2023 NCAA DIVISION III WOMEN’S AND MEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, March 15 – Saturday, March 18, 2023
- Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, NC
- Defending Champions:
- Men: Emory (1x)
- Women: Kenyon (1x)
- Live Stream
- Live Results
- Championship Central
The NCAA announced on Wednesday the names of the swimmers and divers that have been selected to compete at the 2023 NCAA Division III Women’s and Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships. DII NCAAs are set to be held at Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, NC. Last year, Kenyon snapped a ten-year win streak by Emory in the women’s meet, while the Emory men won their first title since 2017.
On the men’s side of things, Emory is looking very strong heading into the meet. They were the only team to hit the roster cap of 18 athletes. In fact, Emory blew right past that roster limit, as they have five swimmers who are on the alternates list because they were over the cap.
Behind Emory is Denison, who qualified 15 swimmers to these championships.
As far as the women’s qualifiers go, Denison and Emory both hit the maximum roster size of 18 swimmers. Emory had an additional five swimmers relegated to alternate status due to the roster limit, while Denison has two swimmers who are alternates since they’re over the limit. Defending champions Kenyon are close behind, having qualified 16 swimmers to the championships.
Swimmers may be entered in a maximum of eight events, five relays and three individual events; however, they are only permitted to compete in a maximum of seven events, of which not more than three may be individual events.
Swimmers who are selected for at least one event may enter additional “optional entry” events. Relay-only swimmers may swim in a maximum of three “optional entry” individual events for which the swimmer has achieved a “B” time. However, each school is limited to a roster of 18 student-athletes.
Last year’s meet, which was the first in three years since the 2020 and 2021 championships were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was a larger meet than usual. We’re back down to normal size again this year. Last year, the cut line for the women’s events was around 27, while this year the cut line is around 21. Meanwhile, it was around 18 for the men’s events last year but has gone down to 16 this year.
The psych sheets, as well as the list of swim alternates, are listed below.
Sheesh Emory having 23 swimmers qualify is crazy! They are just on another level right now in D3. I think their team ranking on Swimcloud (championship format) might land somewhere around 40-45th among *all divisions* this year after NCAAs, which is just nuts. That means that they’re on par with programs like Denver, USC (who admittedly are having a rough patch lol), Cincinatti, Wyoming, basically all of the Ivies, etc. It’s one thing to have a few swimmers at that level but to have the team as whole be that good is an amazing achievement when you don’t even have athletic scholarships at your disposal and can’t train athletes out of season…
why was the meet much bigger last year and why is it back down again this year?
Meet didn’t technically change in size, the NCAA has a specific cap on the number of athletes each year. The cut line being bigger last year must have been due to an increase in multi-invite swimmers ranked near the top in several events (only take up one spot), or an decrease in relay-only swimmers.
Unlike D1 and D2, in D3 the relay-only swimmers count against the overall participant cap and depending on how you look at it, “steal” a bid from an individual swimmer near the cut line. Less or More relay only swimmers can have a pretty significant effect on where the Invite line ends up.
100% it’s a steal. So frustrating for faster swimmers who just miss the line when slower relay only swimmers benefit from being on a better relay.
Literally makes zero sense. To invite 16-17 swimmers per individual event and the rest be relay swimmers is a shame.
I don’t disagree with you but the reason is financial. The NCAA can’t/won’t sponsor a meet with a variable cost, and under a D1/D2 system where the relay only swimmers are brought on the school’s dime, many/most D3 athletic programs would struggle to bring their full squads to NCAAs. It’s unfortunate but for the bubble swimmers but I don’t see it changing any time soon knowing the NCAA
Roll Eagz
The linked invited men by team document seems to be missing a fair bit of data… All looks to be intact here though https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/championships/sports/swimdive/d3/2022-23D3MSW_MensSwimmingInvitedTeam.pdf
Go HOP!