upset the Midshipmen and -women in a head-to-head Patriot League triangular back in November. The Bucknell women are probably closer to repeating the upset at the conference level than the men are, but both squads are good enough that Navy will have to be well-prepared to keep their conference championship streaks alive. Army is the third team in the top tier for men and women, but they’ll have their work cut out for them to catch either of the top two, their Navy rivals especially.

Ivy League Women

• Dates: Thursday, February 20th – Saturday, February 22nd; Prelims 11AM/Finals 6PM
• Location: Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center, Brown University (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Princeton (results)
• Live Results: Here
  
• Live Video (If available): Available here
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: The 2013 women’s Ivy League championships weren’t short of drama. Princeton led defending champ Harvard most of the way before the Crimson pulled ahead again just a few events into the final day of racing. But Princeton roared back to take the title by just over 100 points with a huge finish over the final 5 or so events. They’ll return to defend that title in 2014. Columbia’s Katie Meili, who tore up the conference last season, is graduated, meaning plenty of event championships will open up in what should be some excellent Ivy League competition.

ACC Men

• Dates: Wednesday, February 26th – Saturday, March 1st; prelims 11AM/Finals 7PM (Diving is Feb. 20-22, with the women’s ACC Championships at Greensboro)
• Location: Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Virginia (6x) (results)
• Live Results: Available here.
  
• Live Video (If available):  Available here.
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: Virginia looks for its 7th consecutive ACC title on the men’s side in their first year under new coach Augie Busch. Along the way, though, they’ll have to deal with some stiff competition including a fast-rising NC State program, constant conference threats FSU, UNC and Virginia Tech, plus new addition Notre Dame. The ACC will also show off defending NCAA diving champ Nick McCrory of Duke.

Big 12 Women

• Dates: Wednesday, February 26th – Saturday, March 1st (Co-Ed)
• Location: Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, University of Texas (Central Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Texas (links to each days results here)
• Live Results: Available here.
  
• Live Video (If available): 
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: Texas ran away with this meet last season with in-state rivals A&M departed to the SEC. They look like the favorites again this season and will host the 5-team meet. This is one of the latest women’s conferences to swim, meaning the athletes will have a pretty good idea of what they need to go to nab an NCAA Invite, although their opportunity to try again at a last-chance meet is hindered by how close Big 12s are to the NCAA invite deadline. That means anyone still on the bubble for a nationals bid should be fully ready to go come these Big 12 Championships.

Big 12 Men

• Dates: Wednesday, February 26th – Saturday, March 1st (Co-Ed)
• Location: Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, University of Texas (Central Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Texas (17x) (links to each days results here)
• Live Results: Available here.
  
• Live Video (If available): 
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: The team battle probably won’t be much to speak of here, as there are only 3 men’s programs left in the Big 12 and only one is made our mid-season power rankings. Texas will look to extend its 17-year dominance at this meet with a solid tune-up for the NCAA Championships, and we’ll get to see some of their talented freshmen like Jack Conger and Clark Smith respond to some rest and a multi-day college championship meet. The Texas Swimming Center will also use this as a tune-up for men’s NCAAs, which it will host in late March – that means anyone in the Big 12 with high NCAA hopes will be using this meet to get fully comfortable with the facility.

Big Ten Men

• Dates: Wednesday, February 26th – Saturday, March 1st; Prelims 11AM/Finals 6:30PM
• Location: Canham Natatorium, University of Michigan  (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Michigan (3x) (links to each day’s results)
• Live Results: Should be here once meet begins
  
• Live Video (If available): 
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: Defending NCAA Champions Michigan get to host the Big Ten Championships, their springboard to last year’s outstanding post-season run. The Wolverines aren’t as ridiculously loaded as last season, but they’re still clearly among the best couple teams in the nation. Double NCAA Champ and US Olympian Connor Jaeger is a big name to watch – he should man the distance races for Michigan. Indiana was second last year, and the Hoosiers’ breaststroking powerhouse Cody Miller will look to sweep the breaststroke races at the conference meet for the fourth straight season, a practically unprecedented feat in what’s become perhaps the toughest and deepest conference in men’s swimming.

Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Men & Women

• Dates: Wednesday, February 26th – Saturday, March 1st; Prelims 10AM/Finals 6PM
• Location: Eppley Recreation Center, College Park, Maryland, University of Maryland (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Towson (women), UNC – Wilmingon (men – x12) (results)
• Live Results: Available here.
  
• Live Video (If available): Available here.
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: This conference has seen a lot of shake-up in the last few years, as much as any conference in the country, and the landscape has shifted a little. The 12-time defending men’s champions from UNC Wilmington was hit a little bit by transfers after the program was almost cut last summer (like CJ Fiala, who transferred to Virginia Tech), while William & Mary and newcomers College of Charleston continue to churn out great sprinters. Last year’s win for UNCW was the narrowest of their 12, with W&M coming in only 41 points behind. On the women’s side, it’s a different year but the same story. Towson’s distance group is absolutely dominant (they’ve got 5 of the 6 top swimmers in the conference in the 500 free this season, for example) while they’re rather thin in the sprints. Last year, they still beat runners-up James Madison by 48 points. This year, JMU has a new coach, Richard Long from Auburn, and while they and William & Mary look like they’re going to continue to thump each other back-and-forth in the sprints enough to keep either team from making up serious ground on Towson, JMU’s distance group has gotten much better. Junior Aimee Hooper, who’s already going distance times comparable to what she did on a taper last year, could be the key if James Madison wants to pull an upset.

Conference-USA Women

• Dates: Wednesday, February 26th – Saturday, March 1st
• Location: Georgia Tech Aquatic Center, Atlanta, GA (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Rice (results)
• Live Results:
  
• Live Video (If available):
• Championship Central: will be linked to here.

Quick Hit: The new-look C-USA returns defending champions Rice, along with their stud breaststroker Rachel Moody, who has really broken out as a junior. SMU and Houston are gone to the AAC, but the conference is now up to 9 teams, including East Carolina, FIU, Florida Atlantic, Marshall, North Texas, Old Dominion and Western Kentucky.

Editor’s note: Western Kentucky has jumped ahead of the other sports by a season into Conference USA as an affiliate member since the Sun Belt dropped women’s swimming.

Horizon League Men

• Dates: Wednesday, February 26th – Saturday, March 1st (Co-Ed); prelims 10AM/Finals 5:30PM
• Location: Robert F. Busbey Natatorium, Cleveland State (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Cleveland State (results)
• Live Results: 
  
• Live Video (If available): 
  
• Championship Central not posted

Quick Hit: Defending champions Cleveland State host the meet this year and returns a bunch of conference champions. But they’ll face a stiff test as Oakland joins the conference this year – the Golden Grizzlies beat Cleveland State at home earlier this year, and now the battle will move to Cleveland for the conference title. Also in the hunt will be 2012 champs Milwaukee.

Horizon League Women

• Dates: Wednesday, February 26th – Saturday, March 1st (Co-Ed); prelims 10AM/Finals 5:30PM
• Location: Robert F. Busbey Natatorium, Cleveland State (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Milwaukee (2x) (results)
• Live Results: 
  
• Live Video (If available): 
  
• Championship Central not posted

Quick Hit: The Milwaukee women will look to take their third-straight title, led by senior Emily McClellan, who holds two of the top times in the NCAA this season in both breaststroke distances and isn’t far off the American records in either race. Cleveland State gets a chance at revenge at home after finishing second by just 31 last season. The team finishes last season were extremely tight, with UW-Green Bay just ten points behind Cleveland State and UIC just a point back themselves. In addition, newcomers Oakland should be a factor as well in what should be an exciting conference championship.

Pac-12 Women

• Dates: Wednesday, February 26th – Saturday, March 1st; Prelims 11AM/Finals 6PM
• Location: Federal Way, WA  (Central Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Stanford (results)
• Live Results: Available.
  
• Live Video (If available): 
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: The Pac-12 conference is absolutely loaded with female talent. There’s the star-studded California Golden Bears, likely the team to beat for the national title. There’s last year’s conference champs from Stanford, their own roster dotted with huge names and crazy talent. On top of that, there’s USC, who upset Cal in a big way in late January, Arizona and a rising young crew from UCLA. Though some of these teams might be focusing a little more forward, on the coming NCAA championships, conference rivalries still die hard, and for the most part, swimmers will be swimming hard to nab an invite to the national championships, making this an exciting conference showdown.

Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Men and Women

• Dates: Wednesday, February 26th – Saturday, March 1st; Prelims 10AM/Finals 6PM
• Location: Palo Alto Aquatic Center, San Antonio, TX (Central Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Women – San Jose State (departed to MWC), Men – none (men’s WAC swimming returns for first year since 2000) (results)
• Live Results:
  
• Live Video (If available): 
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: UNLV looks like an early favorite on the men’s side, led by Dillon Virva, who holds the nation’s third-fastest 50 free this season. The Runnin’ Rebels come to the WAC from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation which they won last season. Wyoming was just 10 points away from beating UNLV in that meet last year, and look like solid contenders once again. Another men’s team to watch is Air Force, which has swimmers near the top of the conference rankings in most races. The women’s meet should be an exciting one as well. Northern Arizona missed a conference title by just 7 points in 2013, and defending champs San Jose State are gone to the Mountain West. But Northern Arizona will have to contend with an Idaho team that has looked tough this season, as well as foes like New Mexico State and Cal State – Bakersfield.

Ivy League Men

• Dates: Thursday, February 27th – Saturday, March 1st; Prelims 11AM/Finals 6PM
• Location: Blodgett Pool, Harvard University (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Princeton (5x) (results)
• Live Results:
  
• Live Video (If available): 
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: In 2013, Princeton extended its dominance of the Ivy League to 5 straight seasons on the men’s side, topping Harvard by nearly 70 points. This year, the competition will move to Harvard’s backyard as the Crimson host the conference championships and Princeton looks to tighten its grip on the conference even further. The three-day meet format means things are packed in – momentum is at a premium with less competition days to reset and make a comeback. Beyond that, athletes will have to pull some tough doubles, particularly those balancing relays with individual races over the course of just 6 sessions of swimming.

Mid-American Conference (MAC) Women

• Dates: Thursday, February 27th – Saturday, March 1st; Prelims 11AM/Finals 7PM
• Location: SPIRE Institute, Geneve, OH (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Miami (OH) (results)
• Live Results:
  
• Live Video (If available): 
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: Miami ran away with the team title last year and comes into the 2014 championships undefeated in conference dual meets, with the team’s only loss coming to Purdue way back in October. They look to have tremendous momentum heading into championship season. Ohio University will compete in its first conference championship under interim head coach Derrick Roe. The SPIRE Institute facility should be in top racing shape one week after hosting the Atlantic-10 Championships and one week before it holds the Division II Championships.

Pac-12 Men

• Dates: Wednesday, March 5th – Saturday, March 8th; Prelims 11AM/Finals 6PM (Diving February 26th-March 1st with women’s Pac-12s)
• Location: Federal Way, WA  (Pacific Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: California (results)
• Live Results:
  
• Live Video (If available): 
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: Last season, Cal ended Stanford’s 31-year winning streak at the Pac-12 Championships by just 25 points. This year looks like another battle, with the top 4 teams all sitting within the top 10 in our mid-season power rankings. Cal looks like a well-rounded juggernaut with a loaded young backstroking corps featuring Ryan Murphy and Jacob Pebley as well as new breaststroking addition Chuck Katis and big-time distance man Jeremy Bagshaw. Stanford has its own loaded lineup, headlined by backstroker David Nolan. And you can’t count out USC or the powerhouse Arizona lineup, and Utah has been on a tear this season since upsetting Zona early on.

Mid-American Conference (MAC) Men

• Dates: Thursday, March 6th – Saturday, March 8th; Prelims 11AM/Finals 7PM
• Location: University of Buffalo (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Eastern Michigan (results)
• Live Results:
  
• Live Video (If available): 
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit: 2013 came down to the final relay, with Eastern Michigan knocking off Missouri State to defend its conference title by just 6 points. The usual suspects will be back in 2014 with Buffalo now hosting the men’s meet – they were third last season by only 70 or so points, so keep an eye on them with home pool advantage this year against the returning top two.