Official invite lists have still been released for the 2019 Women’s NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships, and among the 281 who now have their spot at nationals confirmed is Tennessee junior Meghan Small.
Small is entered in the 200 IM (top seed, 1:51.62); the 200 free (10th seed, 1:43.31), and 200 backstroke (53rd seed, 1:55.27). She swam the 200 IM (new Meet Record) and 200 free (2nd place) at SECs, but her other entry was a 200 fly – that she wound up scratching with an apparent illness.
Small’s best time in the 200 back is a 1:51.56, but that was done in 2016 when she was sstill in high school. Her best time as a collegian is 1:51.91 from SECs in 2017.
Last year at NCAAs, she swam a wholly different lineup. The 200 IM was there, where she placed 5th, but she matched that with the 400 IM (no scoring and the 200 fly (16th place) as she missed her seed time in all 3 races. Tennessee is seeded to finish 4th as a team this year, but they’ll need to improve as a group to live up to that. Last year, the Volunteers didn’t score in 2 of the 4 relays they used Small on: one via DQ in finals, and one via missing finals.
I said something about her swimming 2 Back at the beginning of the season when the rankings came out and Tennessee had a poor back rating. I had a bunch of people saying that she wasn’t that good at backstroke and that she wouldn’t swim it. Now I feel rather vindicated.
She was great in age group at back so I don’t know why she would have fallen off a ton
Where did she swim age group?
Opposite of Ella Eastin
Leggooooo! I thought it was interesting she had focused so much on fly this year after being such a good backstroker out of high school. Hoping for a big swim!
Smart choice – 200 Back is a better event for her than the 200 Fly
Interesting choice. She’s got 1:48 potential.