Only 14 Men’s Teams Have Earned NCAA Relay ‘A’ Cuts Through Midseason Invites

Midseason invites are over and as teams begin to turn their attention to winter training, we’re starting to get a picture of how events might look at the 2024 NCAA Championships. As relays are a big part of any collegiate championships, it’s time to get a look at what teams have earned NCAA relay qualification status.

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• NCAA ‘A’ Cut Qualifiers Through Midseason Invites

First, a quick refresher on how schools can qualify relays for NCAAs:

• The simplest way to qualify relays for NCAAs is to hit the “A Cut,” formally known as the “Qualifying Standard” in a relay.
• Once a team has an ‘A’ standard relay, they can also enter all relays where they’ve earned the ‘B’ standard, formally known as a “Provisional Standard.”
• Teams with four individual swimmers qualified can swim relay events in which they have at least a ‘B’ standard.
• Relays are qualified “to the team”, not the individual swimmers so teams can take whichever swimmers they want to use on the relay.
• Teams must have at least one individual invite to send relays. For purposes of this article, we’ve assumed that all of the teams below will get an individual invite.

Relays are essential for any team with ambitions to finish highly in the NCAA standings. They’re worth double the points of an individual event and if a team wants to contend at the national level, they need relays. These schools often do not have trouble qualifying relays for NCAAs but which relays they’ve qualified at midseason often reveals something about the strengths (and weaknesses) of that team.

Beyond the top schools though, NCAA relay qualification is an important benchmark for any program. It means that there are more than just one or two swimmers scoring points for a team. Instead, there are at least four actively contributing to a program’s score and depth.

At this point in the NCAA season, it’s all Power 5 schools with top 10 aspirations that have hit at least one ‘A’ cut. These are the teams that do not need to fully taper to secure an NCAA qualifying time.

Schools with 1+ 2023 NCAA ‘A’ Cut

Note: The table is organized by number of qualified relays, in descending order

When conference championship meets roll around, more programs will hit their NCAA ‘A’ cut as their swimmers will be more tapered. But even with that consideration factored in, this is a small list that has some notable absences. Last year, 16 schools had at least one NCAA ‘A’ cut after midseason invites; this year it’s just 14.

We’ll have to wait until post-conferences to confirm, but that’s a potential trend that’s worth keeping an eye on. In 2022-23, only 27 schools qualified relays for NCAAs, a big drop from 32 the year before. The ‘A’ cuts for the 400 free and 200 medley relays both got slightly faster, but the other three relays’ cuts remain the same from 2023. The 400 free relay change could prove especially relevant, as it tied with the 400 medley relay at 26 as the relay that the most schools swam an ‘A’ or ‘B’ cut in last season. For the 400 free relay, 24 of those schools first hit an ‘A’ or ‘B’ cut at midseason, including all 16 initial ‘A’ cuts.

Florida State is the only program not on this list in 2022 to appear this season. They swam an ‘A’ cut in their 200 freestyle relay (1:16.54, 6th in NCAA), which also qualifies their two ‘B’ cut relays, the 400 free (2:50.88) and 400 medley (3:05.87). The Seminoles did not qualify any relays for NCAAs last year, so the fact that by December they’ve already got three eligible is huge for them.

Cause For Concern?

The three schools that had an ‘A’ cut at this point last season but don’t now are Arizona, Ohio State, and Virginia. But not all three teams should have the same level of concern.

The Arizona Wildcats have little reason to panic. True, they don’t have an ‘A’ cut yet, but they do have five ‘B’ cuts and four of their relays are faster than they were at this point last season. Their 800 free, 200 medley, and 400 medley relays are faster by over a second. Ralph Daleiden has been leading the way for them so far, highlighted by 50/100/200 free personal bests at midseason, and their five ‘B’ cuts are a strong sign that their depth is improving.

Based on the off-season departures of Alex Quach, James Ward, and Thomas Watkins, we expected the Buckeyes would have trouble in the relay department; especially in the medley relays, where they need to replace their backstroke and butterfly legs. They’ve earned two ‘B’ cuts this season (200 free, 400 free) compared to one ‘A’ and three ‘B’ cuts after last season’s invites. At the 2023 NCAAs, they qualified four relays, three of which scored.

