2023 NCAA Division III Championships – Day 4 Ups/Downs

2023 NCAA Division III Women’s and Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships

• Dates: Wednesday, March 15 – Saturday, March 18, 2023
• Location: Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, NC
• Times: Prelims 10:00 AM / Finals 6:00 PM
• Defending Champs: Kenyon women (1x) & Emory men (1x)
• Fan Guide
• Results Page
• Women’s Psych Sheet
• Men’s Psych Sheet
• Live Streaming on NCAA.com
• 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 two finals heats: the top 8 finishers make the A final and places 9 through 16, the B 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” and “Downs” after each prelims session. “Up” refers to swimmers in the A final, and “Down” to swimmers in the B final.

Day 4 Ups/Downs – Women

Denison has more than locked up the women’s title, finishing Day 4 with ten scoring swimmers, including four in A finals, and earning 37 more points than their seeding. Emory earned four A and four B final slots, while Kenyon had five up and one down. Emory and Kenyon are expected to be separated by only 18 points, but the path to second place for Kenyon looks narrow, given that their freestyle relays haven’t lived up to expectations this weekend and there are not a lot of opportunities to eat away at that deficit.

Williams picked up 37 points this morning and landed four swimmers in A finals and one in a B final. Tufts, NYU, and Chicago will battle for fifth.

Projected Scoring Breakdown – Women

Day 4 Scored Prelims – Women

Day 4 Ups / Downs – Men

Emory sealed the deal in prelims on Day 4 with seven swimmers and one diver making A finals. Five more swimmers made B finals, including 4 in the 200 back. The Eagles had strong showings in the 200 breast and 100 free, where they earned three slots in each A final.

Kenyon had a good morning, as well, keeping it close with five A-finalists and four B-finalists.

Johns Hopkins (+40), Pomona-Pitzer (+32), Bates (+17), and Carnegie Mellon (+16) did much better than their seedings, while MIT (-49) suffered from the loss of their star 100 freestyler, defending champion Tobe Obochi, who was #1 seed but declared false start. That takes the Engineers out of the battle for third place with Chicago.

Beyond the top four teams, which are pretty much baked in to their slots, Williams, WashU, Denison, and Johns Hopkins all have a shot at fifth place, which should make for an exciting evening.

Projected Scoring Breakdown – Men

Day 4 Scored Prelims – Men