Latest CSCAA Poll Has a West Coast Feeling

Division 1

Oh what a difference a week makes. As we outlined in the last poll release, the past week-plus, and the next week-plus, will have a ton of major dual-meets that are going to put a serious shakeup into the rankings, and we saw the first evidence of that with the release of today’s rankings.

On the men’s side, Cal vaulted into the top position after dominating #2 Arizona this past weekend. The #2 Stanford Cardinal moved up a slot by pulling off the same feat a day earlier. They were also helped by impressive early returns from Austin Staab in his comeback to college swimming.  The biggest move was #3 Auburn jumping up from sixth in the previous poll. This was by way of a hugely surprising, upset victory over then-number one Texas, who are the defending National Champs. The voters were relatively confident that those were the top three teams in some order, but were nearly split on first place votes. #1 Cal got seven, #2 Stanford got six, and #3 Auburn got seven. As usual, it seems that Auburn has polarized the swimming community. A large group thinks that they are the best dual meet team in the country by now, but them still sitting in third means that there is a large portion of the country that had them outside of the top three.

Arizona had the biggest slide amongst the top teams, as they fell all the way down to #6. With all of the losses that they took after last season, they might have been a little too highly rated at second in a dual meet poll, but will still be tough in March. The aforementioned Longhorns slid all the way back to No. 4 after the loss to Auburn and a win over Georgia. The #9 Georgia men, despite losing two of their three meets since the last poll (against #4 Texas and #7 Tennessee) still impressed enough voters with their win over #13 Indiana to jump two spots.

Florida held tight as teams moved around them. The #5 Gators lost a tough dual loss against Auburn, but have been bolstered by the addition of impressive butterflier Marcin Cieslak. The #8 USC men, who are one of the few top teams that haven’t swum elite competition yet this semester, slid back from seventh.  #11 Ohio State slid back even further as voters get the chance to mentally evaluate their extremely impressive December times. And rounding out the top ten is Virginia, who moved back among the elite teams after knocking off #9 North Carolina in a dual meet.

On the women’s side, the #1Stanford Cardinal increased their stranglehold on the top spot in the latest voting. They increased their margin from 26 to 45 in just a few weeks, thanks to a totally dominant performance over #7 Arizona. Georgia held steady in second, with six first-place votes. #3 USC is starting to build steam (including with our readers) in the National Championship race and jumped up a spot in the rankings to capture top honors in three voters’ minds. The Cal women stayed put in fourth with a solid (second-day) win over #7 Arizona. And then there’s #5 Auburn, who reaped the rewards of an 66-point shellacking of then-number-three Texas, and a solid 30 point win over then-number-six Florida. They jumped seven spots, and landed just ahead of the #6 Longhorns. Texas also lost to Georgia on the same roadtrip, though by a much smaller margin.

The Florida women, who are the defending National Champions, slid two spots to No. 8 after they lost to Auburn as well. Texas A&M dropped one spot to ninth after walking-over unranked LSU, and #10 Tennessee stayed put after a 177-123 loss to Georgia.

Big meets to watch between now and the Conference Championships include (#7M/#3W) USC’s brutal weekend double a when they face both #1’s on the road in the same weekend: (#2M/#1W)  Stanford and (#1M/#4W) Cal. The #9 Georgia men and the #16 Alabama men’s dual might get overlooked a little, but it’s definitely on our radar as a great test for the up-and-coming Crimson Tide. The upcoming Big Ten Quad Meets are always good for some interesting results in the blustery North. Also don’t miss two of the biggest rivalry series’ in college sports, as the #11 Ohio State men head to Ann Arbor to challenge the #13 Michigan men, and the #4 Texas Longhorns and #19 Texas A&M Aggies face-off next weekend in the Lone Star Showdown.

Division 2

Division 3

Full CSCAA Poll Release Available Here.