2021 NCAA WOMEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- When: Wednesday, March 17 – Saturday, March 20, 2021
- Where:Â Greensboro Aquatic Center / Greensboro, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
- Prelims 10 AM / Finals 6 PM (Local Time)
- Short course yards (SCY) format
- Defending champion: Stanford (3x) – 2019 results
- Streaming:Â ESPN3
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results – Swimming
- Live Results – Diving
Maggie MacNeil continued her incredible NCAA performance on the final night of the championships Saturday, winning the 100 freestyle in a time of 46.02 which launches her up into third all-time in the event.
MacNeil, who is coming off an otherworldly NCAA and U.S. Open Record performance in last night’s 100 butterfly (becoming the first woman under 49 seconds), came into the meet with a best time of 46.57, set during last season’s Big Ten Championships, which also stood as the B1G Conference Record.
That time ranked her seventh in history, and then she was briefly bumped down to eighth after Virginia’s Kate Douglass dropped a 46.54 in this morning’s preliminaries.
In the final, however, it was MacNeil getting the job done, using an absolutely scorching back-half (23.86) to earn the victory in 46.02, with Douglass the runner-up in 46.30.
MacNeil now trails only Simone Manuel and Erika Brown, the only two women who have cracked 46, in the all-time rankings. Douglass’ swim also moved her up into a tie for seventh with Olivia Smoliga.
All-Time Performers, Women’s 100 Freestyle (SCY)
- Simone Manuel (Stanford), 45.56 – 2017
- Erika Brown (Tennessee), 45.83 – 2020
- Maggie MacNeil (Michigan), 46.02 – 2021
- Mallory Comerford (Louisville) / Anna Hopkin (Arkansas), 46.20 – 2018/2020
- –
- Abbey Weitzeil (Cal), 46.29 – 2014
- Olivia Smoliga (Georgia) / Kate Douglass (Virginia), 46.30 – 2017/2021
- –
- Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace (Auburn), 46.61 – 2012
- Siobhan Haughey (Michigan), 46.64 – 2019
MacNeil also ties Manuel’s third-fastest showing for the fourth-fastest swim ever.
All-Time Performances, Women’s 100 Freestyle (SCY)
- Simone Manuel (Stanford), 45.56 – 2017
- Simone Manuel (Stanford), 45.65 – 2018
- Erika Brown (Tennessee), 45.83 – 2020
- Simone Manuel (Stanford) / Maggie MacNeil (Michigan), 46.02 – 2017/2021
In addition to now winning both the 100 free and 100 fly, MacNeil was also the runner-up to Douglass in a close 50 free final (setting a Big Ten conference record of 21.17), and also joined the elusive sub-50 club in the 100 backstroke leading off Michigan’s 400 medley relay (49.76).
The Wolverine junior currently ranks fifth or better all-time across four different NCAA events: 100 fly (#1), 100 free (#3), 50 free (tied #4), 100 back (#5). She is also the fastest in history in the 50 back, an event not generally contested in collegiate competition, after going 23.02 at Big Tens.
Incredible speed for a pocket MacWonder.Her coming home speed in fly and free are superb.It looks like free relay will be more than a two team battle in Tokyo…
This is huge 2 fold:
1. Puts her further in the convo for the 2nd 100 free spot of any of Penny or Kayla are slightly off at trials (Taylor already named with the 1st spot).
2. Further enhances the chances of🇨🇦4×1 relay with the above 3 to really challenge AUS and US. In 2019 with the same 4 above they were leading at the 300m mark. Maggie anchored against Simone and C1 admirably but could not hold off arguably the 2 best 100 freestylers of the last 5yrs. Now 2yrs later she is that much faster and more seasoned…
I have faith in Penny still. But MacNeil is one heck of a backup for the defending Olympic champion.
Penny is going to be unstoppable at trials again but the relay in Tokyo will have the potential for all 4 women going 51-52. They will be able to have a good chance to challenge for gold.
Me too. My fear with Penny is that she’ll swim really well, maybe best times in 100 and 2 free, but possibly be out of the top 3 and be deemed a “failer” by the media who’ll have NO idea how hard it is even to final in arguably 2 of the deepest events in women’s swimming. I hope she’ll be able to bust thru with something big as she did swim well in 2019 and seems to have trained well thru the pandemic. If she ‘only’ does the above and drives the🇨🇦 relays to high podium finishes then she has to be considered as having an excellent performance…
I think canadian media is somewhat more forgiven than some of the other countries… just thinking back on some of the Aussie medias comments about James Magnusen after he took silver (“missile fails to fire”)… like jeeze, he still got a medal.
Australia are the favorites, but I think US will have a tough time beating Canada. US needs some girls to step up
disgusting. woman is on fire