There are oftentimes too many meets to focus on in one week of the NCAA season. With all of the racing going on across the country this week, zone in on a few big ones that should produce fast swimming, great races, and more intrigue.
The weekly preview is meant to highlight big meets of the week, including any key races to watch, people coming back from injury or time off, or anything else you need to know. Let us know in the comments about other meets we didn’t talk about here, and why we should pay attention to them!
Note that these are just several meets that piqued our interest, and this is not a comprehensive preview for every single meet happening this week.
Conference meets start soon, so these previews will be giving way to full-blown conference fan guides.
CAL V. USC (M)
- Date – 2/8
- Hosts – Cal
Why you should pay attention: The women competed last weekend, and now it’s the men’s turn. Cal’s men’s team is sharpening up to challenge the Texas Longhorns at NCAAs, but not before these last few dual meets and the Pac-12 Champs, which are still more than three seconds away. Cal freshman Reece Whitley will square up with USC’s Carsten Vissering in a breaststroke battle, but this is going to be tough for the Trojans to deal too much damage against the Bears.
STANFORD V. USC (M)
- Date – 2/9
- Hosts – Stanford
Why you should pay attention: Just like their women, USC will have to face the beasts of the Pac-12 in two straight days of racing. They’ll head up to the Bay Area, where Vissering will be favored to take the 100 breast and Patrick Mulcare should prove a tough opponent for the Cardinal backstrokers.
ARIZONA V. ASU
- Date – 2/9
- Hosts – Arizona
Why you should pay attention: Another great Pac-12 match-up with both the men’s and women’s teams. The Sun Devils won the men’s and women’s meets last year, so the Wildcats will look to bounce back this time around and make it most competitive, at the least.
INVITE MEETS
- Dates – varied
- Ohio State Invite, Auburn Invite, Nike Cup (UNC), SMU
These meets are designed for non-conference swimmers to have a taper meet and for conference team members and NCAA hopefuls to try to snag NCAA invite cuts prior to the grueling storm of a four- or five-day conference championship. There are often big swims that come out of these meets.
Last week I posted a correction to a SWIMSWAM article stating the Cal Women’s meets with USC and UCLA was NOT in Los Angeles but at Cal Berkeley. Now you have the men’s meet again versus USC this week (2/8) as being held in Los Angeles when it is again in Berkeley. I know people may think this is a minor point, but some Bay Area people may not have attended the meets if they thought they had to go to LA 500 miles south.
So a head’s up: the LAST MEETS for Cal women and men this month will be great meets with our Bay Area neighbor Stanford and the meets wiil again be at CAL, and the last… Read more »