Beginning next weekend at Purdue, there will be 9 meets where men’s and women’s NCAA swimmers will have a “last chance” opportunity to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
These “last chance” meets, held after conference championships, are designed to give swimmers and relays that are teetering on the edge of NCAA qualification one last shot at a season-best time to improve their odds. Every year, a handful of qualifiers (and in the cases of many relays, scorers) come out of these last chance meets.
While the meets seem like a little bit of a free-for-all, they are in fact tightly regulated. Meets after conference championship meets and approved for NCAA qualification are referred to as “Approved Championship Qualification Meets” by the NCAA, more colloquially known as “last chance meets.” The meets are governed by the same rules as any other NCAA meet, namely swimmers usually have one opportunity to race an event in prelims, one opportunity to race in finals (they’re usually designed so that everybody finals and gets a second swim), and one opportunity to race each event in a time trial. If, after those three opportunities, they still haven’t hit the qualifying time (either automatic, or presumed to be good enough), then that swimmer is out of luck.
Below are the 9 currently-approved Championship Qualification Meets, along with contacts. Many of these meets are held in conjunction or at the same site as a conference championship meet, but are still open to wimmers who didn’t compete in that conference.
See Also:
- Refresher: How to Qualify for the 2017 NCAA Division I Championships
- NCAA Releases 2016-2017 Division I Time Standards
- What it Takes to Qualify for the Division I NCAA Championships?
| Host | Gender | Date of Meet | Meet Director | |
| Purdue | Women | February 25 | David Fraseur | [email protected] |
| Pac-12 | Women | February 26 | Cheryl Wong | [email protected] |
| Texas | Women | February 26 | Devon Hendricks | [email protected] |
| Ohio State | Women | February 26 | Christine Thompson | [email protected] |
| Florida | Men and Women | February 23-26 | Erva Gilliam | [email protected] |
| Georgia | Men and Women | February 25-26 | Christie Purks/Dan Laak | [email protected]; [email protected] |
| Texas | Men | March 2-4 | Devon Hendricks | [email protected] |
| Pac-12 | Men | March 5 | Cheryl Wong | [email protected] |
| Ohio State | Men | March 5 | Chrstine Thompson | [email protected] |
Sometimes you have swimmers who only have one or two true scoring events (milers and breaststrokers are common examples), and if they’re on a deep team like Florida, Cal, Texas, NC State, they don’t get the chance to go the conference meet. I can’t speak to other conferences, but the SEC limits the number of swimmers that can attend, and that meet is all about depth and who can score points. Last Chance meets give the swimmers who can’t go to the conference meet the opportunity to qualify for NCs. Those cuts are hard enough. If you can qualify for D1 NCAAs, you’ve really done something special. There’s no need to further limit the opportunities to qualify.
Excuse me for living but I think’if you haven’t made NCAA cut either during regular season ir during your conference championships ( where tine Triaks are also held)…tough. The ball game’s over snd you’re sol. Yes, people get sick, injured, etc. and the last- chance meets provide an option in that situation but I say enough us enough. If you’re not qualified byntinevTruals conference meet ends that’s it. Wait until next year.
It’s a swim meet not life and death. Let in everyone who qualifies. Who cares when they qualify?
Welcome to the sport of opportunity!!
Also I’m pretty impressed you were able to come up with a reason to complain about something on an informative article. LOL
Having coached multiple people who have attended last chance meets, there is something magical that happens. I’ve seen people drop multiple seconds off their 100 time to make the meet. School records being broken and many life time best times.
It’s not always about making it to the show. But for a senior, it might be a chance to finish their career on an even higher note.
Also, at conference championship meets, swimmers have to focus on multiple individual events and many times, relays. They might be more fatigued because they were swimming for their team than they are doing a last chance meet focusing on one or two events. I don’t see a problem with giving swimmers those opportunities.
Magical, like the pool is not 25 yards
I’m going to agree with this. We watched a conference meet as our girl swam the maximum events and relays ..swam personal bests for her team almost every time……her best stroke always coming after relays or countless prelims or finals of other strokes never quite making the time that would get an invite. Coach asked her to hang around for the last chance on the day after conference ended. We arrived to a darker and quiet swim center and watched magic. I came straight home and wrote it up hoping I could recapture that magic to share with her at some point in the future. If magic can happen the day after conference ends…I am certain it can happen at… Read more »
Some people swim events at their conference meet that will help their team the most. Why not give them a chance to qualify in another event? Additionally, I can remember a specific senior on my college team who got sick and missed his last conference meet. Why not give someone like him a chance to go to a last chance meet and see what he trained for all season?