After 1 day at the 2012 Women’s NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships, let’s take a look at how the scores break down as compared to seeds. (For full day-by-day seeding breakdowns, here’s a refresher).
The number of swimming points has been included in (parenthesis), to really isolate the improvement (or worsening) versus seed.
The numbers bear out what we already knew from watching the meet. Cal and Stanford are swimming very well. USC and Arizona are as well, with a big boost from their divers to boot. Auburn lost some points in swimming, but more than made up for it with diving, and Georgia is struggling.
There are bright spots for the Bulldogs on day 2 of the meet. Amber McDermott, Wendy Trott, and Megan Romano will combine for four individual swims, and they’re lights out (especially Romano, though she only had relays on day 1). But the problem is those three don’t have much room to move up compared to seeds. The makeup has to come from somewhere else.
Generally speaking, the rich-got-richer on the first day which is usually true. The more high-level teams can sort of coast their way into NCAA qualifying times, which leads to big improvements versus seed/big time drops, whereas swimmers who had to use a full-taper to make the meet (generally the lower-level teams) fall off the pace.
You can see from the scores that the lone-star squads Texas and Texas A&M are also both swimming extremely well. Texas had a very hot-and-cold first day to the meet. Their 500 freestylers were way off, but their sprinters looked very good. The balance was a huge improvement in points, especially thanks to a big jump by their 400 medley relay.
A&M is seeded to have a big 2nd day of the meet. They swam about to seed, with the one exception of the 200 IM, where they earned a big four total scorers. This improvement is even with losing Cammile Adam’s projected points in the 500 free.
Teams in green are swimming very well against seed. Teams in blue are fairly even on swimming (+/- 5). Teams in red are not swimming well.
| Actual Points | Seeded points | Difference | |
| 1. Cal | 132 (132) | 115 | +17 (+17) |
| 2. Stanford | 118 (107) | 87 | +31 (+20) |
| 3. USC | 118 (98) | 88 | +30 (+10) |
| 4. Arizona | 107 (92) | 92 | +15 (even) |
| 5. Auburn | 94 (78) | 83 | +11 (-5) |
| 6. Georgia | 91 (91) | 120 | -29 (-29) |
| 7. Texas A&M | 89 (59) | 41 | +58 (+18) |
| 8. Texas | 74 (74) | 45 | +29 (+29) |
| 9. Tennessee | 73 (69) | 67 | +7 (+2) |
| 10. Missouri | 44 (44) | 41 | +3 (+3) |
| 11. Minnesota | 37 (23) | 17 | +20 (+6) |
| 12. Indiana | 32 (27) | 27 | +5 (even) |
| Actual Points | Seeded points | Difference | |
| Cal | 132 (132) | 115 | +17 (+17) |
| Stanford | 118 (107) | 87 | +31 (+20) |
| USC | 118 (98) | 88 | +30 (+10) |
| Arizona | 107 (92) | 92 | +15 (even) |
| Auburn | 94 (78) | 83 | +11 (-5) |
| Georgia | 91 (91) | 120 | -29 (-29) |
| Texas A&M | 89 (59) | 41 | +58 (+18) |
| Texas | 74 (74) | 45 | +20 (+20) |
| Tennessee | 73 (69) | 67 | +7 (+2) |
| Missouri | 44 (44) | 41 | +3 (+3) |
| Minnesota | 37 (23) | 17 | +20 (+6) |
| Indiana | 32 (27) | 27 | +5 (even) |
This is a really great way to see who is swimming well, who is flat and who is not swimming as well as expected. UGA better change their red to green if they want to contend!
This site is really great. The pictures are AWESOME, and it is great to see this much coverage of all facets of the swimming! THANK YOU!
Thanks MassCoach! Big shout to Tim Binning for the pictures…he’s feeding them to us straight from the deck in Auburn!
The relays are killing georgia!!! Theyve got to get the rest of them into finals or there is no chance! Cal is lights out as expected, but i still think georgias gunna make a huge strive today and get themselves back in the game