2016 Women’s NCAA Updated Team Score Predictions: Day 4 Finals

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
• SwimSwam Link Sheet
• Live stream: All prelims, Wednesday finals, & Thursday finals (Other sessions will be on ESPN3)
• Live results

With another big morning session, the Georgia Bulldogs put themselves in position to capture the NCAA team title tonight in Atlanta.  Kylie Stewart and Olivia Smoliga moved up substantially in their respective individual events to give the Bulldogs a 10.5-point edge over Stanford.  The Cardinal had a bit of a disappointing morning session in the pool with both Ally Howe and Janet Hu getting stuck in consols in the 200 backstroke, but bounced back in diving (no pun intended) with a 2-3 finish.

Heading into tonight, here are the keys for each team:

Georgia:

• Olivia Smoliga staying ahead of Lia Neal in the 100 free (holding even on points from this morning)
• Top five finishes from Megan Kingsley and Hali Flickinger in the 200 fly (slight gain in points from this morning)
• Top three finish in the 400 free relay (holding even from this morning)

Stanford:

• Lia Neal needs to win the 100 free (6-point swing with Georgia)
• Janet Hu and Ally Howe need to 1-2 or 1-3 in consols of the 200 back (5-6 point gain from seeds)
• Win the 400 free relay (6-point gain from seeds)
• Hold steady in diving

The biggest movers on the session:

• Trending up:
  • Georgia Bulldogs: +29.5 points
  • Texas A&M Aggies: +24
  • USC Trojans: +17
  • Indiana Hoosiers: +15
  • Penn State Nittany Lions: +10

• Trending down:
  • Stanford Cardinal: -16.5 points
  • Virginia Cavaliers: -15
  • UNC Tar Heels: – 13
  • Texas Longhorns: -10
  • LSU Tigers: -10

Below is a full scoring update coming out of the Saturday preliminary session, including platform diving prelims.  We’ve also included each teams’ psych sheet scoring to better represent how each particular team is performing relative to their seeds.  The final column shows–if seedings hold tonight–what each team’s new projected final score would be.