Editor’s Note: SwimSwam does not participate in the voting for the CSCAA Poll. Our first Power Rankings of the 2015-16 season were released last week.
The Collegiate Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) has unveiled their first women’s rankings of the 2015-2016 season. The Georgia Bulldog team, last year’s NCAA Championships runner-up, narrowly slid by a fight-to-the-end Tar Heel team in their season-opener. Coming down to the last relay, a North Carolina DQ rendered the squad just short of what they needed to stop the Dawgs’ ability to boost their home-in streak to 95. Georgia’s Hali Flickinger swam her way to 3 individual wins – 200 free, 200 back, 200 fly – and now holds the NCAA’s top time in 2 of those events, to help propel her Dawgs to the top of the initial CSCAA rankings.
Last year’s NCAA Champions, the California Bears, find themselves positioned in the number 7 spot, just ahead of the Louisville Cardinals at this early point in the season. With the Bears’ talent-rich roster, including freshmen Kathleen Baker and Amy Bilquist, juniors Celina Li and Farida Osman and seniors Rachel Bootsma and Elizabeth Pelton, moving up in the rankings is only a matter of time for the Pac-12 powerhouse.
About: The College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Division I Team Rankings are compiled by nine CSCAA-member coaches and one media member. The rankings will be released on a weekly basis throughout the 2015-16 season, alternating weeks between a men’s and women’s team ranking.
Methodology: The CSCAA DI Poll Committee will produce in-season rankings of the 25 best performing NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving teams in rank order at the time of each poll. The poll is not designed to predict the results of the NCAA Championship, but rather which teams would win head-to-head against other teams in the country. Ranking are based on performances that have taken place since the previous poll and include invites as well as dual meets. The committee does not consider teams that have yet to post official times in the current college season for the first poll.
CSCAA NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Ranking as of October 27, 2015
Rank Team Points 1 Georgia 249 2 Stanford 226 3 Texas 224 4 Virginia 218 5 North Carolina 188 6 Florida 187 7 California 180 8 Louisville 176 9 Wisconsin 160 10 Tennessee 157 11 Indiana 152 12 Auburn 139 13 NC State 132 14 Southern California 126 15 Texas A & M 122 16 UCLA 97 17 Minnesota 94 18 Arizona 73 19 Missouri 69 20 Penn State 59 21 Southern Methodist 56 22 Duke 42 23 Michigan 39 24 Alabama 30 25 Florida State 16
Women’s DI Poll Committee:
Chair: Suzanne Yee, Princeton University; Dan Colella, Duke University; Roric Fink, University of Texas; Naya Higashijima, UCLA; Tanica Jamison, Texas A&M University; Mike Keeler, University of San Diego; Colleen Murphy, United States Air Force Academy; Sue Novitsky, University of Illinois; Katie Robinson, Tulane; Colin Shannahan, Wagner College
Woohoo go Georgia girls! Watching the girls train everyday pushes me to give my best whenever I can! Go dawgs!