In the Division I NCAA qualifying system, there are “A” standards, which earn an automatic invite to the NCAA Championship meet, and there are “B” standards, which both allow the next X number of swimmers to be invited to the meet, and additionally allows invited swimmers to swim bonus events in which they weren’t invited.
Though nobody is a sure-fire invite until they get an A-cut or until the invite list comes out, every college coach in the country has some idea of the times that might safely earn an invite, even without officially being automatic. For example, a 4:38-high in the women’s 500 free isn’t automatically invited, but it’s pretty close to a ‘sure thing’.
We have yet to see our first A standard time this season from the men or women, but swimmers are inching closer every weekend. With the start of mid-season invites less than a month away, it will not be long until we have our first automatic NCAA qualifiers. With the speed and depth we have seen at the NCAA Championships over the past few years, we can expect the meet to continue to get faster. 85% of the NCAA invite cutoff times were faster in 2014 than they were in 2013, and we can assume the NCAA expects this trend to continue, as 92% of the individual Automatic NCAA Standards also got faster.
Below, we’ve laid out the slowest time that was invited in each race (which doesn’t include optional entries from swimmers invited in other races), this year’s automatic qualifying standard, and the number of seniors invited to last year’s meet. That number of seniors should give an idea in each event how many invitees have moved on. Of course, that doesn’t include swimmers who went pro early, or swimmers who are missing this season for injury or transfer, but all-in-all, those things are mostly balanced out by swimmers returning from redshirts or transfers who sat out last season.
Any cutoff time that was slower in 2014 than it was in 2013 is highlighted in red. Also, any NCAA Automatic standard that did not get faster is highlighted in red. Last year we included the names of the last invitee, so we opted to do the same this year. We’ll give an update as the year goes along as to how the cut lines look this year.
If you want to do your own investigations, here’s the psych sheets from last year with invite lines drawn in:
| Men | 2012-2013 Invited Time | 2013-2014 Invited Time | 2014-2015 NCAA Auto Standards | Number Invited (2014) |
Number of Seniors Invited (2014) |
Last Invite (2014) |
| 500 Free | 4:18.70 | 4:18.31 | 4:14.59 | 30 | 8 | Christopher Swanson |
| 200 IM | 1:45.08 | 1:44.71 | 1:42.76 | 29 | 11 | Brandon Fiala |
| 50 Free | 19.67 | 19.47 | 19.25 | 30 | 13 | Eric Bruck |
| 400 IM | 3:46.72 | 3:45.64 | 3:42.40 | 30 | 7 | Samuel Rowan |
| 100 Fly | 46.74 | 46.58 | 45.91 | 29 | 15 | Predro Coutinho |
| 200 Free | 1:35.34 | 1:34.71 | 1:33.62 | 29 | 9 | Hassaan Abdel Khalik |
| 100 Breast | 53.37 | 53.23 | 52.29 | 31 | 9 | Pavel Romanov & Imri Ganiel |
| 100 Back | 46.95 | 46.57 | 45.62 | 31 | 11 | Aaron Gustafson & Connor McDonald |
| 1650 Free | 15:03.07 | 15:03.42 | 14:46.26 | 30 | 8 | Brandon Flynn |
| 200 Back | 1:43.03 | 1:42.41 | 1:40.88 | 30 | 6 | Kristian Kron |
| 100 Free | 43.14 | 42.98 | 42.51 | 30 | 10 | John Murray |
| 200 Breast | 1:55.97 | 1:55.64 | 1:53.68 | 29 | 7 | Sean Murphy |
| 200 Fly | 1:44.74 | 1:43.81 | 1:42.85 | 29 | 6 | Tom Kremer |
| Women | 2012-2013 Invited Time | 2013-2014 Invited Time | 2014-2015 NCAA Auto Standards | Number Invited (2014) |
Number of Seniors Invited (2014) |
Last Invite (2014) |
| 500 Free | 4:42.90 | 4:42.79 | 4:36.45 | 38 | 12 | Emma Nunn |
| 200 IM | 1:58.51 | 1:58.13 | 1:55.35 | 39 | 12 | Haley Durmer |
| 50 Free | 22.45 | 22.40 | 21.90 | 39 | 12 | Kelsi Worrell & Kaitlyn Flederbach |
| 400 IM | 4:11.92 | 4:12.63 | 4:05.37 | 39 | 14 | Jordan Smith & Chelsea Weedman |
