NCAA ‘A’ Cuts Update: 173 Cuts Achieved Through Mid-Season Invites

Now that the invites are over, it’s time for an update on NCAA ‘A’ cuts. To date, there have been 173 ‘A’ cuts achieved, 79 in individual events (51 women’s/28 men’s), and a whopping 93 relays (50 women’s/44 men’s).

30 women from 16 teams have punched their tickets to the NCAAs in individual events so far, 13 of them have done so in multiple events. Katie Ledecky and Mallory Comerford are leading the way with 4 individual cuts apiece, followed by Ella Eastin, Siobhan Haughey, Louise Hansson, and Kathleen Baker with 3 each, then Abbey Weitzeil, Joanna Evans, Asia Seidt, Erika Brown, Bethany Galat, Caroline Baldwin and Sydney Pickrem with 2 apiece.

23 men from 13 teams have punched their tickets to the NCAAs, with 5 of them grabbing 2 ‘A’ cuts so far. Those 5 are Blake Pieroni, Caeleb Dressel, Joseph Schooling, Grant Shoults, and Hugo Gonzalez. There has been an ‘A’ cut achieved so far in every single men’s and women’s event, except for both men’s breaststroke events. There have been men under the breaststroke cuts this season, but they’ve all been either post-grads or Reece Whitley.

Here is the current list of ‘A’ cuts by race:

WOMEN:

• 50 free: Abbey Weitzeil (21.44), Caroline Baldwin (21.48), Erika Brown (21.50), Beryl Gastaldello (21.69)
• 100 free: Mallory Comerford (46.70), Abbey Weitzeil (46.95), Caroline Baldwin (47.14), Siobhan Haughey (47.20)
• 200 free: Mallory Comerford (1:41.17), Katie Ledecky (1:41.60), Siobhan Haughey (1:41.83), Louise Hansson (1:43.19)
• 500 free: Katie Ledecky (4:27.84), Rose Bi (4:35.02), Joanna Evans (4:35.05), Courtney Harnish (4:35.69), Mallory Comerford (4:35.78)
• 1650 free: Katie Ledecky (15:03.31), Joanna Evans (15:51.74)
• 100 fly: Erika Brown (50.33), Louise Hansson (50.41), Noemie Thomas (50.77), Mallory Comerford (50.92)
• 200 fly: Katie Drabot (1:51.74), Ella Eastin (1:52.03), Louise Hansson (1:52.66), Jenn Marrkand (1:53.55)
• 100 back: Kathleen Baker (50.62), Nelson Beata (50.79), Ally Howe (50.91), Hannah Stevens (51.16)
• 200 back: Lisa Bratton (1:50.10), Amy Bilquist (1:50.48), Kathleen Baker (1:50.62), Janet Hu (1:50.66), Asia Seidt (1:50.67)
• 100 breast: Riley Scott (58.64)
• 200 breast: Sydney Pickrem (2:05.96), Bethany Galat (2:06.52), Margaret Aroesty (2:06.88)
• 200 IM: Ella Eastin (1:53.24), Kathleen Baker (1:53.24), Sydney Pickrem (1:53.38), Siobhan Haughey (1:53.48), Asia Seidt (1:53.84), Bailey Andison (1:54.38)
• 400 IM: Katie Ledecky (3:59.69), Ella Eastin (4:00.02), Brooke Forde (4:02.02), Bethany Galat (4:02.85), Sharli Brady (4:04.37)
• 200 free relay: Cal (1:27.10), Louisville (1:27.50), Virginia (1:27.93), Texas A&M (1:28.37), Florida State (1:28.49), Stanford (1:28.52), NC State (1:28.52), UNC (1:28.52), Michigan (1:28.57)
• 400 free relay: Cal (3:10.95), Stanford (3:11.59), Virginia (3:12.06), Louisville (3:12.15), Michigan (3:12.21), Texas (3:12.84), Tennessee (3:13.68), Auburn (3:13.88), Texas A&M (3:14.38), Georgia (3:15.05), UNC (3:15.28), Wisconsin (3:15.38), Alabama (3:15.39), USC (3:15.40), Ohio State (3:15.43)
• 800 free relay: Michigan (6:55.43), Louisville (6:58.41), Texas (6:58.75), Cal (6:59.38), USC (7:00.40), Georgia (7:00.93), Arizona (7:02.92), Mizzou (7:03.59)
• 200 medley relay: Indiana (1:34.58), Cal (1:35.04), Texas A&M (1:35.90), Tennessee (1:36.67), Georgia (1:36.73), Stanford (1:36.79), Louisville (1:36.86), USC (1:36.89)
• 400 medley relay: Texas A&M (3:29.47), Stanford (3:29.54), USC (3:29.96), Cal (3:30.45), Tennessee (3:31.48), Michigan (3:31.88), Loisville (3:31.92), Indiana (3:32.04), Kentucky (3:32.31), Georgia (3:32.39)