The team that should be the most concerned is Virginia, who has three ‘B’ cuts (400 free, 200 medley, 400 medley). They were never going to have all five ‘A’ cuts as they don’t swim the 800 freestyle relay until ACCs, but to go from four ‘A’ cuts after invites to none in the span of a year is pretty dramatic.

Their highest-scoring relay at last season’s NCAAs was the 200 free relay which finished sixth (an event they hold the American record in). They don’t have a ‘B’ cut in that event yet. That is not what you want to see coming off a misfire at NCAAs. Missing Matt King and Jack Aikins to Olympic redshirt years is not helping their cause, nor is the fact that their strengths as a men’s team don’t lie in the sprints.

They’ll more than likely hit at least one ‘A’ cut at ACCs, but this is perhaps a sign that the Cavalier men are going to be closer to a repeat of their 15th-place finish than we expected heading into the season.

ASU vs. Cal

Like last season, ASU and Cal are the only two teams that have secured an ‘A’ cut in all five relays. These two teams are going to be locked in a tight battle for the national championship in March, and their two different philosophies about how to approach the season make it harder to tell how that battle is going to end up.

ASU is about going fast all year round, while Cal saves it all for the big show. That’s reflected not in the amount of cuts they have, but in the relay times. ASU leads the NCAA in four of the five relays, all but the 800 free. Of those four, they lead the rest of the league by at least at least one second in three: the 200 free relay (1:14.64), 200 medley relay (1:21.85), and 400 medley relay (3:01.60). Things are closer in the 400 free relay, where Florida sits just .03 seconds behind them, 2:46.57 to 2:46.60.

The Sun Devils also just keep improving. Four of their five relays (minus the 800 free) are faster than they were after invites in 2021 and 2022. From 2021 to 2023, their 400 medley relay has improved their midseason time by two and a half seconds.

You might be asking yourself: ASU swims fast all year round. How much faster can they get, when all five of their relays already would have scored at 2the 023 NCAAs (including a hypothetical 3rd place in the 400 free)? Well, the only one of their five relays that had Leon Marchand on it was their 200 medley relay. Marchand was sick at the NC State Invite and only raced one individual event and one relay. Slotting a tapered Marchand back onto his usual four relays in March is going to add even more firepower to these events.

So the question then becomes is a tapered Cal team going to have enough firepower to match? They sit top 10 in the country in all five relays. Their lowest-ranked relay is the 200 free (1:16.61) but they split their stars between the ‘A’ and ‘B’ relays when they produced that time at the Minnesota Invite. Adding their fastest lead-off (Bjorn Seeliger, 19.20) to their three fastest splits (Liam Bell, 18.94, Destin Lasco, 18.94, Jack Alexy 18.71) gives them an add-up of 1:15.79, which would be 3rd in the NCAA this season. They’ve got a lot of ground to gain in the postseason. Is it going to be enough?

Odds & Ends

• The table shows that Texas is in trouble with its relays again, but that isn’t exactly new or unexpected. They lead the NCAA in the 800 free (6:11.66) which also isn’t a surprise. But their issues with the medleys and 200 free relay are going to put them at a huge disadvantage compared to NC State, Indiana, and Florida—the other teams they are vying with for a top-five finish. Without someone coming up big for them in the postseason, there isn’t a lot they can do to close the gap to their rivals.
• We expected that Stanford was going to have a lot of work to do on their relays given the names that aren’t on the roster this season (though some may return). And that’s still true with their medley relays especially since they are without three of their relay legs in both the 200 and 400 medley relays. But their freestyle relays have been a nice surprise; their three ‘A’ cuts come from the 200/400/800 free relays. We expected their 800 free relay to be good, but putting together a strong 200 free relay is something that Stanford has struggled with the last couple of seasons. They have a lot of holes to fill on their relays, but those seem taken care of.

2023-24 Men’s Post-Invite NCAA Relay Qualification Status:

By Relay:

By School: