All times are based on USA Swimming’s Event Rank database for NCAA Division I.
With the brunt of mid-season invitationals now wrapped up in the NCAA’s Division I, it’s time to take a look at how many swimmers have already punched their tickets to the NCAA Championships.
As of December 15th, 59 different swimmers have qualified individually – 32 women and 27 men.*
That’s just a tick behind the 65 athletes who had qualified by this time last year.
To qualify at this point, athletes must hit an NCAA “A” standard in at least one event. Any athlete who hits an “A” standard can swim that event at the national championships, plus any other events where they get to a “B” standard. You can find this year’s “A” and “B” cuts here.
Late this winter, after conference meet season, the official NCAA selections will be made. Any athlete who gets an “A” cut is automatically in, and then the NCAA invites the next fastest “B” cuts in each event until they hit their athlete cap – only 270 men are allowed in and 322 women.
That’s a bird’s eye view of what’s a somewhat complex invite process. To get a more in-depth look, you can read our refresher from last season here.
*Note: USC’s Cristian Quintero is officially listed with an “A” cut in the 200 free, based on a conversion of his short course meters time from Short Course Worlds. However, Quintero is not competing with USC until next semester, and any qualifying time he swims shouldn’t count until he officially becomes eligible. We’ve left him off our list unless we get confirmation that his qualifying time does indeed count.
Individuals
At this point, we can only speculate as to what kinds of “B” cut times will ultimately get invited, but we can tell who is for sure into the meet by tallying up “A” cuts. So far this year, we’ve got 32 women and 27 men under the cut in at least one event. You can check out the full list at the bottom of this post.
The California and Georgia women lead all programs with 5 individuals already qualified. Virginia sits at 3. On the men’s side, Texas and Georgia have each qualified 4, while Cal has 3 men in.
Relays
The relay process is similar. The NCAA has “Qualifying Standards” (essentially “A” cuts for relays) and “Provisional Standards” (somewhat like “B” cuts).
Any team that hits a qualifying standard in any of the 5 relay events is eligible to enter all 5 relays at NCAAs. The catch is that the team must qualify at least one individual for the meet as well.
Once a team has at least one relay “A” cut and one individual qualified, the team can bring up to 3 “relay-only” swimmers along to NCAAs to fill out the relay races.
So far, 15 women’s programs and 9 men’s programs have hit at least one qualifying standard. Each of these schools are very likely to get an individual into the NCAA Championships, but 2 women’s teams and 2 men’s teams have yet to have an individual make an A cut.
Here are the schools that have hit qualifying standards in a relay. We’ve italicized the programs that have to officially qualify an individual before they can swim at NCAAs:
Women:
Stanford: 200 free, 400 free, 800 free, 200 medley, 400 medley
California: 200 free, 400 free, 800 free, 200 medley, 400 medley
Texas: 200 free, 400 free, 200 medley, 400 medley
Virginia: 200 free, 800 free, 200 medley, 400 medley
Georgia: 200 free, 400 free, 400 medley
Florida: 200 free, 400 free
Missouri: 200 free, 400 medley
Auburn: 200 free, 200 medley
Texas A&M: 400 free, 400 medley
Southern Cal: 200 medley, 400 medley
Wisconsin: 200 free
Kentucky: 800 free
Indiana: 800 free
Florida State: 200 medley
Michigan: 400 medley
Men:
Georgia: 400 free, 800 free, 200 medley, 400 medley
Texas: 200 free, 400 free, 200 medley 400 medley
Louisville: 400 free, 800 free, 200 medley, 400 medley
California: 200 free, 200 medley, 400 medley
Auburn: 200 free, 400 free
Arizona: 200 free
Ohio State: 400 free
Missouri: 200 free
Stanford: 400 free
And, of course, here are the individuals who have already hit NCAA “A” cuts, plus the events they’ve qualified in. Swimmers don’t neccessarily have to enter all of these events at NCAAs, and swimmers qualified in more than three races will have to choose three individuals to swim at NCAAs.
Note: Events that have been converted from short course meters (as is allowable under NCAA rules) are marked with an asterisk.
Women:
| Name | School | Events |
| Missy Franklin | California | 100 free, 200 free, 200 back, 200 IM |
| Elizabeth Pelton | California | 200 free, 100 back, 200 back, 200 IM |
| Cierra Runge | California | 500 free |
| Rachel Bootsma | California | 100 back |
| Celina Li | California | 400 IM |
| Amber McDermott | Georgia | 500 free, 400 IM |
| Brittany MacLean | Georgia | 500 free, 1650 free |
| Chantal van Landeghem | Georgia | 50 free |
| Kylie Stewart | Georgia | 200 back |
| Hali Flickinger | Georgia | 400 IM |
| Courtney Bartholomew | Virginia | 100 back, 200 back, 200 IM |
| Leah Smith | Virginia | 500 free, 1650 free |
| Laura Simon | Virginia | 200 breast |
| Simone Manuel | Stanford | 50 free, 100 free, 200 free |
| Lia Neal | Stanford | 100 free |
| Brooklynn Snodgrass | Indiana | 100 back, 200 back |
| Kennedy Goss | Indiana | 200 back |
| Bonnie Brandon | Arizona | 1650 free |
| Tjasa Oder | Arizona | 1650 free |
| Gillian Ryan | Michigan | 1650 free |
| Clara Smiddy | Michigan | 200 back |
| Tina Bechtel | Kentucky | 100 fly, 200 fly |
| Molly Hannis | Tennessee | 100 breast, 200 breast |
| Kelsi Worrell | Louisville | 100 fly, 200 fly |
| Kierra Smith | Minnesota | 200 breast |
| Dani Barbeia | Missouri | 100 fly |
| Emma Reaney | Notre Dame | 100 breast |
| Gretchen Jaques | Texas | 100 breast |
| Sarah Henry | Texas A&M | 400 IM |
| Ivy Martin | Wisconsin | 50 free |
| Jessica Thiemann | Florida | 1650 free |
| Chelsea Britt | Florida State | 200 fly |
Men:
| Name | School | Events |
| Chase Kalisz | Georgia | 200 fly, 400 IM |
| Mathias Koski | Georgia | 500 free |
| Nic Fink | Georgia | 200 breast |
| Gunnar Bentz | Georgia | 400 IM |
| Jay Litherland | Georgia | 400 IM |
| Joseph Schooling | Texas | 100 fly, 200 fly |
| Clark Smith | Texas | 500 free, 200 fly |
| Jack Conger | Texas | 200 back, 100 fly |
| Will Licon | Texas | 200 breast |
| Ryan Murphy | California | 100 back, 200 back |
| Chuck Katis | California | 100 breast |
| Josh Prenot | California | 400 IM |
| Kevin Cordes | Arizona | 100 breast, 200 breast |
| Brad Tandy | Arizona | 50 free |
| Mitch D’Arrigo | Florida | 200 free*, 500 free* |
| Dan Wallace | Florida | 500 free |
| Sam Tierney | Missouri | 100 breast, 200 breast |
| Kristian Gkolomeev | Alabama | 50 free |
| Joe Patching | Auburn | 200 back |
| Jake Taylor | BYU | 200 back |
| Peter Kropp | Duke | 100 breast |
| Grant Betulius | Iowa | 100 back |
| Grigory Tarasevich | Louisville | 200 back |
| Dylan Bosch | Michigan | 200 fly |
| Chris Swanson | Penn | 1650 free |
| Evan Pinion | Tennessee | 1650 free |
| Drew teDuits | Wisconsin | 200 back |
No Caleb Dressel in the 50??
GTswim – no, Caeleb doesn’t have an “A” cut in the 50. He hit last year’s “A” cut, but not this year’s “A” cut.
So, if a team makes a qualifying standard in a single relay, and they have a single individual A-cut qualifier, they can enter all five relays, but they have to use the same four swimmers in all the relays?
Another question: if a swimmer has a single A-cut and several B-cuts, can they choose to swim only events in which they have a B-cut? In other words, can they use the A-cut to get qualified into the meet, but not actually swim that event, while still exercising their B-cut rights in other events?
Ferb – Good questions. As to the relay inquiry, you’re correct. That situation gets easier as a team qualifies more individual athletes and can use any combination of their individually-qualified athletes and relay-only swimmers.
To your individuals question, the short answer is no. Longer answer: After conference meets have wrapped up, each team will enter individual athletes into NCAAs in up to 3 individual events each. Those entries are what the NCAA invites are based on. So if a swimmer hits an “A” cut in the 400 IM, but chooses to enter the 50 free, 100 free and 200 free at NCAAs, he/she does not get into the meet based on his/her 400 IM time. That swimmer would have to… Read more »