USC’s Anicka Delgado Scratches; Mizzou’s Kayla Jones in to NCAA Championships

2021 Women’s NCAA Division I Swimming & Diving Championships

• When: Wednesday, March 17 – Saturday, March 20, 2021
• Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center / Greensboro, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
• Prelims 10 AM / Finals 6 PM (Local Time)
• Short course yards (SCY) format
• Defending champion: Stanford (3x) – 2019 results
• Official Psych Sheets (with cutlines) (Updated)
• Invited Swimmers by Team (Doesn’t include relay-only swimmers) (Updated)
• Eligible Relays (Updated)
• Alternates List (Updated)

Update: USC says Delgado will race at the South American Championships, an Olympic qualifier, instead to represent Ecuador.

As the 24-hour deadline nears for teams to scratch swimmers from individual events and invite alternates to the NCAA Championship meet, a second scratch has officially gone on the board.

USC freshman Anicka Delgado has withdrawn from her individual events at the meet. As a result, Missouri breaststroker Kayla Jones will join the field in Greensboro in March.

Delgado’s decision follows the withdrawal of Heather MacCausland of NC State previously.

The latest public version of the psych sheets, produced at 8:14 AM on Thursday morning, do not yet include the withdrawal of Michigan’s Daria Pyshnenko, who told SwimSwam on Wednesday that she wouldn’t be racing at the NCAA Championships. Georgia’s Sloane Reinstein would be the next-in-line for a spot at NCAAs.

Delgado was entered in the 50 free (36th seed – 22.28), 100 fly (35th seed – 52.43), and 100 free (21st seed – 48.44). At the Pac-12 Championships, she also swam on four USC relays – with the exception of the 400 medley. The Trojans qualified the 200 free relay, 400 free relay, 200 medley relay, and 400 medley relay for the NCAA Championships later this month.

USC says that she will instead be headed to Argentina to compete in the South American Championships for her native Ecuador, which run from March 14-29. That meet will be the country’s primary Olympic Qualifier. While Delgado was raised in California, she represents Ecuador internationally – including at the 2019 World Championships.

Jones then becomes Missouri’s 7th individually-qualified swimmer to go along with 4 qualified relay (200/400 frees, 200/400 medleys). Diving qualifications come next week.

Her invite specifically comes via a 2:10.49 in the 200 breaststroke that makes her the 41st seed in that event. She has also added the 100 breaststroke as an alternate event, where her 1:01.21 season best qualifies her 47th out of 48 swimmers.

This will be Jones’ second NCAA Championship meet. She swam as a prelims-only breaststroker on Missouri’s 200 medley relay at the 2019 NCAA Championships, splitting 28.30, which was the slowest split of the prelims heat. That relay was 9th in prelims and she was swapped out for Emily Snyder in finals. Snyder split 28.12 in the evening swim and the relay placed 10th.

Scratches made more than 24 hours after the public announcement of the invites list won’t be replaced with alternates, a special rule employed by the NCAA this year because of ongoing challenges with the coronavirus pandemic.