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2021 Women’s NCAA Championships Day 2 Ups/Downs: UVA & NC State Put 4 Up

For those unfamiliar with swimming terminology, the concept of “Ups” and “Downs” is a good way to track which teams performed best at prelims. In prelims, swimmers qualify for one of two finals heats: the top 8 finishers make the A final, and places 9 through 16 make the B final. In finals, swimmers are locked into their respective final, meaning a swimmer in the B heat (spots 9-16) can only place as high as 9th or as low as 16th, even if they put up the fastest or slowest time of any heat in the final.

With that in mind, we’ll be tracking “Ups” and “Downs” after each prelims session to help project team scoring opportunities for that night’s finals. “Up” refers to swimmers in the A final, and “Down” to swimmers in the B final.

2021 NCAA WOMEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

It was a big day for the ACC – Virginia and NC State lead the nation with 4 A finalists apiece on day 2 of the women’s NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships.

Virginia also has one B finalist, tying for the national lead with 5 individual scorers set up for tonight. Cal also has five, though Virginia has twice as many A finalists. The Cavaliers have 4 up and 1 down, while Cal has 2 up and 3 down.

A few other notes:

  • 22 teams should score individually tonight, barring DQs. 13 teams will be represented in an A final – and that’s in a session that only had 24 total A final spots up for grabs.
  • Mid-major programs were seeded to score just two swimmers across the entire meet. But two mid-major swimmers, Houston’s Ioanna Sacha and Akron’s Sarah Watsonqualified to score in the 200 IM alone tonight. Neither was seeded to score.
  • These numbers don’t include 1-meter diving (happening this afternoon) or either of tonight’s relays. The 200 free relay and 400 medley relay will run as timed final events in tonight’s session.

Day 2 Ups/Downs

Team Total 500 Free 200 IM 50 Free
Virginia 4/1 1/1 2/0 1/0
NC State 4/0 1/0 1/0 2/0
Cal 2/3 1/2 1/0 0/1
Ohio State 2/1 1/0 1/0 0/1
Georgia 2/1 1/0 1/0 0/1
Texas 2/0 1/0 1/0 0/0
Michigan 2/0 1/0 0/0 1/0
Stanford 1/1 1/0 0/0 0/1
Alabama 1/1 0/1 0/0 1/0
Missouri 1/1 0/0 0/0 1/1
UNC 1/0 0/0 0/0 1/0
Northwestern 1/0 0/0 0/0 1/0
Wisconsin 1/0 0/0 1/0 0/0
Florida 0/4 0/1 0/2 0/1
Louisville 0/2 0/0 0/1 0/1
Tennessee 0/2 0/1 0/1 0/0
Kentucky 0/2 0/0 0/2 0/0
Nebraska 0/1 0/1 0/0 0/0
Virginia Tech 0/1 0/1 0/0 0/0
Houston 0/1 0/0 0/1 0/0
Akron 0/1 0/0 0/1 0/0
USC 0/1 0/0 0/0 0/1

Day 2 Prelims Scoring

No official points enter the books until tonight’s finals. But if every swimmer were to hold their place from prelims, here’s how each team would score in these three individual events tonight.

Note: these do not include last night’s 800 free relay, nor do they include tonight’s two relays, or the 1-meter diving event.

Rank Team
Day 2 Individual Points
1 UVA 79
2 NC State 55
3 California 43
4 Michigan 31
5 Georgia 31
6 Texas 30
7 Ohio State 25.5
8 Stanford 23
9 Missouri 22
10 Alabama 20
11 Florida 16
12 Tennessee 14
13 Wisconsin 13
14 UNC 13
15 Northwestern 11
16 Louisville 9.5
17 USC 9
18 Nebraska 5
19 Houston 5
20 Akron 4
21 VT 4
22 Kentucky 3

Here’s what the total running points would look like tonight, including the 800 free relay, if all swimmers kept to their places from this morning:

