2021 NCAA MEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- When: Wednesday, March 24 – Saturday, March 27, 2021
- Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center / Greensboro, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
- Prelims 10 AM/ Finals 6 PM (Local Time)
- Short course yards (SCY) format
- Defending champion: Cal (1x) – 2019 results
- Streaming:
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
Just as we noted with the women’s NCAA meet, the men’s NCAA Championships project to be a historically low-scoring meet for mid-major schools.
Only two women from outside the Power-5 conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC) were seeded to score points in the women’s meet. For the men, it’s even more dire, with just one single mid-major swimmer seeded to score one single swimming point at the men’s meet.
The mid-major ranks have seen significant changes this year, with conferences like the Ivy League suspending all winter sports. Other conferences pushed their conference championship meets to later in the spring – that includes the CAA, the MAC, the Horizon League and the Summit League, among others. That made NCAA selection difficult for athletes in those conferences.
Here’s a look at the mid-major representation at men’s NCAAs:
TOP PROJECTED SCORERS FROM MID-MAJOR CONFERENCES
Blake Hanna, Cincinnati (1): Hanna is the 16th seed in the men’s 200 fly at 1:40.96. A senior, Hanna is making his first NCAA appearance after a great 2021. He was 1:43.3 in this event back in 2020, but hit 1:41.9 at the AAC champs this year and then 1:40.9 at Louisville’s last chance meet a week later.
OTHER SCORING CANDIDATES (WITH SEEDS)
The mile appears to be the best mid-major scoring opportunity for now, with two men narrowly on the bubble.
- Vuk Celic, UNLV – 17th in 1650 free
- Garrett McGovern, Navy – 19th in 1650 free
- Josue Dominguez, BYU – 20th in 100 breast
- Caleb Mauldin, Navy – 22nd in 100 back
Other invitees:
- Lucas Johnson, Navy – 27th in 1650 free
- Caleb Rhodenbaugh, SMU – 29th in 200 breast
- Isaac Gwin, Air Force – 30th in 100 back
- Micah Oh, Navy – 33rd in 200 fly
Originally, no mid-major programs qualified relays for NCAAs. But when Navy got a fourth man, Micah Oh, into the meet individually, they earned the ability to enter an 800 free relay, which had an NCAA “B” cut and needed four qualified individuals to officially book an NCAA berth. Navy’s season-best would seed them 17th in that relay, so there’s a chance of some mid-major relay scoring.
Navy actually qualified an 800 free relay. They were 17th in the pre-selection psych sheets, well within invite range, however it wa snot initially invited because they only had three individual qualifiers. However, with Texas divers taking up 2 more spots, Micah Oh was scratched in, giving the Mids a fourth, and allowing their relay to be invited. Seriously impressive times from them this year, considering how bad the coronavirus situation is being handled at the Academy.
The reason is because all of the money goes to sports like football and basketball and not enough money goes to recruiting for swimming. This comment will probably get a lot of downvotes so I apologize in advance, it’s hard to hear the truth.
I agreed with your comment until you had to add the “pick me” line at the end.
Idk man some of these teams don’t even have football.
or, hear me out, we’re in the middle of a pandemic and the cost (in terms of public health) of running practices and holding meets this past summer, fall, and winter was much higher than its benefit for a lot of mid majors. Funding is an issue for these programs, but covid obviously played a major factor in this