2021 CCSA SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Women: Monday, February 15-Wednesday, February 17
- Men: Friday, February 19- Sunday, February 21
- Liberty Natatorium in Lynchburg, Va
- Defending Champion: Incarnate Word men (3x), Liberty women (2x)
- 2020 Results
- psych sheet
- Live Stream
- Live Results (coming soon)
- Championship Central
Schedule
Monday (Women)
200-Medley Relay
500-yard Freestyle
200-yard Individual Medley
50-yard Freestyle
800-Yard Freestyle Relay
3M Diving
Tuesday (Women)
400-yard Medley Relay
100-yard Butterfly
400-yard Individual Medley
200-yard Freestyle
100-yard Backstroke
100-yard Breaststroke
200-yard Freestyle Relay
1M Diving
Wednesday (Women)
200-yard Backstroke
100-yard Freestyle
200-yard Breaststroke
200-yard Butterfly
400-yard Freestyle Relay
1650-yard Freestyle
Friday (Men)
200-Medley Relay
500-yard Freestyle
200-yard Individual Medley
50-yard Freestyle
800-Yard Freestyle Relay
3M Diving
Saturday (Men)
400-yard Medley Relay
100-yard Butterfly
400-yard Individual Medley
200-yard Freestyle
100-yard Backstroke
100-yard Breaststroke
200-yard Freestyle Relay
1M Diving
Sunday (Men)
200-yard Backstroke
100-yard Freestyle
200-yard Breaststroke
200-yard Butterfly
400-yard Freestyle Relay
1650-yard Freestyle
On the Lookout
Women’s 50 Freestyle: FGCU’s Tori Czarnecka is looking to defend her conference title from last season, where she won the 50 freestyle in a time of 22.40.She has already been as fast as 22.66 this season. Her toughest competition will come from Incarnate Word’s Cassie Phillips and UNC Asheville’s Delaney Carlton, who have both been 23.0 this season.
Men’s 1650 Freestyle: Incarnate Word’s Alvaro Ibarra won the mile at the 2020 CCSA Championships by over 20 seconds, setting a new conference record with his time of 15:12.25. After his dominant performance last season, he is the favorite for this season’s title. However, his teammate Sergio Duran Mata holds the top time in the conference with his 15:27.84 from the 2020 Art Adamson Invitational. Notably, Incarnate Word has the potential to go 1-2-3 in this event as Panos Vlachogiannakos holds the 2nd fastest time in the conference this season with a 15:37.12.
Women’s 200 Breaststroke: FGCU’s Petra Halmai, one of the top breaststrokers in the country, is the clear favorite to win this event after breaking the conference record with a time of 2:07.38 last season. Going into last season’s NCAA Championship, Halmai was seeded 8th in the country, though the meet was ultimately canceled. This season, Halmai holds a best time of 2:09.02, which leads the conference by over 5 seconds.
Women’s 400 IM: Incarnate Word’s Ximena Conde Merlos is the only returning swimmer that placed in the top 3 in this event last season. At the 2020 CCSA Championships, Merlos posted a time of 4:20.82, placing 3rd overall. However, this time she has already bested that time by almost 4 seconds this season, posting a conference leading 4:16.92 at the Art Adamson Invitational. Her time is the fastest
in the conference by almost 10 seconds, and she is expected to challenge the conference record of 4:13.06.
Men’s 200 Backstroke: Reigning conference champion Fernando Ruvalcaba Cruz holds the top time in the conference this season with a time of 1:46.46. Notably, this less than a second shy of his personal best of 1:45.48, which he set en route to the conference title last season. Gardner-Webb holds the next two seeds, with the duo of Landon Clark (1:50.21) and Christian Jann (1:53.22) looking to break into the top spot.
Swimulator Projections – Women
- FGCU 1479
- Liberty 988.5
- Incarnate Word 982 (tie)
- Campbell 982 (tie)
- UNC Asheville 748
- GA Southern 656.5
- Gardner-Webb 428
- North Florida 397.5*
- Bellarmine 187.5
*It was recently announced that North Florida is not competing in the 2021 CCSA Championship.
SWIMSWAM PICKS – WOMEN
- FGCU
- Liberty
- Incarnate Word
- Campbell
- UNC Asheville
- Georgia Southern
- Gardner-Webb
- Bellarmine
Based on the Swimulator, FGCU is in a strong position to avenge their loss to Liberty last season. Despite being limited to only five dual meets and a mid-season invitational, FGCU has topped the conference across multiple events. In fact, FGCU currently has at least 1 swimmer inside the top-3 times in the conference in every event and holds the top times in the conference in all 5 relays. In addition, the team only has one senior on the roster, Petra Halmai, who was undefeated in individual events this season and is currently slated to score a perfect 60 individual points.
Coming off of last year’s title, Liberty will be looking to make it 3-straight conference championships, though the road is not as clear as it was in the past. Like FGCU, the Liberty swimmers have only had a total of 2 dual meets and a mid-season invitational to post times at, so expect the team to score significantly more points than they are currently seeded to. In addition, Liberty holds a strong grip over the diving portion of the meet. Last year, Liberty’s divers finished 2-3 in the 3m event, and 1-3-5 in the 1m diving event.
Incarnate Word is the wild-card in the conference. After comfortably finishing third in last year’s championships, the school looks poised to move up in position. Overall, Incarnate Word’s swimmers hold 4 times that rank 1st overall in the conference, in addition to holding the conference’s second-fastest times in 4 out of the 5 relay events. Like FGCU’s Halmai, Incarnate Word’s Ximena Marie Conde is also in the position to contribute 60 individual points to the team’s total.
Swimulator Projections- Men
- Incarnate Word 974
- Gardner-Webb 738
- Bellarmine 365
- Fla Atlantic (M) 127 (no college swim meets yet this year*)
- Old Dominion (M) 46 (no college swim meets yet this year*)
* Note: the official NCAA database, which SwimSwam’s Swimulator tool, has picked up some club-meet results from swimmers on college teams. So, while Florida Atlantic and Old Dominion men have not swum any collegiate meets this season, they do still have some results in the database.
SWIMSWAM PICKS – MEN
- Incarnate Word
- Gardner-Webb
- Bellarmine
- Florida Atlantic
- Old Dominion
Unlike the women’s meet, the men’s meet appears much more clear-cut throughout the rankings. Due to covid-19 3-time defending champions Incarnate Word have not competed in a single CCSA dual meet, shifting their focus to in-state teams. As a result of this, the team has faced a tough schedule including meets against Texas A&M and SMU. Despite this, Incarnate Word currently has 17 swimmers projected to score individually, and holds the top times in the conference in all 5 relays, giving the team an additional 200 points.
Second-ranked Gardner Webb is also projected to have 17 individual scorers, but is only projected to earn 136 points from relays. They also lack the depth that Incarnate Word has displayed, with a majority of their swimmers projected to score limited points.
Old Dominion and Florida Atlantic are also projected to have a battle. Currently, neither team is ranked with a relay entry, meaning their scores may have room for a significant amount of improvement.
Please continue to doubt us… #ATOS
I’d love to continue to doubt you but I have no idea who you are or what team you represent.
They predicted you 7th. And you finished 7th.
Small flex. Very small flex.
Historically Liberty have dropped a lot of time from in season meets to the conference meet, was this taken in to consideration when doing the SWIMULATOR PROJECTIONS – WOMEN?