2016 WOMEN’S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, March 16 – Saturday, March 19
- McAuley Aquatic Center – Atlanta, GA
- Prelims 10AM/Finals 6PM (Eastern Time)
- Defending Champion: Cal – Results
- Championships Central
- Live results
In what was a very tight team race throughout the meet, the Georgia Bulldogs pulled off the overall victory by just 19 points over the Stanford Cardinal, who were arguably the favorites coming in. Despite how close it was in the end, Georgia led wire-to-wire, winning the 800 free relay on the first night and never relinquishing the team lead (they were briefly tied for the lead with Cal after the 2nd event). Below them, there was a lot of jockeying for position throughout the meet between Stanford, California, Virginia, and Texas A&M. Check out the graph below showing the progression of points throughout the meet for the top five teams. Take a closer look here.
Georgia led throughout, with an all-around fantastic team performance. Stanford was disqualified in the 200 free relay, which they initially won, and that knocked them down 40 points early on – which can be seen by their virtual flat-line at the beginning of the meet. Slowly-but-surely they clawed their way back, taking over second place on the final night of the meet. Had they won that relay, and all-else remained the same, they would have been champions. Cal held onto second for the majority of the meet before being overtaken by Stanford late. Texas A&M and Virginia went back and forth throughout the meet, with Texas A&M ultimately beating them out, finishing 4th on the strength of a superb final day.
