2024 WOMEN’S NCAA SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- March 20-23, 2024
- Gabrielsen Natatorium, Athens, Georgia
- Short Course Yards (25 yards)
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheets
- SwimSwam Preview Index
- Live Results
- Live Stream
- SwimSwam Pick ’em Contest
Kevin Cargill is one of the new ‘voices of swimming.’ A frequent on-deck announcer at meets like the NCAA Championships and US Olympic Trials, Cargill spends a ton of time watching swimming.
A few years ago, as part of his preparation to call the meets, Kevin started tracking some data, and I think that data is pretty cool, so I asked him if we could share it.
He said yes.
So now I present to you: Kevin Cargill’s All-Taper Team!
Among the ways to measure success of an NCAA Championship meet, and one of geekdom’s favorite, is how far swimmers move up and down. It evaluates how well a swimmer ‘hit their taper’ for the biggest meet of the year.
Of course there aren’t points awarded for ‘moving up the most,’ but we can still appreciate it.
The All-Taper team is made up of the biggest prelims mover from each team, plus the three biggest ‘overall’ prelims movers from the rest of the field.
Note: 1650 frees for purposes of the All-Taper Team are counted as prelims swims, though it was never actually relevant.
Top 10 Teams:
- Abby Harter, Virginia, 100 fly (45 seed, 15 finish, -.47 seconds)
- Campbell Stoll, Texas, 200 fly (39 seed, 15 finish, -1.24 seconds)
- Aris Runnels, Florida, 200 back (49 seed, 27 finish, -2.61 seconds)
- Julia Mrozinski, Tennessee, 200 free (46 seed, 26 finish, -.33 seconds)
- Amy Tang, Stanford, 50 free (37 seed, 10 finish, -.40 seconds)
- Fernanda Celidonio, Louisville, 200 breast (59 seed, 29 finish, -3.96 seconds)
- Mariah Denigan, Indiana, 500 free (48 seed, 25 finish, -1.9 seconds)
- Caroline Famous, USC, 50 free (39 seed, 11 finish, -.38 seconds)
- Krista Marlin, Ohio State, 200 IM (27 seed, 19 finish, -.52 seconds)
- Abby Arens, NC State, 50 free (23 seed, 17 finish, -.24 seconds)
Wildcards:
- Megan Barnes, LSU, 500 free (58 seed, 26 finish, -4.20 seconds)
- Carmen Weilser Sastre, Virginia Tech, 200 free (49 Seed, 21st finish, -1.21 seconds)
- Ellie Vannote, North Carolina, 200 fly (42 seed, 18th finish, -1.57 seconds)
Top 10 Teams Data
| Team | Biggest Prelim Mover | Biggest Finals Mover | Best Prelim Swim |
Best Finals Swim
|
|
| 1 | UVA | Abby Harter moving up 15 places in the 100 Fly | Sophia Knapp moving up 9 places in the 1650 Free | Tess Howley dropping 2.8 seconds in the 200 Fly |
Alex Walsh dropping 3.52 seconds in the 200 Breast
|
| 2 | TEX | Campbell Stoll moving up 24 places in the 200 Fly | Lydia Jacoby moving up 7 places in the 200 Breast | Emma Sticklen dropping 0.63 seconds in the 100 Fly |
Anna Elendt dropping 2.08 seconds in the 200 Breast
|
| 3 | UF | Aris Runnels moving up 22 places in the 200 Back | Caroline Pennington moving up 11 places in the 1650 Free | Aris Runnels dropping 2.61 seconds in the 200 Back |
Isabel Ivey dropping 1.66 seconds in the 200 IM
|
| 4 | TENN | Julia Mrozinski moving up 20 places in the 200 Free | Aly Breslin moving up 6 places in the 1650 Free | Regan Rathwell dropping 1.05 seconds in the 100 Back |
Mona McSharry dropping 1.46 seconds in the 200 Breast
|
| 5 | STAN | Amy Tang moving up 27 places in the 50 Free | The Stanford relay moving up 6 places in the 200 MR | Lucy Bell dropping 2.17 seconds in the 200 IM |
Lucy Bell dropping 3.03 seconds in the 400 IM
|
| 6 | LOU | Fernanda Celidonio moving up 30 places in the 200 Breast | Gabi Albiero moving up 4 places in the 100 Fly | Fernanda Celidonio dropping 3.96 seconds in the 200 Breast |
The Louisvilla relay dropping 1.17 seconds in the 400 MR
|
| 7 | INDIANA | Mariah Denigan moving up 23 places in the 500 Free | Elyse Heiser moving up 14 places in the 1650 Free | Ashley Turak dropping 1.17 seconds in the 100 Breast |
Elyse Heiser dropping 7.84 seconds in the 1650 Free
|
| 8 | USC | Caroline Famous moving up 28 places in the 50 Free | The USC relay moving up 6 places in the 200 FR | Caroline Famous dropping 0.37 seconds in the 50 Free |
Kaitlyn Dobler dropping 1.53 seconds in the 200 Breast
|
| 9 | OSU | Krista Marlin moving up 28 places in the 200 IM | The OSU relay moving up 5 places in the 400 FR | Paige Hall dropping 2.38 seconds in the 200 Back |
The Ohio State relay droppiung 1.64 seconds in the 400 FR
|
| 9 | NCST | Abby Arens moving up 22 places in the 50 Free | Emma Hastings moving up 14 places in the 1650 Free | Kennedy Noble dropping 1.17 seconds in the 200 Back |
Katharine Berkoff dropping 0.79 seconds in the 100 Back
|
Would be interesting to see the differences in drops between swimmers who achieved an “A” (or possibly high “B”) time back in the November/December invites versus those who did not. Presumably those who were already certain of an invite to the NCAA championships would not have had to fully taper for conference championships and therefor the NCAAs would have been their first full taper whereas those who had to do a full taper to qualify and then retaper for NCAAs.
I’m a little confused. Is it Kevin or Keith?
Get Ayla Spitz on the All Taper Team, she killed it this week
Couldn’t agree more—personal bests across the board, plus moving up in b final scoring in all 3 events (and only being seeded to score in 1).
Amazing that a half second drop moves you from 45th to 15th in the 100 fly. Margin between scoring and not is really small.
No doubt. If I’m a college coach, I’m taking that back to my team as evidence that the details matter, a lot.
Great stuff!
Additionally, there were only two teams with 5 relay season best times at NCAAs – Duke and Stanford.
Top 5 teams in relay improvement percentage (avg)
1. Duke 0.70%
2. UNC 0.60%
3. Stanford 0.59%
4. UVA 0.40%
5. Wisconsin 0.38%
UVA 200MR was best overall “taper” relay with a 2.25% drop from their season best.
*all data compiled included with only teams that qualified all 5 relays*
Nice data!
Need an * by the UVA 200 MR..they added G Walsh at NCAAs.
Their drop was calculated using their mid-season time which included Walsh on the backstroke leg.
you could argue that swimming the same time at conference and ncaas is actually better assuming its their top top performances