The Arizona State University men and University of Virginia women remain the top-ranked teams in the nation by the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) as the organization has released its dual meet rankings for the month of January.
Both squads maintain their #1 position from December, with January’s ranks marking the first time the top spot hasn’t changed hands month-to-month.
After UVA led the women and Cal topped the men in the opening edition in October (as defending national champions), the Texas Longhorns claimed the #1 ranking on both sides in November before the Cavaliers reclaimed the top spot for the women and Arizona State moved to #1 for the first time in December.
The CSCAA notably does not factor in how a team might fare in a championship meet format, exclusively looking at dual meet strength, and uses head-to-head results as a top consideration.
Over the last month, there haven’t been a ton of dual meets with schools off for the holidays and then diving into winter training camps shortly thereafter.
The ASU men, for example, will race for the first time since November’s Wolfpack Invite on Friday, hosting Stanford, while the UVA women have only raced once in the last two months, putting on a dominant display last weekend against Virginia Tech (winning 207-91). The Cavaliers will race again this weekend in a two-day tri-meet with NC State and North Carolina.
The Sun Devils and Cavaliers both received 17 of 18 first-place votes, with the Cal men and Texas women earning one apiece.
WOMEN’S RANKINGS
Rank | Prev | Team | Points |
1 | 1 | Virginia (17) | 449 |
2 | 2 | Texas (1) | 432 |
2 | 3 | Stanford | 411 |
4 | 4 | NC State | 388 |
5 | 5 | Ohio State | 387 |
6 | 7 | Louisville | 354 |
7 | 8 | Florida | 337 |
8 | 6 | Alabama | 323 |
9 | 12 | Indiana | 299 |
10 | 10 | Southern California | 285 |
11 | 11 | California | 268 |
12 | 14 | Tennessee | 247 |
13 | 19 | Auburn | 230 |
14 | 20 | Kentucky | 217 |
15 | 9 | Georgia | 200 |
16 | 13 | Michigan | 191 |
17 | 16 | Wisconsin | 163 |
18 | 17 | North Carolina | 153 |
19 | 15 | Texas A&M | 130 |
20 | 22 | Duke | 103 |
21 | 18 | Arkansas | 82 |
22 | 25 | Louisiana State | 54 |
23 | NR | Virginia Tech | 40 |
24 | NR | UCLA | 37 |
25 | 23 | Minnesota | 34 |
Also receiving votes: Northwestern (30), South Carolina (5), Missouri (1)
The lack of dual meets resulted in there not being too many significant shakeups in the women’s ranks, though the Alabama women did drop from sixth to eighth after news that Morgan Scott and Cora Dupre will both be absent for the rest of the season. The Crimson Tide also dropped duals to both Texas (213.5-139.5) and Ohio State (220-133) last weekend.
The Indiana women jumped up into the top 10, moving up three spots into ninth after a dominant 208.5-91.5 win over Michigan.
Another notable change came from the Georgia women, who fell 166-134 to Kentucky in mid-December and thus plummet from ninth to 15th, while the Wildcats climb up from 20th to 14th.
MEN’S RANKINGS
Rank | Prev | Team | Points |
1 | 1 | Arizona State (17) | 449 |
2 | 3 | California (1) | 432 |
3 | 4 | Florida | 411 |
4 | 5 | NC State | 386 |
T-5 | 2 | Texas | 363 |
T-5 | 13 | Ohio State | 363 |
7 | 7 | Indiana | 346 |
8 | 6 | Tennessee | 342 |
9 | 9 | Auburn | 301 |
10 | 8 | Texas A&M | 272 |
11 | 10 | Georgia | 264 |
12 | 12 | Stanford | 249 |
13 | 19 | Virginia Tech | 234 |
14 | 11 | Virginia | 223 |
15 | 14 | Alabama | 212 |
16 | 16 | Florida State | 165 |
T-17 | 15 | Michigan | 154 |
T-17 | 18 | Louisville | 154 |
19 | 17 | Arizona | 144 |
20 | 20 | Southern California | 99 |
21 | 21 | Georgia Tech | 77 |
T-22 | 23 | Notre Dame | 68 |
T-22 | 22 | Missouri | 68 |
24 | 24 | Wisconsin | 41 |
25 | 25 | Minnesota | 23 |
Also receiving votes: Princeton (4), SMU (3), North Carolina (2), Columbia (1)
The Texas men dropped a 189-164 dual to Ohio State last weekend in a tri-meet with Alabama, which resulted in a big shakeup in the men’s top 10.
The Longhorns fell from second down into a tie for fifth with the Buckeyes, who moved up eight spots after sitting in 13th last month.
The Virginia Tech men defeated the Cavaliers 162-138 on Saturday, which pushed the Hokies up six spots into 13th, while UVA slides three spots into 14th.
THE COMMITTEES
Each Division I committee includes representatives from each Power Five conference, along with seven at-large voters from mid-major programs. You can find the full lists below:
Women’s Poll Committee
- Ashley Dell, Illinois-Chicago
- Naya Higashijima, Southern Methodist (Chair)
- Andrew Hodgson, Northwestern
- Lars Jorgensen, Kentucky
- Jeana Kempe, Illinois
- Nathan Lavery, Drexel
- Chris Lindauer, Notre Dame
- Ben Loorz, UNLV
- Bret Lundgaard, Princeton
- Lea Maurer, Southern California
- Alice McCall, TCU
- Jaclyn Rosen, UCSB
- Jos Smith, Utah
- Milana Socha, Dartmouth
- Albert Subirats, Virginia Tech
- Roman Willets, Alabama
- SwimSwam
- Swimming World
Men’s Poll Committee
- Jim Bolster, Columbia
- Abby Brethauer, Princeton
- Jason Calanog, Texas A&M
- Jerry Champer, Georgia
- Alicia Hicken-Franklin, Denver
- Mike Joyce, Minnesota
- Jessica Livsey, Old Dominion
- Laura McGlaughlin, Villanova
- Trevor Maida, Wisconsin
- Samantha Pitter, Pittsburgh
- Bill Roberts, Navy (Chair)
- Dan Schemmel, Stanford
- Shari Skabelund, BYU
- Rachel Stratton-Mills, Arizona State
- Neal Studd, Florida State
- Dr. Rick West, West Virginia
- SwimSwam
- Swimming World
You can find the full CSCAA release here.
This seems like the weirdest most arbitrary poll. A dual meet ranking doesn’t seem to be that important, especially one that is done by votes. It would seem that enough times are in the database that they could have an objective score rather than a subjective rank.
wtf her arms are way bigger than mine
Better start working those arm days
#strongandpowerful
This is just for dual meets. I seriously doubt that OSU men will be in the top 5 at NCAA’s. No offense to OSU, they just don’t have enough front-liners to score a lot of points at NCAA’s. They have plenty of depth, but that won’t help at NCAA’s, or even Big10’s (still be a fight between IU/OSU for the title)
ohio state actually has a very well suited roster for dual meets, i would agree with you on that
Ohio State men tied with Texas men for 5th lmaooooooo
ASU men #1 and women didn’t make the list at all! Is that the biggest discrepancy between a mens ‘s and women’s teams? And coached by the same staff!
“Coached by the same staff” is a very loose sentence to be used here
hoos!!!
HOO do you love?!
all swimmers & divers at the university of virginia!!!