| 100 Fly | 52.99 | 52.92 | 51.70 | 39 | 14 | Amber Carter |
| 200 Free | 1:46.10 | 1:46.03 | 1:43.90 | 39 | 11 | Ruiannon Sheets |
| 100 Breast | 1:00.72 | 1:00.78 | 59.12 | 39 | 14 | Tara-Lynn Nicholas |
| 100 Back | 53.21 | 53.20 | 51.63 | 39 | 14 | Hailey Campbell |
| 1650 Free | 16:19.32 | 16:20.32 | 15:56.18 | 38 | 9 | Stephanie Nasson |
| 200 Back | 1:54.79 | 1:55.19 | 1:52.52 | 39 | 6 | Nicole Vernon |
| 100 Free | 49.00 | 48.82 | 47.85 | 39 | 16 | Alana Pazevic |
| 200 Breast | 2:11.44 | 2:11.22 | 2:07.70 | 39 | 9 | Abigail Fisher |
| 200 Fly | 1:57.49 | 1:56.79 | 1:54.45 | 39 | 11 | Jessica Reinhardt |
Anybody else think Cordes looks like Starlord from the recent summer blockbuster hit Guardians of the Galaxy? Saw him on deck at nationals right after seeing the movie and that’s all I could think about. Either way I’m excited to see what Cordes has in store for his sophomore year at the University of Arizona.
i thought that he was a 6th year red shirted freshman who took a year off of school to join the canadian military. well anyways good luck
I think you meant to say senior year? It’d be crazy if he were still a soph.
No, you golden bear! BigWilly is correct, to an extent, about Cordes. He will be heading into his sophomore year at Arizona State next year. Cordes took three years off in between his senior year of high school and his freshman year of College to follow his hopes and dreams of becoming the worlds greatest pole dancer. He trained for THREE years, working the pole and wanting the be the best there ever was. All was great until one day he tore his ACL in practice doing some extra twirls after practice, and he had to go back to swimming. He had worked his way up to being ranked 35th in the world at one point, but could no longer… Read more »
Well I checked the University of Arizona athletic board and swimming results in past years and Cordes DID swim for Arizona in 2012, 2013 and 2014. So he should be a SENIOR swimming-wise.In fact I saw him swim in PAC12 meets all those years.
Actually, I am more interested in the Quintero of USC eligibility situation. In 2013 he said he was swimming his last season (2014) at USC albeit he was apparently a Junior in eligibility. Then USC announced he WOULD swim one more year for the Trojans in the 2014-2015. Now he apparently is not at USC this Fall, but expected to be back in time for the 2015 season. Must be a very good student. He is… Read more »
Nah you don’t know what you’re talking about. You must be thinking of someone else cause cordes swims for Arizona state…. And Quintero is busy studying abroad in Berlin, Germany. He is an underwater basket weaving major and didn’t have enough credits to compete this fall so he’s taking a 6 credits over seas to make up for it. He’s got a lot of work ahead of him and it is a pretty bold move, so we’ll see how it pays off for him cotton.
Quintero was just training with Trojan swim club in the fall. But he’s back with the college team already. He started back in January. No doubt you will see him, don’t worry.
Will Licon wants to the be very best, Like no one every was.
To train is my real test, to destroy is my cause
He wants to swim across the land, searching far and wide
Each swimmer will understand the power thats inside
Will Licon (gotta beat them all) Hes so fast
I know its his destiny
Oh Licon, your my best friend
In a world we must defend
Licon ( gotta beat them all) a heart so true
Our pain will push us through
He teaches me and i’ll teach you
Licon Gotta beach them all
Every challenge along the way
With courage i will face
I will race… Read more »
Got a little unoriginal towards the third stanza. It had such passion and momentum after the first verse, it is saddening to see this rhyme collapse in on itself. 6/10