2023 NCAA WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- March 15-18, 2023
- Allan Jones Aquatic Center–Knoxville, Tennessee
- SCY (25 yards)
- Meet Central
- Pre-Scratch Psych Sheets
- Invited Swimmers By Team
- Alternates List
- Eligible Relays
The NCAA has released the official pre-scratch psych sheet for the 2023 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships. With that list comes the psych sheet for the eligible relays, beginning to give us a clearer picture of the state of play headed into the meet.
See our previous coverage:
- NCAA reveals pre-selection psych sheets
- Official pre-scratch psych sheets, with cutline released
- Projecting the cutline
- Scoring the psych sheets
- Full event coverage
First, a quick refresher on how relays qualify for NCAAs:
- The simplest way to qualify relays for NCAAs is to hit the “A Cut,” formally known as the “Qualifying Standard” in a relay.
- Once a team has an “A” standard relay, they can also enter all relays where they’ve earned the “B” standard, formally known as a “Provisional Standard.”
- Teams with four individual swimmers qualified can swim relay events in which they have at least a “B” standard.
- Relays are qualified “to the team”, not the individual swimmers so teams can take whichever swimmers they want to use on the relay.
- Teams must have at least one individual invite to send relays.
Relay qualifications matter for several different reasons. First and foremost, they are each worth double the points of an individual event. So, for schools with aspirations in the team standings race, it’s important that their relays not only score, but score highly.
Relays matter for more than points though. A team qualifying a relay for NCAAs can be a huge turning point for their program. That’s because relays point to the overall depth of a program. To get a relay qualified for NCAAs means that the team isn’t relying on just one superstar swimmer for their points; they have at least four swimmers contributing to the success of the program.
We’ve seen this in action for two different schools this year. Both LSU and Hawaii qualified relays to NCAAs for the first time in a while (decades in Hawaii’s case). Even if those relays don’t score–and at this point, both teams are slated to score in at least one relay–getting these qualification berths has put these programs back on our national radars.
We did a similar article on this topic after the midseason invites. But now with the dust settled, let’s take a look at how the relay qualification landscape looks.
Schools Qualified To Send 1+ Relay to 2023 NCAAs
Note: The table is organized by number of qualified relays, in descending order
| School | # of ‘A’ Cuts | # of ‘B’ Cuts | Total | A’ Cut Event(s) | B’ Cut Event(s) |
| Virginia | 5 | 0 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | – |
| Texas | 5 | 0 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | – |
| Stanford | 5 | 0 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | – |
| NC State | 5 | 0 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | – |
| Indiana | 5 | 0 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | – |
| Louisville | 5 | 0 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | – |
| Ohio State | 5 | 0 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | – |
| Florida | 5 | 0 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | |
| Michigan | 5 | 0 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | |
| Cal | 5 | 0 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | |
| LSU | 2 | 3 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR | 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR |
| UGA | 2 | 3 | 5 | 800 FR, 400 MR | 200 FR, 400 FR, 200 MR |
| Duke | 2 | 3 | 5 | 200 MR, 400 MR | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR |
| Auburn | 2 | 3 | 5 | 200 MR, 400 MR | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR |
| Texas A&M | 1 | 4 | 5 | 400 MR | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR |
| Northwestern | 0 | 5 | 5 | – | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR |
| Alabama | 4 | 0 | 4 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | – |
| Tennessee | 4 | 0 | 4 | 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | – |
| USC | 3 | 1 | 4 | 200 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | 400 FR |
| UNC-Chapel Hill | 3 | 1 | 4 | 200 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | 400 FR |
| Arkansas | 2 | 2 | 4 | 200 FR, 400 FR | 200 MR, 400 MR |
| Missouri | 1 | 3 | 4 | 200 MR | 200 FR, 400 FR, 400 MR |
| UCLA | 0 | 4 | 4 | – | 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR |
| Virginia Tech | 1 | 2 | 3 | 400 FR | 200 FR, 800 FR |
| Wisconsin | 0 | 3 | 3 | – | 400 FR, 800 FR, 400 MR |
| Kentucky | 0 | 3 | 3 | – | 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR |
| Hawaii | 1 | 1 | 2 | 400 FR | 200 FR |
| South Carolina | 0 | 1 | 1 | – | 200 FR |
| Florida State | 0 | 1 | 1 | – | 200 MR |
Speaking of putting themselves back on the map, Michigan has all five relays qualified for NCAAs with ‘A’ cuts. They did the same last year, so it might not seem all that significant. But consider that they lost two huge pieces in Maggie MacNeil and Olivia Carter and underwent a huge reset. It’s especially impressive considering that after invites, none of their relays had hit a ‘B’ cut, much less an ‘A’ cut.
Additionally, after qualifying four relays in a mix of ‘A’ and ‘B’ cuts in 2022, the Florida women continue to show off the improvements they’ve made this year with five ‘A’ cuts.
There’s a lesser-known rule about relay qualification, which states that teams with four individual swimmers qualified are eligible for relays where they’ve hit a ‘B’ cut. In 2022, only Arizona State took advantage of this rule. This year, there are five schools taking advantage: Wisconsin, Northwestern, UCLA, Kentucky, and Florida State. UCLA is the only one of these schools that did not have at least one ‘A’ cut last year.
The most surprising team in this situation is Wisconsin. We suspected they might be in trouble after midseason invites, when where the Badgers only hit a ‘B’ cut in the 800 free relay. But it seems as though one year after making a big turnaround and qualifying all their relays with ‘A’ standards, they’ve taken a step back. This year, they’ve only achieved three ‘B’ cuts and have to take advantage of the individual swimmers’ rule in order for those relays to swim. In 2022, they had three scoring relays: the 400 free, 800 free, and 400 medley. This year, they’re projected to score only in the 800 free.
Interestingly, both Alabama and Tennessee will only swim four relays after Alabama missed hitting a ‘B’ cut for the 800 free relay and Tennessee missed in the 200 free relay. Last year, both teams qualified all five relays. In a similar vein, neither school that hit three ‘A’ cuts (USC and UNC) were able to qualify all five relays.
The number of relay qualifications is up two from 2022. That’s more on par with the 30 teams that qualified quartets in 2018, 2019, and 2020. 2021 saw a dip in relay qualifications, with just 22 schools making the cut, due in part to various COVID-related impacts.
Yay Hawaii! Go bows
Can any school bring relay-only swimmers if they have slots open? Or is there additional criteria?
If LSU sends relays next year (without Maggie) it is a game changer – otherwise a 1 year blip.
Can swimmers who are coming to the meet as relay swimmers swim individual events if they have a B cut?
No. That rule was changed many years ago in an effort to expand the number of swimmers who swim via individual invites.
The net change was more swimmers going to the meet, but schools were responsible for paying for the extra swimmers (aka the relay only swimmers), not the NCAA.
So, if I understand this correctly, Hawaii can send as many as nine swimmers to the meet even though only one qualified for individual events – i.e., individual qualifier, plus four different swimmers for each relay?
Mike Stephens and his staff have done a great job in their first year @ Hawaii!
Hawaii is a mid-major, unless there has been a significant adjustment to the definition.
there mid-major but got an all-american grad student transfer this past year. but still an impressive mark as they were well under the A cut for the 4free relay