Houston’s Saccha Drops Out of NCAAs; FIU’s Nocenti Gets Call-Up

2020 NCAA DIVISION I WOMEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Ioanna Sacha, one of 5 swimmers from the University of Houston who earned an invite to the 2020 NCAA Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships, has been scratched out of her individual events in the latest version of the psych sheets that were released on Thursday.

Sacha was originally invited in the 200 IM, where a 1:57.23 had her tied as the 35th seed in the meet. She also had a bonus entry in the 200 back, where her best time of 1:54.96 made her the 41st seed.

Sacha, a Greek native, broke a Greece National Record with a 2:12.84 in the long course 200 back in mid-February at a First Chance meet. She went on to win American Athletic Conference Championship in the 200 back and 200 IM.

Houston still has 4 swimmers qualified for the meet, which means that they can still swim the 800 free relay (and bring up to 4 uninvited relay-only swimmers to swim the event, at their own expense, if they choose to).

University of Houston head coach Ryan Wochomurka says that Sacha will miss the meet to attend a Greek National Team training camp in preparation for May’s European Championship meet. At those European Championships, she will be attempting to qualify for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

In her spot, Florida International freshman Jasmine Nocentini will be called up to the meet as the Panthers’ only qualifier (so far). She enters the meet as the 38th seed in the 50 free (22.23) and 100 free (48.93).

FIU finished 37th as a team at last year’s NCAA Championship meet. Their only swimmer, senior Naomi Ruele, graduated, but they return a diver who qualified for NCAAs as a freshman last season: Maha Gouda, who was 8th on platform last season. Diving qualifiers will be named starting with the Zone Diving Championships next week.

FIU won their 6th-straight Conference USA Championship meet earlier this month.

Nocenti is an Italian national.

Still listed on the psych sheets is Texas A&M swimmer Anna Belousova, who declared on Instagram that her collegiate career was over.

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Swimfan71
4 years ago

That is too bad Anna’s coach still hasn’t scratched her out of the meet. Hopefully there aren’t other coaches out there that aren’t willing to scratch their athletes from the meet. Kudos to Ryan for doing it the right way, and allowing another athlete to be able to swim in the meet.

coach
Reply to  Swimfan71
4 years ago

What’s the advantage of not scratching her early?

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Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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