2025 Big 12 Champs: Race Between Arizona and Houston Women For 2nd Tightens (Ups/Mids/Downs)

2025 BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS

• February 25 – March 1, 2025
• Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center — Federal Way, Wash.
• SCY (25 Yards)
• Start Times: prelims – 10 am PT/finals – 6 pm PT
• Championship Central
• Psych Sheet
• Livestream: ESPN+
• Live Results
• Live Recaps
  • Prelims: Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

For those unfamiliar with swimming terminology, the concept of “Ups” and “Downs” is a good way to track which teams performed best during prelims. In prelims at the SEC Championships, swimmers qualify for one of three finals: the top eight finishers make the ‘A’ final (Ups), places nine through 16 make the ‘B’ final (Mids), and places 17 through 24 made the ‘C’ final (Downs). In finals, swimmers are locked into their respective final, meaning a swimmer in the ‘B’ final can only place as high as 9th or as low as 16th, even if they swim the fastest or slowest time of the event in any final.

With that in mind, we track “Ups”, “Mids”, and “Downs” after each prelims session.

Team Standings Through Day 3

Women: 

Men:

Ups/Mids/Downs — Women

The Arizona State women are projected to stay in the lead after Day Four at the 2025 Big 12 Championships. The Sun Devil women are seeking the team’s first conference title, and are projected to add another 247 points to their tally from the individual swimming events.

It’s Houston, however, that’s projected to add the most points today, as the team looks set to gain 277 points from the day’s individual swimming events. Houston has 13 finals swimmers tonight, including four in the 200 butterfly championship final. The 200 butterfly ‘A’ final is a huge factor in why Houston is projected to pass Arizona for second at the end of the night; they have more ‘A’ finalists in that one event than Arizona does all evening.

Utah had a tough morning, picking up only two ‘A’ finalists and five total finalists. As a result, TCU and Cincinnati are both expected to pass them in the team standings, with the Bearcats rising from from sixth to third based on the projected scoring.

Projected Scoring — Women

Ups/Mids/Downs — Men

Based on the individual swimming event projected scoring, the Arizona State Sun Devils will continue to extend their lead in the team standings as they hunt for a third-straight conference crown and their first in the Big 12. The team has the most ‘A’ finalists of any school at eight, highlighted by three men in the ‘A’ final of the 200 butterfly.

However, the Arizona Wildcats have the most overall finalists (12) which keeps them nipping at the Sun Devils’ heels in the projected scoring for the individual events. While ASU is projected to pick up 243 points from the day’s individual events, the Wildcats should add 235 points. There isn’t one event that’s doing the heavy lifting for the Wildcats; they put four swimmers into each event final, and two in each ‘A’ final.

TCU is projected to score the third-highest total from the individual events (172) while Cincinnati looks to make up ground with a projected 162 points this evening. While that amount alone won’t be enough for the Bearcats to move up in the team standings, it will close the gap on BYU.

Projected Scoring — Men