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 men and women are the 2025 Big West Champions.
So UC Santa Barbara is hosting a meet at UC San Diego? Do I have that right?
Is it because the pool at UCSB is an embarrassment?
No, you actually have it all wrong. For one, this is not UCSD’s pool. And two, there isn’t a pool to even call an embarrassment at UCSB
The meet is not at UCSD, it’s at Southwestern College.
The student athletes at UCSB currently use a nice Olympic sized pool at the UCSB Recreation complex. Fingers crossed the incoming chancellor/donors will be on board for backing funds needed to refurbish the old facility which is located in the center of campus.
2025 men’s AND women’s Big West champs ☝️
50s will be stacked races. Those races 400m and above will field the elite of the elite.
Can there be a 1-day alumni event for all college alums to represent their Alma matter?
I love that idea.
Come out on any day and we can put you in a relay
I bet there’s a chance an alumni/coaches relay can be implemented as well.
This should be a really fun meet. Hope they have a DJ and live stream. Great idea by Rosen.
Definitely have these on the todo list!!
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 “college aged swimmers” than explicitly tied to NCAA stuff.
I’ll ask Coach Rosen to chime in.
Yes!!! All divisions including junior college. If you have any questions, please email me. Hope you can make it
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.
Would love to have a rotating meet that goes west coast, mid west, and east coast. Three year cycle. Let’s get this one going first 🙂 thanks for your enthusiasm