Jack Bauerle: I’m 50/50 on the 800 Free Relay change (Video)

^{Produced by Coleman Hodges.}

^{As Reported by Braden Keith.}

The NCAA has approved a recommendation to expand the 2016 Division I Swimming & Diving Championship meet to 4 days, moving the 800 free relay to Wednesday evening.

Despite dates both on the NCAA website, and the websites of many college teams, still reflecting a three day meet, Mary Berdo, the Associate Director of Championships & Alliances for the NCAA confirmed the shift on Monday.

The recommendation put forward in April by the NCAA Divsion I Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Committee via the text below. Unlike four-day conference championship meets, which have typically both the 200 medley relay and 800 free relay on the first day of competition, just the one race will be shifted. That means that Thursday at the NCAA Championships (The meet’s second day under the new format) will be the only day with two relays.

The day 2 burden resulted from more-and-more swimmers combining the 100 fly and 200 back as a day 2 schedule, and will now also prevent the country’s top 200 freestylers from having to potentially swim three 200 freestyles in the same day.

Another significant competitive impact is that now all swimmers will race the timed final event in the same session. The 800 is the only relay that is swum as a timed final, and under the old meet format, all but the two fastest seeded heats swam in the morning session. Read the full article here.