What if collegiate swimming season never had to end?
One NCAA Division I program is taking a run at extending the partisan party of collegiate swimming through the summer – at least for one meet. UCSB head coach Jax Rosen is organizing a long course Summer Collegiate Championship meet in Chula Vista, California. The goal is to help the bulk of collegiate swimmers who don’t qualify for the US National Championships find a season-ending meet.
“The last couple years have been rough just because futures and sectionals are the only Swim Meets college kids can go to if they don’t make nationals,” Rosen told SwimSwam. “Those swim meets are just not as fun as they used to be and as kids get older we just need another place to go.
“I think even people that only make nationals in one event would love another Swim Meet to get more swims in for the summer.”
- The meet will run from Sunday July 27-Wednesday July 30, 2025
- Teams can register interest here.
- See the entry time standards here.
Rosen is providing a place for them to go: Southwestern College near San Diego, how to 2 50-meter pools and a 25-yard instructional pool.
She says that the goal is to get about 400 registrations, and she has started locally by reaching out to college teams in California, Arizona, and New Mexico.
The entry standards are similar to Futures standards, though there are some bigger variances in a few events (like the women’s backstroke races).
A meet like this, sort of a U23 Championship like we’re seeing pop up in Europe, could address concerns of two groups of swimmers and coaches. On the one hand is the collegiate swimmers who are looking for an ‘adult’ championship to end their summer to provide better motivation for their athletes; and on the other hand are age group swimmers (and often their parents), who sometimes get frustrated by collegiate swimmers taking spots in finals at the Futures Championships, which are perceived to be a meet for junior-aged swimmers – whether or not it was ever intended that way.
The meet also provides a certain target for coaches to motivate their athletes to train harder through the summer, which could in turn raise the collegiate standard of competition outside of the swimming super powers. Programs like Texas and Stanford and Cal send almost all of their swimmers to the US National Championships, but other programs like UCSB usually have a smaller portion of their athletes qualify.
The UCSB women are the 2025 Big West Champions.
Will this be available to D3 teams too?
My understanding is that it’s available to any collegiate swimmer who can hit the times. I haven’t seen any specific eligibility guidelines…I get the sense that it’s as much about “adult swimmers” than explicitly tied to NCAA stuff.
ABOUT TIME!!
Great concept! Hopefully this hits, so maybe an east coast mid-major can do their own next year, so we’d have an individual “eastern” and “western” championship.
What’s the issue with women’s backstroke events/times?
The Missy Franklin/Regan Smith effect: every young female swimmer since 2012 has been inclined to try and become a backstroker because they wanted to be like their idol, which has led to a saturation in Women’s Back in the US. Recent Trials data supports this as well
I wish this was an opportunity I had when I was an NCAA swimmer, but I can’t help but be excited about this. With roster cuts/limits and seeing more swimmers go to DII and DIII, this opportunity will really motivate and change the culture of these divisions from being a September through February/March focus to being something that NCAA swimmers of all divisions can participate in year round.
This is awesome.
I wonder what most college teams summer long course season is like, but I always thought those teams trained for national championships and if you didn’t make it you swam at a lower level meet.
I don’t want to overstate it, but I think meets like this are an important, if small, part of the shift that needs to happen for swimming to grow. Getting the college kids out of junior meets, into their own intermediate championship, is really good for the growth on both ends. It also gives college kids a better motivation for long course season.
There are a lot of pieces to put together into the puzzle, and the puzzle isn’t done until they all have a home.
agree with you 1000 percent on this. Frees up space for younger kids at age group meets…keeps college swimmers interested with their peers.
Imagine if USA Swimming cared about collegiate swimmers…they could be PAYING members….
I wish more college teams with access to these facilities would host these types of meets over the summer hopefully this is beginning to change.