It takes four very solid swimmers, if not a couple of strong swimmers and a star or two, to qualify a relay to the NCAA Championships. It’s common that a team with one or two stars still can’t get a relay fast enough during the season to get to swim it at the big meet.
This year, for the 2021 NCAA Men’s Championships, 27 teams have at least one eligible relay. That’s actually five more teams than the number set for the women’s meet.
Last year, 28 teams qualified at least one relay to the meet. Note that COVID-19 has affected this number not only due to training restrictions, but also because there are fewer top-notch teams competing this year: the Ivy League canceled its season and Arizona State is redshirting its roster, accounting for at least a few teams who would typically qualify relays.
11 teams hit automatic qualifying standards in all five relays, while 16 total teams are eligible in all five relays thanks to having provisional standards.
Auburn, Denver and Northwestern are the three teams who qualified in a relay last year who will not have any eligible relays this year, aside from the aforementioned teams who don’t have 2020-21 seasons. Meanwhile, UNC, USC, Utah and Pitt have relays this year after not sending any last year.
Check out the full chart below, and note that ‘PS’ means the relay has a provisional standard, not an automatic one.
| SCHOOL | 800 FREE RELAY | 400 MEDLEY RELAY | 200 MEDLEY RELAY | 200 FREE RELAY | 400 FREE RELAY | # OF “A” CUTS | # OF “B” CUTS | RELAYS QUALIFIED |
| Texas | 800 free relay | 400 medley relay | 200 medley relay | 200 free relay | 400 free relay | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Texas A&M | 800 free relay | 400 medley relay | 200 medley relay | 200 free relay | 400 free relay | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Cal | 800 free relay | 400 medley relay | 200 medley relay | 200 free relay | 400 free relay | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Florida | 800 free relay | 400 medley relay | 200 medley relay | 200 free relay | 400 free relay | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| NC State | 800 free relay | 400 medley relay | 200 medley relay | 200 free relay | 400 free relay | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Michigan | 800 free relay | 400 medley relay | 200 medley relay | 200 free relay | 400 free relay | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Georgia | 800 free relay | 400 medley relay | 200 medley relay | 200 free relay | 400 free relay | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Virginia Tech | 800 free relay | 400 medley relay | 200 medley relay | 200 free relay | 400 free relay | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Ohio State | 800 free relay | 400 medley relay | 200 medley relay | 200 free relay | 400 free relay | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Indiana | 800 free relay | 400 medley relay | 200 medley relay | 200 free relay | 400 free relay | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Louisville | 800 free relay | 400 medley relay | 200 medley relay | 200 free relay | 400 free relay | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Arizona | 800 free relay | 400 medley relay | PS | PS | 400 free relay | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Mizzou | 800 free relay | 400 medley relay | PS | PS | 400 free relay | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Virginia | PS | PS | 200 medley relay | 200 free relay | 400 free relay | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Florida State | PS | PS | 200 medley relay | 200 free relay | 400 free relay | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Georgia Tech | PS | 400 medley relay | 200 medley relay | PS | PS | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Alabama | 400 medley relay | 200 medley relay | 200 free relay | 400 free relay | 4 | 0 | 4 | |
| Purdue | 400 medley relay | 200 medley relay | 200 free relay | 400 free relay | 4 | 0 | 4 | |
| USC | 800 free relay | PS | PS | PS | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Tennessee | PS | PS | 200 medley relay | PS | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| UNC | PS | PS | 200 medley relay | PS | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Stanford | 800 free relay | PS | PS | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||
| Utah | PS | 200 medley relay | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| Penn State | PS | 200 free relay | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| Wisconsin | PS | PS | 0 | 2 | 2 | |||
| Pitt | 200 medley relay | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||||
| Notre Dame | PS | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Karl, how many Men’s D1 teams have ever won at least one NCAA championship relay?
Have the same 10-15 teams or so won most of them?
No Auburn relays. First time since…?
Time for Gary to go
UNC got the A cut in the 200 Medley
Thanks – the official sheet had the season-best from before the last chance meet, so just updated the chart!
Yeah no. HOOSIERS ALL THE WAY!!!!!!
Better keep an 👁on those A&M relays. These guys have been workin like demons since SEC Championship & they will hit their “apex” in 2 weeks👍👍. Fair warning given👀!!
Stanford qualifying only 3 relays has to hurt.
No sprinters (or not enough sprinters) lead to no 200 Medley or Free Relays. A bummer for them in the team race, especially since it looks like they seem to be on the rebound with a great Frosh class and solid Mid D group/200 strokes. If you are the Stanford Coach, do you count on incoming classes to beef up the sprint group or try to push some of the stud 200 guys down to the 50/100s? Daniel Roy for example is a beast 200 breaststroker, and still good in the 100. Do you sacrifice some of his 200 potential to try and get him down to 23.0 on a relay start (he was 23.97 at pac-12s)?
Stanford had a lot of key relay guys take this year off, 2 incoming freshmen (bk/free- sequeria, fly/free-minakov) and some other returners (free-mestre, fly/free-levant, bk-Cowand, br-Pastorek). I think Schemmel will have a happy medium of returners and incoming frosh to fill the current void for relays. In terms of the team as a whole tho, 10 ind qualifiers is pretty legit given the fact that they were dealing with Santa Clara county restrictions.
There’s a lot of assumptions there though: minakov actually enrolling and Levant actually getting back into it.
Not happening. Minakov is not enrolling, Levant is done and living in TX, and Pastorek is retired. Best wishes to all of them.
And Mestre coming back too.
They just need a 19 low guy and a sprint backstroker. For sure theyll be a big improvement next year with a full swim season
Read the first paragraph of this article again (there is your answer).
“It takes four very solid swimmers, if not a couple of strong swimmers and a star or two, to qualify a relay to the NCAA Championships. It’s common that a team with one or two stars still can’t get a relay fast enough during the season to get to swim it at the big meet.” (Quoted from above)
True. But 11 teams managed to qualify all 5 relays. Ask any college swimming fan to rank the top ten Men’s swimming schools and I bet 9/10 will include Stanford in the top 10. Everyone knows the importance of relays at NCAA’s. I can’t imagine Stanford Alumni are too excited about this. 2020/21 may be forgiven due to COVID, but if Stanford… Read more »
@waterbear13 Schemmel has not had a recruiting class step onto campus yet… the statement of being on the hot seat is completely invalid especially given the time drops from his swimmers so far this year. Also fun fact, Stanford has had something like 6 coaches in its 105 year history so your statement looks even more questionable
Is Denver redshirting their NCAA qualifying guys this year? Auchinachie, Farber, and Sanes specifically?
Denver suspended a bunch of kids earlier in the year so that might have been it