2024 W. NCAAs: Day 3 Up/Downs Sees Texas Swimmers Close the Gap

2024 WOMEN’S NCAA SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• March 20-23, 2024
• Gabrielsen Natatorium, Athens, Georgia
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• Day 1 Finals Recap
• Day 2 Prelims Live Recap|Day 2 Finals Recap
• Day 3 Prelims Live Recap

DIVING UPDATE: The Longhorns added two more A finalists in 3-meter diving, going 1-2 on the board for a 37-point boost.

Thanks to SwimSwam’s Andrew Mering for compiling this data.

A great morning from the Texas Longhorns, including a 2-3-4 finish in the 100 fly, has them scored to finish with the most individual swimming points on Friday evening in Athens.

The Longhorns are scheduled for 11 swims, plus diving and relays, in the evening session, with 5 going into A-Finals and 6 going into B-Finals. The Texas depth is the difference-maker on the day: while 1st-place Virginia (5/2) and 2nd-place Florida (5/0) have the same number of A-Finalists, the Texas women have more B-Finalists than either.

Combined with a strong diving crew, the Longhorns should be able to make up some ground on Virginia and likely surpass Florida in the evening session.

Virginia is still in the driver’s seat, though. Their hypothetical morning prelims scoring of 101.5 is +9 versus their seed in those events, while Texas’ is -1. The Longhorns had to make up about 100 points on paper between seed changes and diving at this meet to beat Virginia.

Florida also had a good morning (+12 on paper), while Stanford continues to exceed expectations with a +10.5.

The Data

FRIDAY FINALS HEAT SHEETS

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 two finals heats: the top 8 finishers make the A final, places 9 through 16 the B 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” and “Downs” after each prelims session. “Up” refers to swimmers and divers in the A final, “Down” to B finalists.

TEAM SCORES AFTER DAY 2

1. Virginia – 210.5
2. Florida – 163
3. Texas – 141
4. Stanford – 105
5. Tennessee – 104
6. Louisville – 99
7. Southern California – 94
8. Indiana – 87
9. Michigan – 80.5
10. Georgia – 75
11. Ohio St – 61
12. California – 59
13. NC State – 50
14. Wisconsin – 40
15. UNC – 34
16. Duke – 33
17. Texas A&M – 26
18. Utah – 14
19. Minnesota – 13
20. (tie) Auburn / Alabama – 12
21. –
22. Arizona St – 11
23. (tie) Rutgers / Virginia Tech / LSU – 6
24. –
25. –
26. Northwestern – 4
27. Kansas – 3
28. Akron – 1

Team Scoring Based on Friday Prelims

Finals Seeded Team Scoring By Event

Day 3 Up/Downs

Projected Day 3 Scores

If relay seeds hold, here are the projected results at the conclusion of Day 3: