2018 Monday Preview #5: Which NCAA Meets to Pay Attention to This Week

Sometimes, there are too many meets to focus on in one week of the NCAA season. With all of the racing going on across the country this week, zone in on a few big ones that should produce fast swimming, great races, and more intrigue.

We’ll be previewing each week with at least a few great meets, typically on Mondays, through the rest of the fall semester and then again on through January. Let us know in the comments about other meets we didn’t talk about here, and why we should pay attention to them! Note that these are just several meets that piqued our interest, and this is not a comprehensive preview for every single meet happening this week.

ACC/BIG TEN CHALLENGE

• Date – 11/10 – 11/11
• Hosts – Purdue

Why you should pay attention: The best of the ACC will clash with the best of the Big Ten in what should be a fantastic power conference match-up. Mallory Comerford, Beata Nelson, Lilly King, Siobhan Haughey, and Maggie Macneil are among the top talents on the women’s side, with Zach Apple, Justin Ress, Bowen Becker, Coleman Stewart, Andreas Vazaios, and Felix Auboeck included on the men’s side. That’s a ton of firepower, and if everyone’s suited up, we can see people gunning for NCAA cuts which should produce fantastic racing in a conference v. conference format we don’t see often.

AUBURN V. TEXAS V. TENNESSEE

• Date – 11/9
• Hosts – Tennessee

Why you should pay attention: SEC foes Auburn and Tennessee will do battle with one another as well as with Texas in one of the biggest tri meets of the year. The Texas men have been strong, but did fall to Indiana and Florida at the always-exciting meet between those three teams. John Shebat came through big this past weekend against A&M, so look for him to keep building on that.

BIG AL OPEN

• Date – 11/10 – 11/11
• Hosts – Princeton

Why you should pay attention: The Princeton Tigers, one of the top teams in the Ivy League, will play host to a two-day invite in New Jersey. Duke and Northwestern are two teams visiting for the meet, and the Wildcats will be hungry to swim well after an encouraging start to their season with a completely new-look staff led by Jeremy Kipp. Some of Duke’s and Northwestern’s best will be at the ACC/B1G challenge, though, so Princeton will look to steal some wins away from two disadvantaged programs.

TEXAS WOMEN V. STANFORD, V. CAL

• Dates – 11/9 and 11/10
• Hosts – Stanford and Cal

Why you should pay attention: The Texas women have been lights out this year, and were named the #1 team in the country in the CSCAA rankings. The Longhorn women have perhaps the toughest weekend of the regular season ahead of them, though, as they’ll travel to the Bay Area to take on both Stanford and Cal on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Texas has been red hot, though, and Cal has been missing key swimmers here and there, including All-American Amy Bilquist, while Stanford’s women have been mostly flat so far in the year. Perhaps the Longhorns coming into town will be the perfect wake-up call — these meets should be electric.

TRIPLE DISTANCE MEET

• Date – 11/8
• Hosts – Stanford

Why you should pay attention: This is always a fun rivalry meet between Stanford and Cal. The Cardinal plays host this time around, after Cal hosted last year and won the vast majority of events. The event schedule starts with 50’s of each stroke and the 100 IM, then the 200 free, then 100’s of each stroke and the 200 IM, then the 500 free, then 200’s of each stroke and the 400 IM, then the 1000 free, and then finally 200 medley and free relays.

HARVARD V. CORNELL V. DARTMOUTH

• Date – 11/9
• Hosts – Cornell

Why you should pay attention: We’ll finally get to see Dean Farris and co. compete this season, and they’ll take on two Ivy League opponents in Cornell and Dartmouth in a meet at Cornell. Harvard has a highly-touted freshman class (both men and women), so we’ll get to see the strongest team in the Ivy League get their season started.