2019 Division III Pre-Selection Psych Sheets Posted

The NCAA has posted the pre-selection psych sheets for the 2019 Divison III NCAA Championships, which will be held from March 20th-23rd in Greensboro, North Carolina.

• Click here to see the full pre-selection psych sheet.
• Click here to read about the full 2018-2019 selection process. 

These entries don’t decide who is or is not invited to the NCAA Championship meet; rather, they specify which three events a given athlete has entered as their possible invites. Any athlete with an “A” or a “B” qualifying time is eligible to be on these lists.

Official selections will be released Wednesday morning.

The number of women’s invitees will be around 319, at approximately 20 swimmers per individual event and exactly 20 relays; 29 invitees will be divers. Approximately 260 men will be invited, with about 16 invitees per swimming event (and exactly 16 relays), and 24 divers. The difference between women and men reflects the gender imbalance in Division III as a whole.

The selection process is somewhat complicated, but here’s the gist:

First, the NCAA will select the top 20/16 individuals in each event (29/24 for diving). Then, entries will be added to each relay event one-at-a-time, until all relay events have 20/16 entries.

If, at some point, the addition of one relay per event to the entire order of events puts the field over the total participant cap number, the relay whose time is closest to the Division III established “B” cut will be selected by entry until 20 relays are selected or the maximum participant number is reached. No additional relays will be added if the next relay for selection would surpass the maximum participant number or the last complete individual row.

After the selection process is conducted, if there is a disparity of more than one between individual and relay complete rows, then one individual event row is eliminated and the process returns to relay selection. No more than 20 relays will be selected.

If, after selecting relays, there are still additional spots left to fulfill the participant cap number, additional individuals whose time is greatest in percentage to the Division III established “B” cut will be selected by 1 individual entry until the participant cap is reached.

Last year, the qualifying line for individual women’s races was either 21 or 22, and for relays it was 20. For the men, individual races and relays were cut at 16 entries.

Unlike in Division I, Division III swimmers invited to swim on relays only can swim up to three events in which they have “B” time standards, regardless of whether they were selected individually in those events.

Each team is capped at 18 student-athletes of each gender, so the Denison men’s team will have to pare down its roster. Divers count only as 1/3 of a competitor.

Notable Entries

• Kenyon’s Michael Bartholomew is swimming the 400 IM, where he is the 38th seed, instead of his ninth-seeded 200 IM. He is also doing the 200 back/200 breast double.
• Jordyn Wentzel of St. Kate’s is skipping the women’s 200 free (6th seed).
• Crile Hart of Kenyon is skipping the 200 free (10th seed) and 200 fly (4th seed).  She’s the top seed in the 200 IM, 100 back, 200 back.
• Denison’s Bebe Wang is skipping the men’s 200 free (5th seed)