Only 22 Teams Qualify for Relays at 2021 NCAA Women’s Champs, Down from 30

It takes four very solid swimmers, if not a couple of strong swimmers and a star or two, to qualify a relay to the NCAA Championships. It’s common that a team with one or two stars still can’t get a relay fast enough during the season to get to swim it at the big meet.

This year, for the 2021 NCAA Women’s Championships, 22 teams have at least one eligible relay.

The last three seasons, 30 teams have qualified, so having eight fewer teams is significant. The last two years, at least one mid-major team had an eligible relay, too, but no mid-majors did so this year. The Ivy League canceled the 2020-21 season, though, which took out several potential relay qualifiers. Arizona State also accounts for one of the losses, as they’re redshirting the season but typically qualify relays.

20 teams have eligible relays for the 400 free and 400 medley relays, while the 200 medley and 800 free relays have only 17 teams eligible, so nearly every team will score in those if they swim them at NCAAs.

Virginia, NC State, Cal and Texas were the four teams to hit automatic qualifying standards in all five relays, and six other teams were able to qualify five relays with a mix of ‘A’ and ‘B’ cuts.

Arizona, Arkansas, Auburn, Duke, Houston, San Diego State and South Carolina all qualified relays in 2020 but were unable to this year. Auburn’s 200 and 400 free relays were the top seeds for the 2020 NCAA Championships. Meanwhile, after qualifying no relays last year, Virginia Tech has four and UCLA has two, though neither team has an ‘A’ cut.

Check out the full chart below, and note that ‘PS’ means the relay has a provisional standard, not an automatic one.