SwimSwam Pulse: 58% Looking Forward to Men’s NCAAs

SwimSwam Pulse is a recurring feature tracking and analyzing the results of our periodic A3 Performance Polls. You can cast your vote in our newest poll on the SwimSwam homepage, about halfway down the page on the right side, or you can find the poll embedded at the bottom of this post.

Our most recent poll asked readers which NCAA Championship meet, if either, they were most looking forward to:

RESULTS

Which NCAA Championship Meet Are You Most Looking Forward To?

• Men’s – 58.0%
• Women’s – 15.7%
• Already thinking about Rio – 26.4%

The men’s NCAA meet won easily in this poll, garnering just over 58% of the votes cast. That’s almost four times as many voters as selected the women’s NCAA Championships.

That probably speaks to the distribution of star power between the two meets relative to past years. With Missy Franklin, Katie Ledecky and Simone Manuel out of the running on the women’s side, the men’s meet seems to have a much bigger share of notable names – among them American record-holders like Caeleb Dressel, Jack Conger, Clark Smith and Ryan Murphy.

It also probably helped the men’s meet that the poll was live during Dressel’s onslaught at SECs – his twin American records in the 50 and 100 frees dominated the headlines for a good week, and vastly overshadowed some otherwise outstanding swims on the women’s side from names like Leah Smith or Lilly King.

Meanwhile, 26.4% of voters said they were already looking forward to the Rio Olympics rather than selecting either NCAA meet. That likely comprises a large majority of our international audience – roughly 78% of SwimSwam’s traffic comes from within the United States, which would suggest most of the 22% of internationals plus a small portion of the American audience is already setting its sights on the long course pool and the upcoming Olympic Games, which will cap off a four-year block of preparation and speculation.

Below, vote in our new A3 Performance Poll, which asks readers to compare the dual American records set in the men’s and women’s 50 yard freestyles over the past few weeks: Dressel’s 18.23 or Abbey Weitzeil‘s 21.12.

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ABOUT A3 PERFORMANCE

A3 Performance was founded in 2004 and is based in Wisconsin. A3 Performance was founded on the ideals that great products could be made and offered at great prices. Innovation and purpose is the focus of all product development. The swimmer is the focus of everything we do.

The A3 Performance Poll is courtesy of A3 Performance, a SwimSwam partner