So where exactly do NCAA qualifiers come from? They come from years of hard work, supportive coaches, friends, and often family, they come from the right mix of technique, drive, passion, and steadfast focus on a goal…
But they also come from places. Literal, physical places.
But which literal, physical places?
We’ve gone through and laid out exactly where the male individual qualifiers for the 2017 NCAA D2 Championships qualifiers listed and collected data on where they come from – broken down both in terms of states and countries. Note that there’s some wrinkles in the data, like international swimmers who wind up at Bolles or the Baylor School for high school, but we’ve tried to stick with an athlete’s listed “hometown” from their collegiate bios as closely as possible.
There are tons of observations that could be made here – we’ve made a list of some of them below.
Observations:
- 101 internationals are going to D2 NCAAs for the men compared to 56 Americans. For the D1 women, the numbers are 218 Americans and 63 internationals.
- 36 different countries besides the U.S. are to be represented at D2 NCAAs. That’s twice as many states (18) that are being represented.
- The only New England state represented is Maine, with one swimmer.
- There are more Brazilians than swimmers from any one American state. Brazilians have not been uncommon in Division 1 (Cesar Cielo, Pedro Coutinho, Joao De Lucca, Marcelo Chierighini, Felipe Ribeiro, etc.), and they are out in full force in Division 2, it seems.
- There are just as many Spaniards, and Germans, as there are Californians, the state which most D2 male NCAA qualifiers hail from this year.
- Besides California, there are more Canadians than there are swimmers from any other one state..
- Besides California, there are more Russians than there are swimmers from any other one state.
- Besides California, there are just as many (or more) Britons than there are swimmers from any other one state.
- California and Florida were leaders in our Division I women’s breakdown, and they are again here.
- The Canadian numbers are a little bit skewed by Simon Fraser’s 5 qualifiers. Simon Fraser is located in Canada, so they’re not internationals from the perspective of where they go to college.
STATESIDE
| California | 9 |
| Florida | 6 |
| Illinois | 6 |
| Texas | 6 |
| Colorado | 5 |
| Pennsylvania | 5 |
| Michigan | 3 |
| New Jersey | 3 |
| Georgia | 2 |
| Missouri | 2 |
| Washington | 2 |
| Delaware | 1 |
| Hawaii | 1 |
| Maine | 1 |
| North Carolina | 1 |
| Ohio | 1 |
| South Carolina | 1 |
| Tennessee | 1 |
INTERNATIONAL
| Brazil | 12 |
| Spain | 9 |
| Germany | 9 |
| Canada | 7 |
| Russia | 7 |
| England | 6 |
| Poland | 5 |
| Italy | 4 |
| Ukraine | 4 |
| Croatia | 3 |
| Norway | 3 |
| Sweden | 3 |
| Denmark | 2 |
| Israel | 2 |
| Mexico | 2 |
| Netherlands | 2 |
| Venezuela | 2 |
| Argentina | 1 |
| Australia | 1 |
| Honduras | 1 |
| Hungary | 1 |
| Indonesia | 1 |
| Latvia | 1 |
| Lithuania | 1 |
| Malaysia | 1 |
| Moldova | 1 |
| Portugal | 1 |
| Romania | 1 |
| Samoa | 1 |
| Saudi Arabia | 1 |
| Serbia | 1 |
| Slovenia | 1 |
| South Africa | 1 |
| South Korea | 1 |
| Uruguay | 1 |
| France | 1 |
Interesting to learn the ages of internatioanls. I’ve seen examples of internationals swimming D2 who are 27+ years old. Rules in D2 allow you to swim 8 semesters, not all consecutively. So kids leave and return later on to swim. D1 is 5 years to swim 4. Once you start, the clock is ticking. Just an observation.
By the way, it’s not Lobanov on the picture.
The foreigners are taking our scholarships!
Question.
Are there any internationals not so designated because their college webpage “biography” shows an American hometown as it slates to where they went to prep / high school or where they were living in the States before they matriculated at the school they now represent? Is the actual number of internationals even higher than this article is stating it to be?
It should probably be of note that there is a Canadian school that is a D2 school
5 women and 5 men account for the Simon Fraser numbers
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but why is D-2 so much more international than D-1?
No age requirements in D2.
D1 has 5 years to swim 4. D2 has 8 semesters. And not necessarily consecutive. I know internationals that start, stop and come back later on. Bet the average age is higher.
Most likely, is the caliber of swimmers internationally are less lets say than the 1st tier USA swimmers but superior than the 2nd tier. So therefore are given access to D2 scholarships.
Just out of curiosity, how does the average age of the international swimmers compare to the American swimmers?
The hardest job in American swimming is meet announcer at D2 NCAAs
Kevin Polansky is always doing a great job at it