2020 WOMEN’S ACC SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- When: Wednesday, February 19th to Saturday, February 22nd | Prelims 10:00 am | Finals 6:00 pm (1650 prelims Saturday at 4:00 pm)
- Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, North Carolina (Eastern Time Zone)
- Defending Champion: North Carolina State University (NC State) (1x) (results)
- Live Results (coming soon)
- Streaming: ACC Network
- Championship Central: Here
- Detailed Timeline: Here
- Psych Sheets: Here
Pre-cut psych sheets for the upcoming women’s ACC Swimming & Diving Championships have been distributed. Like the SEC psych sheets, which we posted on Wednesday, these ACC psych sheets are pre-cut, meaning that athletes can enter as many events as they want before cutting down to their limit of 3-per-athlete.
In the ACC, each team can send up to 18 swimmers and up to 3 divers to the meet as scorers.
The biggest questions for entries at the meet surround University of Virginia freshman Kate Douglass, who has exploded into her college career. Evolving from just a sprinter to one of the best all-around swimmers in the country in a span of a few months at Virginia. She ranks in the top 2 in the ACC so far this season in 5 different events, top 10 in 9 different events this season, and has 7 entries on the pre-cut psych sheets. Her possible individual swims are:
- Day 2 – 50 free, 200 IM
- Day 3 – 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast
- Day 4 – 100 free, 200 breast
Of those races, she is the top seed in the 200 IM, 50 free, 100 fly, and 200 breast. While she has the potential to win more than just those 4 races, a schedule of 50 free or 200 IM on day 2, 100 fly on day 3, and 200 breast on day 4 would avoid any doubles, and she is the top seed by a pretty substantial margin in all 4 races.
NC State’s own versatile youngster, Kylee Alons, is entered in even more – with 8 possible races on the pre-cut sheets. She ranks in the top 10 in the conference this season in all 8 races.
ACC coaches in general didn’t do the general public many favors with their entries, but we were able to glean a few good lineup notes from the psych sheets below:
2020 ACC Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships Lineup Keys:
- UNC junior Emma Cole is entered in the 50 free (9th seed), 200 free (6th seed), and 100 free (5th seed). While the 50 and 100 free were near-locks for her, she also had a day 3 option of the 100 fly, where a dual meet time against Duke 2 weeks ago ranks her as the 8th-best time in the conference. UNC coaches took the ‘conservative’ route here with the 200 free instead. Cole is one of a number of UNC swimmers who has benefited dramatically from the new coaching staff – she swam lifetime-bests in the 50, 100, and 200 freestyles mid-season, in addition to the 100 fly and 200 fly at dual meets.
- Notre Dame freshman Colleen Gillilan, who like Douglass can swim breaststroke or butterfly races, will focus on the 100 fly (6th seed), 200 fly (3rd seed), and 200 IM (4th seed) at the ACC Championships. She’s also the 5th-fastest swimmer in the conference in the 100 breaststroke with a 1:00.02 done at the Shamrock Invitational in late January – an in season meet. While the butterfly races and the 200 IM were always probably going to be her events, that 100 breaststroke a few weeks ago was enough to at least wonder.
Don’t sleep on Virginia Tech
Not sure what Douglass will do, but I would guess at NCAAs she will do 200IM for her first day event. 100 Fly and 200 Breast seem like locks to me. At ACCs, she might do all 5 relays and skip a day 1 event, but it’s not like they need her on it to qualify for NCAAs. Or they try to give her a bit of a break/rest and have her do the 50 at ACCs. The 800 is the relay that I would think about keeping her off of at NCAAs, except for the fact that it is the first event. There are 2 relays on the first full day, but she kind of has to be on… Read more »
Any coach who puts a star swimmer like Douglass in 5 relays and 2 individuals at a conference meet is either quite bad at math, or is intentionally trying to lose a meet.
The delta on relay scoring at a conference championship meet is next-to-nil. Let’s say that UVA could use Douglass in a relay and win, or not use Douglass in a relay and slide to, 3rd? That’s a 10 point difference. That means Douglass would have to get, at a minimum, 16th place in her 3rd individual event for it to matter. 5th? 14 point difference. 12th place or better in that 3rd individual makes up that ground.
It’s usually not even a good idea at NCAAs, unless… Read more »
Great explanation, Braden. Wondering if you could comment on the Swimulator tweak….
Right, what I meant was in order to qualify the 800 Relay for NCAAs. I’m a bit fuzzy on the rules with that, if she is part of the relay that qualifies, if she has to actually swim it at NCs, but I thought it was that she didnt. Since the 800 is a timed final relay and they do not have a time yet, maybe Desorbo feels like using her will help secure a spot in the final heat, and maybe not an outside lane. I also have a feeling that even 50 points would not change the outcome of this conference meet, or that they would be too upset with a 2nd place finish as long as they… Read more »
Nope, she wouldn’t have to swim it even if she was on the qualifying relay. The relay is qualified for the team, not the individuals.
I think if that were a concern, they’d probably just time trial it after the meet. That being said, they have the 2 fastest 200 freestylers in the ACC this year (Douglass isn’t one of them), and all they need is a 7:05.88 to qualify. That’s averaging 1:46.4s, which they can do easily without Douglass. A Virginia 800 free relay with no taper for Madden/Hill, plus Moroney + Nelson, probably goes around a 6:58 or 6:59 at ACCs.
Would that make the final heat at NCs though? Or give them an inside lane?
It might, but that has nothing to do with what Kate Douglass is going to swim at ACCs…
It’s important to point out that Kate’s 1st Olympic Trials cut was the 200 Breaststroke at 13 years old, Then the 50 Free, 200 IM and 100 Breaststroke. 4 OT cuts and very versatile swimmer at 13 on the Westchester Aquatic Wolverines. She also held metro swimming records n those events in addition to the 100 Fly at age 12. I am thrilled to see Kate swim so well and more importantly that she is happy. A happy Kate is a fast Kate. Way to go Kate and UVA. With the talent UVA has now and with the recruits coming in, it’s going to be a thrilling next few years
I’ve heard UVA and NC STATE are not shaving (or fully tapering) those that are already a lock for NCAAs. Could make the title race more interesting. Diving will play a big role. All that said, it’s going to be a BATTLE!
Maybe, but do you really think an unshaved untapered Douglass wont win 3 events? Or Hansson wont win the 100 breast? Plus, we are talking about swimmers who would be top 3 in conference, so if they finish 2-5 instead of 1-4 is it that big of a swing? No one is going to touch those 2 teams, so if they are both doing it, I do not see it affecting the scores one way or the other.
Go Pack!
Excited to see Katharine swim next week!
Me too!
Incoming all the Virginia fans
Can we get rankings based on scored out psych sheets for all of the conference meets?
Scoring the pre-cut psych sheets would be nonsensical. We will have to wait until the final post-cut psych sheets are available.
Thats what I was referring to, figured if I got the ball rolling on the idea now then the projections might come out sooner from SwimSwam @GREG
Isnt that what the “swimulator” does? It should be more accurate because it only scores 3 events for each swimmer.
Kind of. It chooses the events for the team, tho, and doesn’t take into account swimmers who aren’t competing for various reasons. Also, as someone else has noted here, if a team hasn’t swum an 800 free relay this year so far (such as UVA) then it’s not counted.
Sent you a note about whether Swimulator could be tweaked to account for 18 swimmers (as permitted in the ACC) rather than 17 swimmers. Perhaps the email got lost in the ether. And thanks for the 800 FR reference.