Meet The Mid-Major Qualifiers For Division I Women’s NCAAs

WOMEN’S NCAA DIVISION I CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Psych Sheets
• Invited Swimmers by Team (Doesn’t include relay-only swimmers)
• Eligible Relays
• Alternates List

The official psych sheets for the Women’s NCAAs have been released, and with it 281 swimmers from 57 Division I teams have earned invites to the meet. Included in those is a list of 18 mid-major schools with at least one qualifier. We’re counting mid-major programs as those Division I programs outside of the Power 5 conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC). While not all teams in the Power 5 conferences receive the same funding, our goal here is introduce you to swimmers from some of the other schools that might not be as familiar to the mainstream swimming fan.

Another reminder: the numbers used in this post only contain swimmers, as divers have not yet completed their Zone qualifying process. The inclusion of divers will likely add the presence a few more mid-major teams to the meet.

Here is the list of Mid-Major teams with qualifiers, and the number of invited swimmers (note: this list only contains individual swimmers invited. No relays are included):

Akron seems to be leading this charge of Mid-Major programs, having qualified 3 individual swimmers and 4 out of 5 relays to the meet. Although San Diego State also punched 3 tickets to the meet, Akron was the only Mid-Major program to have qualified any relays to NCAAs. Additionally, Akron hit the ‘A’ cut in 3 of those relays, a feat which a good number of Power Five teams didn’t even attain. The Zips are also seeded in scoring position in the 200 and 400 free relays.

Akron’s 3 swimmers individually invited were senior Sadie Fazekas, sophomore Paulina Nogaj, and freshman Sarah Watson. Fazekas was invited in the 50 free and 100 back, while Nogaj and Watson earned invites in the 100 fly. Additionally, 4 more Zips are eligible to compete in the relays. Those include senior Regan Engel, junior Ellie Nebraska, sophomore Paula Garcia, and freshman Sofia Henell.

Now, let’s dig further into the specifics of these Mid-Major invitees. Of the 26 swimmers from Mid-Major programs that were invited to the meet, 9 of them earned an invite in multiple events. Two of them earned the maximum of 3 event invites. (Note before I continue: these numbers I’m talking about are just simply the events each swimmer was invited in. All swimmers that earn an invite to the meet are then allowed to swim up to 3 events as long as they have the ‘B’ cuts in those events) Those two swimmer were Bella Hindley (Yale) and Lauren Barber (Navy). Hindley earned herself invites in the 50 free, 100 free, and 100 back, while Barber was invited in the 200 IM, 100 breast, and 200 breast.

Here are the other 7 swimmers that earned multiple invites and the events they were invited in:

• Sadie Fazekas (Akron senior) – 50 free/100 back
• Delaney Duncan (Eastern Michigan senior) – 100 breast/200 breast
• Naomi Ruele (Florida International senior) – 50 free/100 free
• Mikaela Dahlke (Harvard junior) – 100 free/200 free
• Phoebe Hines (Hawaii junior) – 500 free/1650 free
• Marie-claire Schillinger (Rice senior) – 100 breast/200 breast
• Andrea Podmanikova (SMU sophomore) – 100 breast/200 breast

Leading the way individually for these Mid-Major swimmers is Hawaii junior Phoebe Hines. Hines is the top seed in the 1650 with her time of 15:41.35. She’s been leading the NCAA in the mile this season with that time since Novemeber, and if she manages to win the 1650 at NCAAs, she would be the first swimmer from a Mid-Major program to win a national title since 2005.

Another Mid-Major star to look out for is Eastern Michigan senior Delaney Duncan. Duncan came in 4th in the 100 breast and 14th in the 200 breast at NCAAs last year. Duncan has been faster this season in both breaststroke events than she was last year. She is seeded 5th and 7th in the 100 and 200 respectively this year.

Bella Hindley went from not making the meet last year to being the 12th seed in the 50 free and 16th seed in the 100 free this year. Martina Thomas, a Navy freshman, is the 2nd highest seeded freshmen (18th) in the 200 free, behind only Stanford’s Taylor Ruck.

Here are the remaining Mid-Major invitees who have not yet been listed:

• Abbey Sorensen (Boise State) – 200 back
• Josiane Valette (Denver) – 100 fly
• Samantha Shelton (Harvard freshman) – 200 back
• Karolina Hajkova (Hawaii sophomore) – 100 back
• Peyton Kondis (Houston junior) – 100 breast
• Bonnie Zhang (James Madison junior) – 100 free
• Megan Clark (Northeastern junior) – 100 free
• Catherine Buroker (Penn freshman) – 1650 free
• Hannah Gouger (Richmond junior) – 200 back
• Morganne McKennan (San Diego State junior) – 100 breast
• Klara Thormalm (San Diego State sophomore) – 100 breast
• Courtney Vincent (San Diego State junior) – 100 fly
• Erin Trahan (SMU junior) – 100 fly
• Solana Laughlin (UC Davis senior) – 200 back