2021 ACC Men’s Championships: Day 3 Ups/Mids/Downs

2021 ACC Men’s Swimming Championships

• When: Wednesday, February 24th to Saturday, February 27th 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) (29x, 6th-straight) (results)
• Streaming: ACC Network
  • Wednesday
  • Thursday
  • Friday
  • Saturday
• Championship Central: Here
• Detailed Timeline: Here
• Psych Sheets: Here
• Live Results

For those unfamiliar with swimming terminology, the concept of “Ups” and “Downs” is a good way to track which teams performed best at prelims. In prelims, swimmers qualify for one of three finals heats: the top 8 finishers make the A final, places 9 through 16 the B final and places 17 through 24 the C final. In finals, swimmers are locked into their respective final, meaning a swimmer in the B heat (spots 9-16) can only place as high as 9th or as low as 16th, even if they put up the fastest or slowest time of any heat in the final.

With that in mind, we’ll be tracking “Ups,” “Mids” and “Downs” after each prelims session. “Up” refers to swimmers in the A final, “Mid” to swimmers in the B final and “Down” to swimmers in the C final.

NC State and Virgina Tech both had big mornings, with each school qualifying a total of 8 swimmers for tonight’s A-finals, while Louisville and UVA each qualified 6 A-finalists, but got a few more swims in the B and C finals than did NC State or VT.

Day 2 Ups/Mids/Downs

Projected Points by Events

While a few teams got three swimmers into an A-final, Louisville is the only team projected to score over 100 points in a single event today, thanks to three ups and two mids in the 100 back. Also of note, Boston College got their first individual scorer of the meet with a C-finalist in the 100 back. Outside of Boston College, only two other teams failed to score points in any particular event, with both Pitt and Duke getting blanked in the 100 back. That happened a combined total of five times yesterday between UNC, Pitt, Duke, and Notre Dame.

Projected Team Scores After Day 3 Individual Events

Here’s what the scores looked like last night, including all three diving events:

1. Virginia Tech – 487
2. Louisville – 470
3. NC State – 456
4. UNC – 372
5. Florida State – 354
6. Virginia – 335
7. Georgia Tech – 307
8. Pitt – 208
9. Miami (FL) – 207
10. Notre Dame/Duke – 203
11. (tie)
12. Boston College – 98

And here’s what the scores are projected to be tonight:

1. Louisville – 760
2. NC State – 755.5
3. Virginia Tech – 741.5
4. Virginia – 588.5
5. UNC – 516
6. Florida State – 484.5
7. Georgia Tech – 446
8. Notre Dame – 383
9. Pitt – 290.5
10. Duke – 236
11. Miami (FL) – 207
12. Boston College – 101

If swimmers were to replicate their places from this morning, the above totals are what the scores would look like heading into the 400 medley relay night. It looks like it continues to be a tight three-way battle for first, with Louisville, NC State, and Virginia Tech all projected to be within 18.5 points of each other after the conclusion of tonight’s individual events. UVA is still clawing its way back up the standings after scoring 0 diving points, but barring some amazing swims tonight and tomorrow morning, or one of the top three teams unexpectedly faltering, it looks like the Cavaliers may be heading for a 4th-place finish.

While UNC had a nice advantage in diving points, they’re also projected to keep scoring enough swimming points to stay ahead of Florida State and Georgia Tech. Notre Dame should pull ahead of Duke, Miami and Pitt, but several of the races are close enough that a relay disqualification could still make a big difference.