Rank Team Day 2 Individual Points Day 1 Points Projected Total
1 UVA 79 40 119
2 California 43 32 75
3 Texas 30 30 60
4 Georgia 31 28 59
5 NC State 55 55
6 Ohio State 25.5 24 49.5
7 Alabama 20 26 46
8 Michigan 31 14 45
9 Stanford 23 22 45
10 Kentucky 3 34 37
11 Florida 16 18 34
12 Missouri 22 22
13 Wisconsin 13 8 21
14 Tennessee 14 2 16
15 Louisville 9.5 4 13.5
16 UNC 13 13
17 Indiana 12 12
18 Northwestern 11 11
19 VT 4 6 10
20 Texas A&M 10 10
21 USC 9 9
22 Nebraska 5 5
23 Houston 5 5
24 Akron 4 4

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Wahooswimfan
3 years ago

Looks like Texas has 1 finalist in the 1m diving; Cal none, UVA none, NCSU none; Georgia none, OSU an 11th

Tomek
Reply to  Wahooswimfan
3 years ago

Texas lost potential B finalist in the last diving round, O’Neill dropped from 12 after 5 to 18 after 6 round

Swimmerj
3 years ago

That’s such a bada$$ photo of Walsh

Wahooswimfan
3 years ago

Amazing the balance among teams – not like some past years where a few team were placing 2-4 swimmers in each final. And times are very close, particularly for B finals – a few tenths makes the difference.

BearlyBreathing
Reply to  Wahooswimfan
3 years ago

Interesting. It’s not looking very balanced from where I’m sitting but maybe I’m biased. I’m a little overwhelmed by Virginia’s potential dominance tonight. Really looking forward to the first individual finals in 2 years and the possibility of a Bear or four playing spoiler. Go Freaking Bears. See you all in 3 and a half hours.

Last edited 3 years ago by BearlyBreathing
Snarky
Reply to  BearlyBreathing
3 years ago

Which relay? The Cal 50 freestylers didn’t do so well this am while NCSU put 2 in the A. With Rowe having been 21.4 earlier this season and Hanson 21.8, the Pack might give VA a run in the 200 free relay.

BearlyBreathing
Reply to  Snarky
3 years ago

400 MR

Cal Swim Fan
Reply to  BearlyBreathing
3 years ago

As a Cal Fan I’m ecstatic UVA is killing it! But also Go Bears!!!!

Jonny Newsom
Reply to  Cal Swim Fan
3 years ago

This is very contradictory. 🐻

Last edited 3 years ago by Jonny Newsom
swimgeek
3 years ago

UVA’s A-finals are so high-end, it’s kind of a game changer. 1-1-1-3 — and I’d say all 3 top seeds are pretty heavy favorites to win tonight.

Swim85
3 years ago

That 800 Free relay is going to haunt the Pack on Saturday…. I still don’t understand why they didn’t swim Alons and Berkoff to keep that relay in top 3-5.

Swimfan
Reply to  Swim85
3 years ago

They can’t do all 5. The other 4 are way better now.

Swim85
Reply to  Swimfan
3 years ago

They are seeded 11th in the 400 Fr Relay WITHOUT Alons and Berkoff.

Huh
Reply to  Swimfan
3 years ago

3 of the others will stay the same, only the 400 Fr will be better, I don’t think they make up the 25+ points they would have gotten. However, its easy to armchair this after the fact so I can’t blame the coaches for doing what they thought was best.

Admin
Reply to  Swim85
3 years ago

Don’t forget that they lost Heather MacCausland for this meet. So, they had to do something to shift their relays around. They were honestly a sprinter short of being able to wedge someone in there without sacrificing a relay – so they just decided to go all-in on 4.

We can look back at how it shakes out post-meet, but their hand was forced a little.

Swim85
Reply to  Braden Keith
3 years ago

Yes I know that. When I saw the news, I was thinking Hansson will be able to replace MacCausland in the 400 free relay. She’s split 21.8 in the relay and has the range to go up to 200. MacCausland was big for them at ACC, but Hansson can easily matched 48 free split.

VASWAMMER
Reply to  Braden Keith
3 years ago

Sending positive vibes to Heather. She had a great ACCs and it’s a tough blow to not be able to compete in NCAAs a second year in a row.

Say’s Phoebe
Reply to  Braden Keith
3 years ago

It should also be noted that in some ways it changes the event load for Alons and Berkoff.
They both made the A final in the 50 this morning; Coach Braden may have had that in mind when putting the relay lineups together. Both Alons and Berkoff moved up from their seed times, and in KB’s case, that locked in A final points. Getting 7th in the morning is really good when you are seeded 9th.

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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