Virginia Women, Texas Men Hold Strong At Top Of CSCAA Division I Rankings

The Virginia women and Texas men retained the top spots in the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America’s (CSCAA) February dual meet polls. The Cavalier women, chasing a five-peat at the NCAA Championships, have held a firm grip on the #1 ranking all season. The Longhorn men took over as the top men’s team in November and have held it since. The Texas men added Chris Guiliano in January and recently closed out its regular season undefeated.

The CSCAA polls are primarily about dual meet strength, rather than a prediction of finish order at the NCAA Championships. The CSCAA describes the process as “the committee, consisting of Division I coaches, evaluates, and ranks the nation’s top 25 dual meet teams. Their assessment considers head-to-head dual meet outcomes, recent performances since the last rankings, season-long results, dual meet records, roster changes (such as injuries), and data from the SwimCloud Simulator. It’s important to note that the poll’s objective is not to predict the top finishers in a championship meet format.”

Women’s Poll

The Virginia women moved to 6-0 on the season after the inaugural Eddie Reese Showdown. The four-time champions have put all the pieces together to chase another title, including adding Katie Grimes and fifth-year Alex Walsh, who made her season-debut after rehabbing an injury during the first semester. The addition of both swimmers to the competition roster gives the Cavaliers, a team that already had no shortage of depth, plenty of options to construct relays and flex its dominance across the individual event span.

No new teams debuted onto the CSCAA’s poll this month, though there have been shifts within the top 25. Virginia, Texas, and Stanford have retained their rankings from January, though Tennessee has moved past Florida for the #4 spot. Tennessee began to creep up on Stanford, earning 370 points to the Cardinals’ 391.

There’s been plenty of other shifts inside the top 10, as Michigan drops from 7th to 10th, and California has jumped two spots to 6th.

The voting committee has clearly begun to form a solid impression of the top 25 dual meet teams. Not only were there no new teams this month, but only one school that didn’t make the rankings—Missouri—received votes.

Men’s Poll

There hasn’t been much movement inside the men’s top 10 teams. However, while Indiana remained 2nd in the rankings behind Texas, the California Golden Bears have closed the gap and earned just one point less than the Hoosiers.

Cal had already added Lucas Henveaux and Mewen Tomac when the CSCAA did its January rankings, but the two have continued to strengthen the team. After swimming a 4:11.17 in the 500 freestyle last month, Henveaux improved to 4:10.82 at the team’s last dual meet. At the same meet, he also fired off an NCAA-leading 1650 freestyle time, swimming 14:29.72 and breaking Cal’s program record.

While the point totals have changed, the only change in placement in the top 10 was NC State falling out of a tie with Florida for 5th.

The biggest shifts are further down the rankings; Florida State jumped from 21st to 18th, and LSU and Minnesota entered the rankings this month. LSU sits 22nd and Minnesota 24th, as Kentucky fell from 22nd to 25th.

While only one additional school earned votes on the women’s side, five other men’s programs got votes.

Division I Women’s Poll Committee

Brooks Fail (Southern Cal), Bex Freebairn (Missouri), Jerry Champer (Georgia), Ashley Dell (Illinois-Chicago), Ryan Evans (Kansas), Naya Higashijima (New Mexico), Zach Hinsley (Miami (FL)), Michael Licon (Akron), Maddy Olson (Minnesota), Pat Rowan (Nebraska), Coleman Stewart (Duke), Leah Stancil (Louisiana State), Milana Socha (Dartmouth), Athena Spellman (Florida State), Graydon Tedder (Texas Christian), Nathan Lavery (Drexel) Brody Lewis (Utah).

Division I Men’s Poll Committee

Cauli Bedran (Wisconsin), Jim Bolster (Columbia), Patrick Callan (Auburn), Graham Carpenter (Ohio State), Alicia Franklin (Denver), Reed Fujan (Louisville), Josh Huger (California-Berkley), Michael Joyce (Minnesota), Caitlin Kolbus (Kentucky), Brody Lewis (Utah), Jessica Miller Livsey (Old Dominion), Corey Manley (Arizona State), Tamber McCallister (Brigham Young), Eric Posegay (Texas), Bill Roberts (U.S. Naval Academy), Neal Studd (Florida State).