2024 Women’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships
- March 20-23, 2024
- Gabrielsen Natatorium, Athens, Georgia
- Short Course Yards (25 yards)
- Pre-Scratch Psych Sheets
The pre-cut entry sheets for the 2024 NCAA Women’s Division I Swimming & Diving Championships have been released.
While these sheets don’t show who will be invited to the meet, they do show which events swimmers have chosen for their entries, and will all0w us to both score and project the cut-line. Coaches were able to enter any swimmer with at least an NCAA “B” cut on this list, though usually around 38-40 swimmers are invited per event at the women’s meet (full procedures listed below).
Official cut-lines are usually released on Wednesday afternoon.
Throughout the day, SwimSwam will be previewing some of the more interesting event choices, including:
- Alex Walsh of Virginia swimming the 200 IM, 400 IM, and 200 breast
- Gretchen Walsh of Virginia swimming the 50 free, 100 free, and 100 fly
- Katharine Berkoff of NC State swimming the 50 free, 100 free, and 100 back
- Olivia Bray of Texas swimming the 100 fly, 100 back, and 200 fly
- Bella Sims of Florida swimming the 200 free, 500 free, and 200 back
Top Seeds In Each Event:
- 200 medley relay – Ohio State, 1:33.47
- 800 free relay – Virginia, 6:46.28
- 500 free – Bella Sims, Florida, 4:32.53
- 200 IM – Alex Walsh, Virginia, 1:51.76
- 50 free – Gretchen Walsh, Virginia, 20.57
- 200 free relay – Virginia, 1:23.63
- 400 IM – Alex Walsh, Virginia, 4:00.52
- 100 fly – Gretchen Walsh, Virginia, 48.25
- 200 free – Bella Sims, Florida, 1:40.90
- 100 breast – Mona McSharry, Tennessee, 56.87
- 100 back – Katharine Berkoff, NC State, 48.70
- 400 medley relay – Virginia, 3:22.49
- 1650 free – Abby McCulloh, Georgia, 15:40.96
- 200 back – Bella Sims, Florida, 1:49.04
- 100 free – Gretchen Walsh, Virginia, 45.16
- 200 breast – Alex Walsh, Virginia, 2:02.24
- 200 fly – Emma Sticklen, Texas, 1:50.31
- 400 free relay – Virginia, 3:07.34
INDIVIDUAL QUALIFIERS
The NCAA invites the same number of overall swimmers every year. 270 men and 322 women make the meet annually. Depending on how many of those 270/322 athletes qualify in multiple events, the numbers can range some as to how many entries in each event get invited.
The simple part: “A” qualifiers get in automatically. Hit an “A” cut, and you’re set. Then the NCAA fills in the remaining spots with the next-fastest “B” cuts.
Here’s a step-by-step process for how the NCAA selects the 270 men and 322 women for each year’s invite list:
1. 35 of the men’s spots and 41 of the women’s spots are set aside for divers, who qualify for the meet at zone competitions closer the NCAA Championships. That leaves 235 men’s spots and 281 for the women.
2. Every “A” cut put up this season is added.
3. The next fastest swimmers in each event are added until every event has the same number of entries. For example, if the 50 free were to have the most “A” cuts of any event with 10, then every other event would get swimmers with the top 10 fastest times in.
4. Finally, one entry is added to each event to keep the entries per event even. This process is repeated until all of the swimming spots (235 for men, 281 for women) are filled. Keep in mind that as more rows are added, swimmers will start to double and triple up. The #1 seed in the 200 back might be the #15 seed in the 100 back – as the 15th row of swimmers is added to each event, she’ll be added to the 100 back list, but won’t take up another one of the 281 invite spots, as she already has her official invite.
5. The final row of swimmers added won’t come out exactly even. In the final row, the swimmers with entry times closest to the NCAA “A” cut will get added first, and when the 235th man or 281st woman is added, the process stops. So the 100 fly could have 38 women and the 200 fly 39 women – that would mean the 39th 200 flyer was closer to the NCAA “A” than the 39th 100 flyer and therefore won the ‘tie-breaker’ for the final spot.
It has probably been asked before, but here goes: if UVA ONLY participated in the events in which they are seeded first, and they held those seeds, how high in the team race would they place?
Scored out as follows: 800 FrR (40pts) + 200 IM (20) + 50 (20) + 200 FrR (40) + 400 IM (20) + 100 fly (20) + 400 MdR (40) + 100 free (20) + 200 br (20) + 400 FrR (40) = 280pts.
Top 3?
Who thinks Alex can take down the NCAA record in the 4im?
That is a very tough record. But she’s improved on her 200 fl, 200 bk, and 200 br this season — which indicates she can improve in the 400 IM.
I think she can go a best time but that Ella Eastin record is tough. Hope so though!
Agree, though Ella Eastin’s strokes werent nearly as fluid as Alex’s. Amazes me how she did that considering she was choppy and nowhere near as good underwater as Alex.
These women’s ncaa’s are going to be ridiculous. Possibly the most impressive overall in quite some time.
If only Huske and Curzan were swimming then it could really be the most impressive ever
Why are there more women than men invited? (Genuine question)
Title IX.
I think it has to do with the overall numbers. There are more women’s teams than men’s so it’s proportionately larger.
Based upon # of participants in the sport. More D1 women’s programs than men’s = more participants and based upon the ratio a higher cap of athletes invited
oh! i didn’t know this! is there a reason there are more D1 women’s teams?
Title IX largely the reason – most D1 schools need to offer more women’s sports to offset the football scholarships and keep the ratios even.
While football pays for almost all of the other sports.
Kinda bummed there isn’t a Sims v Walsh showdown anywhere! I was hoping sims would do 4IM. Also wanted a Sticklen vs Walsh 2fly rematch, but I understand why Walsh went with the 2 breast. She should win all her events comfortably now, but there could have been some great races!
How are the A cuts decided
In a smoky room
From a different swimswam article: “The ‘A’ standards are calculated by using the three-year average of the eighth-best time from previous seasons, while the ‘B’ or “Provisional” standards are computed using the three-year average of the 125th-fastest times (unless either average is slower than the current cut).”
A baby picks them
Who will swim fly for UVA in the 4 medley relay? Do we think A. Walsh will? G. Walsh, Nocentini, A. Walsh, Maxine Parker? Or do we think they’ll put someone like Tess Howley on there because they’ll probably win comfortably anyways?
Most likely is the same relay as ACCs – GW, JN, AW, MP. They won’t want to have anyone do doubles on night one with the 200 medley and 800, which means that all of their superstars will be available for the remaining three relays. If they get through night one with two wins, then they will go 5/5 in relays, assuming no DQs.
Cannt might their anchor on the 4MDR.
Would’ve loved to see Gretchen and Bella race in the 200 free final. Maybe they will both lead off the 800 free relay.
I doubt Gretchen will do the 800FR, but I hope she does! I’d love to see them take another crack at that record.