2024 NCAA Men’s Championships: Day 2 Ups/Downs – ASU Breaks Away from the Field (Updated)

2024 Men’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships

• March 27-30, 2024
• IUPUI Natatorium, Indianapolis, Indiana
• Short Course Yards (25 yards)
• Meet Central
• Official Psych Sheets
• SwimSwam Preview Index
• SwimSwam Pick ‘Ems Contest
• How To Watch The Meet
• Live Results
• Day 1 Live Recap

THURDSAY EVENING HEAT SHEETS

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, places 9 through 16 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. “Up” refers to swimmers and divers in the A final, “Down” to B finalists.

Team Scores After Day 1

1. (tie) Florida / Cal – 70
2. –
3. Arizona St – 68
4. Indiana – 52
5. (tie) NC State / Texas – 50
6. –
7. Stanford – 46
8. Georgia – 34
9. Auburn – 30
10. (tie) Virginia Tech / Tennessee – 28
11. –
12. Louisville – 24
13. Michigan – 18
14. (tie) Missouri / Alabama – 12
15. –
16. Florida St – 10
17. Ohio St – 6
18. (tie) Texas A&M / SMU – 4
19. –
20. (tie) UNC / Arizona – 2

UPDATED AFTER DIVING: Indiana and Ohio State both earned 2 places in the A-final of 1-meter diving, improving their overall ranking at the end of the day. All numbers below have now been updated.

The top-seeded and heavily-favored Arizona State Sun Devils broke away from the pack on Thursday morning, earning 6 A-final and 3 B-final slots for Day 2 finals in individual swimming events. While ASU had a bit of a setback in the 500 free, with only #1 seed Leon Marchand qualifying (2nd) for the A final, they made up for it by getting 2 in the B final (including Daniel Matheson, squeaking by at 16th place), 3 in the A final of the 200 IM, and 2 more in the A final of the 50 free. The Sun Devils are on their way to establishing a 40-point lead by the end of the night (although these numbers will change when the diving results are in).

Vying for position behind ASU are Cal, Florida, NC State, Texas, and Tennessee.

Cal nabbed 4 A-final slots; one each in the 500 free and 200 IM and two in the 50 free. The Golden Bears were up 29 points over the psych sheet for the morning. Texas, +11 points versus seedings, earned 2 A-final spots in the 500 free and one in the 200 IM. Tennessee put 2 in the A final of the 50 free.

Florida will have 6 finalists tonight; 1 in the A final of the 50 free and 2 in the B finals of the 50 and 500 free and 1 in the B final of the 200 IM. NC State had 1 up (200 IM) and 3 down (one in each event), pretty much even with their seeds. Michigan and SMU (both 1 up, 1 down) improved by 8 and 13 points, respectively.

Day 2 Ups/Downs

Scoring Day 2 Prelims

Projected Day 2 Scores