2026 Big 12 Championships: Day 4 Ups/Mids/Downs, Arizona Men and Women Have Strong Day
Arizona's Lila Lillie (above) led four University of Arizona women to qualify for the 100 backstroke final on Friday morning. Archive photo via Lila Lillie
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.
Team Scores After Day 3
Women
Men
ASU — 960.5
Arizona — 690.5
Houston — 568.5
Utah/Cincinnati — 463
—
Kansas — 421.5
TCU — 415
BYU — 310
Iowa State — 300
West Virginia — 222
ASU — 1032.5
Arizona — 868.5
Utah — 838
TCU — 474
BYU — 447
Cincinnati — 361
West Virginia — 351
Women’s Ups/Mids/Downs
There are just two finals sessions left in the 2026 Big 12 Championships, and this morning’s prelims saw the Arizona Wildcats do their best to lock up their overall 2nd place positions.
The Wildcat women were the big winners of the day, picking up seven ‘A’ finalists as they are projected to score 247 individual points, five more than any other men’s or women’s team projections.
After day 3, they sat in a comfortable 2nd place position with 690.5 points, coming in almost 300 points behind ASU and more than 100 points ahead of Houston.
All
200 Fly
100 Breast
100 Back
Arizona
7/4/1
2/0/0
1/4/1
4/0/0
Arizona State
6/4/1
3/0/1
2/2/0
1/2/0
Houston
5/4/0
2/2/0
1/1/0
2/1/0
Cincinnati
2/1/6
0/0/3
2/0/0
0/1/3
Iowa State
2/0/2
1/0/0
1/0/2
0/0/0
TCU
1/3/4
0/1/2
1/0/1
0/2/1
West Virginia
1/1/3
0/1/1
0/0/1
1/0/1
Kansas
0/4/3
0/2/1
0/1/1
0/1/1
BYU
0/2/1
0/1/0
0/0/0
0/1/1
Utah
0/1/3
0/1/0
0/0/2
0/0/1
Projected Points Per Event
200 Fly
100 Breast
100 Back
Arizona
48
97
102
Arizona State
85
72
54
Houston
79
42
71
Cincinnati
13
59
27.5
TCU
29.5
25
32.5
Kansas
32
16
25.5
West Virginia
27.5
5
26
Iowa State
24
34
0
BYU
13
0
22.5
Utah
11
12
1
Projected Relay Points
Arizona
64
ASU
56
Cincinnati
54
Utah
52
BYU
50
Houston
48
TCU
46
Kansas
44
Iowa State
40
West Virginia
34
Projected Scoring
Team
Current Total
Day 4 Projected
Total Projected
ASU
960.5
267
1227.5
Arizona
690.5
311
1001.5
Houston
568.5
240
808.5
Cincinnati
463
153.5
616.5
TCU
415
133
548
Utah
463
76
539
Kansas
421.5
117.5
539
Iowa State
300
98
398
BYU
310
85.5
395.5
West Virginia
222
92.5
314.5
Men’s Ups/Mids/Downs
The ASU men earned the most ‘A’ finals qualifiers of any team with eight ‘A’ finals swims, five of which are coming in the 100 breaststroke. They are looking at picking up 247 points to further extend their lead.
In the battle for 2nd place, the Arizona men had a very strong day to pick up six ‘A’ finalists and a projected 217.5 points to start separating themselves from the University of Utah, who has been having a very strong meet.
The men’s platform event will also run during the finals session, but that is not included in the projections.
