2016 WOMEN’S NCAA SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, March 16- Saturday, March 19
- Georgia Institute of Technology- Atlanta, GA.
- Psych Sheet
- Live Results
- Live Webcast
- Championship Central
200 Backstroke
- NCAA record: 1:47.84 – Elizabeth Pelton (CAL) – 3/23/13
- American record: 1:47.84 – Elizabeth Pelton (CAL) – 3/23/13
- U.S. Open record: 1:47.84 – Elizabeth Pelton (CAL) – 3/23/13
- 2015 NCAA Champion: Missy Franklin (CAL) – 1:47.91
The 200 backstroke is an event with high turnover from last year’s finish order, with 2 of the top 3 and 4 of the top 8 not returning from the 2015 A final. At the same time, though, the event is still one of the NCAA’s most loaded on the women’s side.
Virginia’s Courtney Bartholomew is the top returner, seeking her first NCAA title as a senior. Batholomew has been a top-tier competitor since her freshman season, moving from 10th to 3rd to 2nd at NCAAs in this race over her college career.
Bartholomew is one of two women to break 1:50 already this year, the other being Cal freshman Amy Bilquist. While Bartholomew would appear to be the favorite, Bilquist is the field’s biggest wild card as a hyper-talented youngster who has dropped absurd amounts of time in the race already this year.
Bilquist entered college with a lifetime-best of 1:53 in the event but has blown up in her rookie season in Berkeley. She won the hotly-contested Pac-12 title last month, going 1:49.9 and even beating American record-holder Liz Pelton. The biggest question with Bilquist is how much time she has left to drop this season. Cutting more than three seconds over the year is a huge improvement, and it’s hard to expect much more of a freshman-year drop. Then again, Bilquist’s rapid improvement curve might suggest she’s still figuring the race out and may just come up with another shocking swim at NCAAs.
In a way, Bartholomew and Bilquist represent to the two archetypes of swimmers that make up this field: the established elite and the young talent trying to overtake them.
Add Pelton to Bartholomew’s camp. An NCAA champ and American record-setter as a freshman in 2013, Pelton hasn’t been back under 1:50 since 2014. She’s got the talent to win this race in a blowout, but it really depends on whether we see 2013 Pelton or the 2015 version that faded to 7th in the final, adding 1.7 seconds to her prelims swim. Pelton is also coming off of a hand surgery, though that happened late last summer and should be fully healed up by this point.
Bilquist’s peers in the younger group will be charging hard, though. Stanford sophomore Janet Hu is the third seed in this event and a bit of an unknown commodity. She swam the 200 fly last year, but jumps into the backstroke this time around after taking second in the event at Pac-12s. Kathleen Baker is another Cal freshman with big upside. And there’s a whole host of sophomores looking to step into the NCAA spotlight. Kylie Stewart is a returning A finalist for Georgia, though she didn’t get under 1:50 last year after doing so in high school. Ally Howe of Stanford and Clara Smiddy of Michigan should both be factors. Lisa Bratton won SECs, even beating tough Georgia star Hali Flickinger (who isn’t swimming the event at NCAAs) and Kentucky All-American Danielle Galyer (who is).
Galyer almost perfectly splits the divide between the “establishment” and “challenger” camps. The Kentucky Wildcat had a blowup sophomore year, dropping from 1:54.8 down to 1:50.8 and taking 4th at NCAAs. Now a junior, Galyer is one of the top established returning threats, but still appears fast-rising enough to perhaps pop another huge post-season swim.
Texas junior Tasija Karosas and NC State junior Alexia Zevnik are two more veteran names to keep an eye on in a deep field that shouldn’t have too much space between some of its A finalists and the unlucky few who finish just outside the top 16.
Top 8 Predictions
| Pick | Name | Team | Season-best | Lifetime-best |
| 1 | Courtney Bartholomew | Virginia | 1:49.63 | 1:49.35 |
| 2 | Danielle Galyer | Kentucky | 1:50.73 | 1:50.73 |
| 3 | Amy Bilquist | California | 1:49.90 | 1:49.90 |
| 4 | Lisa Bratton | Texas A&M | 1:50.64 | 1:50.64 |
| 5 | Elizabeth Pelton | California | 1:52.12 | 1:47.84 |
| 6 | Kylie Stewart | Georgia | 1:52.28 | 1:49.85 |
| 7 | Tasija Karosas | Texas | 1:50.49 | 1:50.49 |
| 8 | Janet Hu | Stanford | 1:50.48 | 1:50.48 |
Dark Horse: Clara Smiddy, Michigan. One of the top backstroke recruits in her class, Smiddy wasn’t able to better her lifetime-best in this event as a freshman. But she put up the best swim of her collegiate career in winning the Big Ten title last month, and if she can approach her high school time, she could finish near the top as a sophomore. She also has good NCAA experience after winning the B final a year ago.
Interesting to see if Amy Bilquist can at least swim as fast as at Pac-12 championships. Hopefully she has not peaked too early.
If not, yes she can play with Bartolomew who is in my opinion the girl to beat in backstroke at the college level considering how good she is in short course. Remember the last Duel in the pool.
The other question is Liz Pelton. On paper she’s by far the fastest. But it was a long time ago.
Kylie Stewart was almost 2 seconds off her PB last year as a freshman. Let’s see if she can again swim under 1.50.
Danielle Galyer looks like a solid top 4 candidate.