MEN:

• 50 free: Caeleb Dressel (18.66)
• 100 free: Robert Howard (41.99), Justin Lynch (42.01), Brett Ringgold (42.07), Blake Pieroni (42.10), Santo Condorelli (42.10)
• 200 free: Blake Pieroni (1:32.33), Townley Haas (1:32.40)
• 500 free: Grant Shoults (4:11.34), Feliz Auboeck (4:12.02)
• 1650 free: Anton Oerskov Ipsen (14:39.05), Grant Shoults (14:39.59)
• 100 fly: Joseph Schooling (44.78), Matthew Josa (45.28), Ryan Coetzee (45.46)
• 200 fly: Justin Wright (1:40.57), Zheng Quah (1:40.68), Joseph Schooling (1:40.72), Sam Pomajevich (1:40.82), Andreas Vazaios (1:41.07), Michael Thomas (1:41.22)
• 100 back: Mark Nikolaev (44.99)
• 200 back: Austin Katz (1:38.49), Hugo Gonzalez (1:39.05), Patrick Mulcare (1:39.18), Ryan Harty (1:39.23)
• 200 IM: Caeleb Dressel (1:40.61)
• 400 IM: Hugo Gonzalez (3:39.28)
• 200 free relay: Cal (1:15.73), NC State (1:15.83), Texas (1:16.13), Michigan (1:16.65), Florida (1:16.67), Alabama (1:16.68), Florida State (1:16.95), Denver (1:17.61)
• 400 free relay: Cal (2:48.42), NC State (2:48.75), Texas (2:49.80), Alabama (2:50.46), USC (2:50.64), Stanford (2:51.00), Auburn (2:51.04), Florida State (2:51.27), Florida (2:51.53), Tennessee (2:51.70),  Mizzou (2:51.86)
• 800 free relay: Texas (6:14.62), Cal (6:16.08), Indiana (6:17.75), Florida (6:18.18), NC State (6:19.60), Arizona State (6:19.74), Stanford (6:19.93), Arizona (6:19.99)
• 200 medley relay: Cal (1:23.44), NC State (1:23.53), Tennessee (1:24.00), Texas (1:24.28), Grand Canyon (1:24.46), Alabama (1:24.60), Texas A&M (1:24.67), Utah (1:24.80)
• 400 medley relay: Cal (3:05.45), Indiana (3:05.57), Texas (3:06.11), Mizzou (3:06.16), NC State (3:07.04), Alabama (3:07.04), Texas A&M (3:07.29), Florida (3:07.42), Arizona State (3:07.44)

In total, 22 women’s teams and 17 men’s teams have earned NCAA bids so far this season, with 13 of those teams having at least 1 relay cut but no individuals yet. There is also 1 team, the Denver women’s team, that has an individual ‘A’ cut but no relay ‘A’ cuts. That’s important because once a team has 1 relay and 1 individual ‘A’ cut, the team automatically qualifies the rest of their relays with ‘B’ cuts. The full list of cuts by team can be found below, they are listed in order based first by number of relay cuts, then individuals.

This is an interesting alternative way to compare the teams at any given point in the season. Relay cuts were used as the primary criteria because there is a limit of 5, so each team will have a number 0-5, and it splits the teams into a tier system of sorts (the teams with all 5 relay cuts, the teams that still have 1 more to get, etc.).

Remember when looking at the breakdown of cuts by team, context is very important when you’re using this as a way to compare the teams. For example, the Stanford women’s team noticeably only has 4 relay cuts, that’s because they have yet to swim the 800 free relay this season. Caeleb Dressel only swam the 200 IM and 50 free at his mid-season invite, where he would have almost certainly also gotten cuts in the 100 free and 100 fly had he swam them too. Probably the most important thing to keep in mind when looking at this is the current active injuries/absences, and there’s a decent amount of them this season.