2021 NCAA MEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- When: Wednesday, March 24 – Saturday, March 27, 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: Cal (1x) – 2019 results
- Streaming:
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
For those unfamiliar with swimming terminology, the concept of “Ups” and “Downs” is a good way to track which teams performed best at prelims. In prelims, swimmers qualify for one of three finals heats: the top 8 finishers make the A final, places 9 through 16 the B final and places 17 through 24 the C final. In finals, swimmers are locked into their respective final, meaning a swimmer in the B heat (spots 9-16) can only place as high as 9th or as low as 16th, even if they put up the fastest or slowest time of any heat in the final.
With that in mind, we’ll be tracking “Ups,” “Mids” and “Downs” after each prelims session. “Up” refers to swimmers in the A final, “Mid” to swimmers in the B final and “Down” to swimmers in the C final.
The California Golden Bears lead the way in total A finalists (6), total qualified scorers (10) and in projected prelims points (122) coming out of day 2 heats.
In what is expected to be a spirited Cal/Texas battle for the team title, Texas took round 1 in last night’s 800 free relay. But Cal struck back hard this morning, qualifying twice as many A finalists (6) as Texas did (3).
Neither day’s result is particularly surprising. Texas is always strong in the 800 free relay and was expected to win last night. This morning’s events generally favor Cal, generally loaded in the 50 free and strong in the IMs. Still, the disparity between the two teams was clear this morning, and Cal should take over the points lead tonight. The meet is far from over, though, as Texas has some of its best events (200 free, 400 IM) coming up tomorrow.
Texas should also add some diving scoring this afternoon – we’d expect at least two of the four Longhorn divers to score significant points on 1-meter today, including the title favorite Jordan Windle. Still, Cal is seeded to outscore Texas by 62 tonight – that should safely cover Texas’s diving advantage unless the Longhorns can put 3 divers into the A final and score a fourth.
The other piece not included yet: relays. Tonight is a busy night of relays, opening with the 200 free relay (Cal is probably favored here, especially with the way Ryan Hoffer and Bjorn Seeliger swam this morning) and closing with the 400 medley relay (we projected a pretty close race, though we gave Texas the edge).
CURRENT SCORES (THROUGH DAY ONE)
- Texas 40
- California 34
- Texas A&M 32
- Florida 30
- NC State 28
- Georgia 26
- Stanford 24
- Louisville 22
- Indiana 18
- Virginia Tech 14
- Michigan 12
- Arizona 10
- Virginia 8
- Ohio St 6
- Missouri 4
- Notre Dame 2
DAY 2 UPS/DOWNS
Credit to Andrew Mering for running the numbers.
Not including: 1-meter diving, 200 free relay, 400 medley relay
| All | 500 Free | 200 IM | 50 Free | |
| Cal | 6/4 | 2/1 | 2/3 | 2/0 |
| Texas | 3/5 | 1/2 | 1/3 | 1/0 |
| Florida | 3/4 | 2/2 | 0/1 | 1/1 |
| Georgia | 3/0 | 1/0 | 1/0 | 1/0 |
| Arizona | 2/0 | 1/0 | 1/0 | 0/0 |
| Michigan | 1/2 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 1/1 |
| NC State | 1/1 | 1/0 | 0/0 | 0/1 |
| Georgia Tech | 1/0 | 0/0 | 1/0 | 0/0 |
| Mizzou | 1/0 | 0/0 | 1/0 | 0/0 |
| Texas A&M | 1/0 | 0/0 | 1/0 | 0/0 |
| Virginia Tech | 1/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 1/0 |
| Pittsburgh | 1/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 1/0 |
| Stanford | 0/1 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 0/0 |
| Notre Dame | 0/1 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 0/0 |
| Ohio State | 0/1 | 0/0 | 0/1 | 0/0 |
| Utah | 0/1 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/1 |
| LSU | 0/1 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/1 |
| Indiana | 0/1 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/1 |
| Virginia | 0/1 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/1 |
| Florida State | 0/1 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/1 |
Day 2 SCORED PRELIMS
Not including: 1-meter diving, 200 free relay, 400 medley relay
| Rank | Team | Day 2 Prelims |
| 1 | Cal | 122 |
| 2 | Florida | 60 |
| 3 | Texas | 60 |
| 4 | Georgia | 50 |
| 5 | Arizona | 28.5 |
| 6 | Michigan | 19 |
| 7 | Texas A&M | 17 |
| 8 | Georgia Tech | 14.5 |
| 9 | Virginia Tech | 14 |
| 10 | NC State | 13 |
| 11 | Mizzou | 11.5 |
| 12 | Pittsburgh | 11 |
| 13 | Notre Dame | 9 |
| 14 | LSU | 9 |
| 15 | Stanford | 6 |
| 16 | Indiana | 5.5 |
| 17 | Virginia | 5.5 |
| 18 | Ohio State | 4.5 |
| 19 | Utah | 3 |
| 20 | Florida State | 2 |
DAY 2 SCORED PRELIMS BREAKDOWN BY EVENT
| Cal | Florida | Texas | Georgia | Arizona | Michigan | Texas A&M | GT | VT | NC State | Mizzou | PITT | ND | LSU | Stanford | Indiana | UVA | Ohio State | Utah | Florida St | |
| 500 Free | 33 | 35 | 21 | 20 | 17 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 200 IM | 53 | 3 | 27 | 13 | 11.5 | 0 | 17 | 14.5 | 0 | 0 | 11.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.5 | 0 | 0 |
| 50 Free | 36 | 22 | 12 | 17 | 0 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
SCORED PRELIMS + CURRENT SCORES
Not including: 1-meter diving, 200 free relay, 400 medley relay
| Rank | Team | Projected Total | Day 2 Prelims | Day 1 Actual |
| 1 | Cal | 156 | 122 | 34 |
| 2 | Texas | 100 | 60 | 40 |
| 3 | Florida | 90 | 60 | 30 |
| 4 | Georgia | 76 | 50 | 26 |
| 5 | Texas A&M | 49 | 17 | 32 |
| 6 | NC State | 41 | 13 | 28 |
| 7 | Arizona | 38.5 | 28.5 | 10 |
| 8 | Michigan | 31 | 19 | 12 |
| 9 | Stanford | 30 | 6 | 24 |
| 10 | Virginia Tech | 28 | 14 | 14 |
| 11 | Indiana | 23.5 | 5.5 | 18 |
| 12 | Louisville | 22 | 0 | 22 |
| 13 | Mizzou | 15.5 | 11.5 | 4 |
| 14 | Georgia Tech | 14.5 | 14.5 | 0 |
| 15 | Virginia | 13.5 | 5.5 | 8 |
| 16 | Pittsburgh | 11 | 11 | 0 |
| 17 | Notre Dame | 11 | 9 | 2 |
| 18 | Ohio State | 10.5 | 4.5 | 6 |
| 19 | LSU | 9 | 9 | 0 |
| 20 | Utah | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| 20 | Florida State | 2 | 2 | 0 |
Cal is the best swimming school. But Texas diving!! Perhaps baseball and soccer scores should be combined too, because they both play on grass. smh
Texas is smashing in the diving pool versus Cal! Wow. I believe ole Eddie will pull this one out even with Cal looking very tough through the first 2 sessions.
