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 SwimSwam readers which men’s team outside of the proverbial top four will finish highest at the 2023 NCAAs:
Question: Which team will finish highest at the 2023 Men’s NCAA Championships?
RESULTS
- #6 Arizona State – 73.1%
- #5 Indiana – 15.2%
- #7 Stanford – 8.1%
- #8 Georgia – 4.0%
- Team ranked #9+ – 3.6%
As the hierarchy in the NCAA currently stands, there isn’t a huge amount of dissent among which teams will finish first through fourth at the 2023 D1 championships on the men’s side.
Cal, Texas, Florida and NC State are all favored to finish in the same position they did last year. The first place there seems to be room for differing opinions is the race for fifth.
Indiana booked a top-five finish last season, while fast-rising Arizona State was only 29 points back in sixth, and Stanford was just five points back of them in seventh.
Thanks to the mid-season performances from the Sun Devils, particularly upstart freshman Leon Marchand, ASU was a popular pick for fifth last year, but Indiana and their consistently-strong diving corps came through when it was time to perform.
As we wanted to follow up on the women’s poll last week, we got a gauge of which team readers were predicting for (essentially) fifth place on the men’s side over the last seven days.
Overwhelmingly, readers are favoring ASU to take over a top-five position this season, earning more than 73 percent of votes.
The voters were far more convicted than our writers in slotting ASU in ahead of IU—in our pre-season power ranks, four out of the seven who made picks favored the Sun Devils (57.1%) over the Hoosiers (one even put Indiana over NC State, which wasn’t even an option in this poll).
Just over 15 percent picked Indiana, while eight percent favor the Cardinal to overcome both ASU and IU in what would certainly be a surprise.
Below, vote in our new A3 Performance Poll, which asks: Which Caeleb Dressel record set at the 2018 NCAA Championships is the most likely to fall this season:
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ABOUT A3 PERFORMANCE
The A3 Performance Poll is courtesy of A3 Performance, a SwimSwam partner.
This is the best top 6 teams I can remember. 6th place team wins a trophy any other year.
Disagree
Indiana is seriously getting slept on
Their divers are incredible. People get caught up in just the swim side.