Here is a look at the day 1 scoring differentials between seeded points and actual points scored in the meet. It’s pretty obvious that Cal, who picked up over 60 points versus their seeds in swimming alone, is having an outstanding meet in the pool, but they aren’t the only ones. Stanford has kept it close with some improvements over their Pac-12 times, and especially with the help of big diving points.
Texas, despite being only 3rd, actually swam very well on this day (the 200 free relay, which could have been a slot or two higher, not-withstanding). The trick for Texas is going to be that they’re constantly playing a game of catchup as compared to seed, given how unrested they were at the Big 12 Championships. With two divers, though, that can help a ton in these scoring battles, the Longhorns still have to feel good. They have a good 2nd day of this meet lined up, and an outstanding last day (two A-Final divers, among other things, on the platform). On Friday, they really need to just have good relay swims, and maintain contact with the field, to give themselves a shot at winning this title.
Arizona, as was noticeable, did struggle on this day. But they turned things around a bit between prelims and finals, so don’t be surprised if that -24 differential starts trending back towards zero on Friday. Auburn, Michigan, and USC all left points in the pool as well.
Florida was shockingly +11 on the day. That’s thanks to their relays that scored a big 36 combined points, even though individually (outside of Cieslak’s 200 IM) they didn’t have an awesome day. Louisville also continued to move up off of seed, showing that they weren’t tapped out at Big East’s.
Note that Arizona State and Indiana fall in between Ohio State and Georgia, but as they were relying heavily on diving points, a seed-comparison wasn’t all that relevant
The full chart is below, color-coded for convenience. Within 5 either direction gets blue for neutral, greater than +5 gets green for good, and more than 5 below seed gets red, for needs improvement.
| Actual Points | Seeded Points | Total +/- | Swimming +/- | |
| 1. Cal | 157.5 | 93 | +64.5 | +64.5 |
| 2. Stanford | 140 | 101 | +39 | +22 |
| 3. Texas | 128.5 | 63 | +65.5 | +38.5 |
| 4. Arizona | 118 | 133 | -15 | -24 |
| 5. Auburn | 106.5 | 122 | -15.5 | -15.5 |
| 6. Michigan | 84 | 105 | -21 | -21 |
| 7. USC | 79 | 87 | -8 | -8 |
| 8. Florida | 58 | 47 | +11 | +11 |
| 9. Louisville | 46 | 41 | +5 | +5 |
| 10. Texas A&M | 43 | 24 | +19 | +3 |
| 11. Ohio State | 42 | 56 | -14 | -14 |
| 14. Georgia | 25.5 | 31 | -5.5 | -5.5 |