Lazy logic. Do they seperate Track and Field? You can cry all you want but Cal chooses not to field a competitive diving team. If they want to win/lose on swimming alone that’s fine, but nobody makes them not have divers. They all compete under the same rules.
ncaa is whack. It’s a disrespect to both swimmers and divers individually. Imagine your team waiting for their season outcome based on… ANOTHER SPORT entirely.
Everybody plays by the same rules
Guess what? If texas didn’t recruit divers then they would more scholarships for SWIMMERS
You probably hate when your favorite football teams wins on a last second field goal huh?
The NCAA isn’t “whack”
It’s just you
So fun to see this sentiment expressed every year. All schools can distribute their 9.9 scholarships as they see fit. If Texas hadn’t recruited Jordan Windle, maybe they would have had another scholarship available to bring in a Ryan Hoffer or a Sean Grieshop, who score about the same number of points but in the pool.
Tired of this argument. Swim & Dive teams get 9.9 scholarships. Coach’s job is to best allocate resources to turn those scholarships into championships. Like Hornico said, everyone’s got the same rules (except Ivy league teams 😉 ).
The is no stand alone “swimming” competition sanctioned by the ncaa. Come on guys, are we still doing this?
We have this debate every year.
Someday I will figure out how to post an amusing graphic to this effect.
Tennessee will be under 3 mins in the 400 Medley guaranteed!!!! (At the 375)
The headline “Cal could outscore Texas by 60 in the pool” is an attack on the Texas Team, its divers, and a minimization of divers in general. Why the intentional bashing? What is the gain? I have never seen a TRack and Field Site or Pub glorify such a slanted headline, ie, Oregon won the Outdoor Track and Field Nationals BUT only because they have great Hammer Thowers or great High Jumpers or any other discpline in the field! It is a surprise UT has divers and Cal chose only swimmers? By the way, I didnt attend UT and wasnt a diver. Obviously, Cal has great swimmers and should be recognized as such but why at the deteriment of another… Read more »
Wow, that’s a mouthful. I’ll clear it up for you real quickly:
“This report is about swimming, because diving prelims run after the conclusion of swimming prelims, and this report was done on the basis of results of swimming prelims.”
HTH.
Here’s the diving update: https://swimswam.com/2021-ncaa-mens-championships-texas-adds-34-prelims-points-after-diving/
In related news, baseball and football scores to be combined because they both play on grass. NCAA is whack.
Why y’all trying to make all the “didn’t go to UT, not a diver” people hate me?
Maybe I’ll just give them your email addresses to drop these bombs in.
All I know I already had two minor heart attacks (after Katz and Kibler’s swims) and we are not even half way. Texas needs relays and divers to show up, or else…
Up votes if you think Kibler swims 200 free relay, downvotes if he skips it to focus on the 500
Fun question, Kibler took his 500 out in 1:36. Does anyone think he slowed down intentionally in the last 200 yards where he went 26’s, or did he die?
Hopefully he backed off!!
– Who leads off Cal’s 400 MR?
– Who besides Hoffer and Seeliger on their 200 FR?
Nate Biondi and Daniel Carr
End of Day 2: texas 216 Cal 225
I had predicted 205-239 before the meet, and had Texas winning by 2. So ahead of schedule from my end.
Texas added 2 up 1 down in 1 meter platform
I know we are pretty hard on diving here, but I just want to say that 1 meter platform would be the WORST event ever.
I feel like there would be four dives–front dive, back dive, single front flip, and single back flip.
Imagine the DD for a double flip.
It would make the dives with handstands very interesting!
B final did not help Texas much last place 1 point
UT with a 7 and a 16 so lots of room to move up there, Cal with 2 1s so lot of room to move down – not that I expect Hoffer to end up anywhere but the top after that morning swim.
I agree, let’s see what happens tonight. if Cal has a bad night that could mean trouble considering these predictions are based on their guys staying in the top spots.
Yeah, but if Texas has a bad night that means the meet is over.