After scoring out the psych sheets for the 2016 NCAA Division II Women’s Championship, we now turn our attention to the men’s meet, which is to be held concurrently on March 9-12 at IU Natatorium in Indianapolis, Indiana.
157 male swimmers from 31 teams have been selected to compete at the DII meet. Defending champion Queens University of Charlotte is hoping to repeat their dominant performance of 2015, but the absence of NCAA record-holder Matt Josa (200 free, 200 back, 100 fly, 200 fly, and 200 IM), who has taken a redshirt year to train for Olympic Trials, will be felt in Indianapolis. Queens has qualified 10 swimmers, 2 fewer than Lindenwood. Delta State and Drury both have 9 invited swimmers, while a handful of other teams boast 8 each. Queens will have their hands full with Lindenwood, but the additional relays and divers could play a big role in the standings, especially for many of the teams in the second tier vying for third through tenth.
Scoring the DII psych sheet is challenging. Unlike in Divisions I and III, Division II rules allow a swimmer to compete in up to four individual events. Swimmers are still held to a seven-event limit, but it is up to the individual teams to determine where their swimmers are most useful. The men’s psych sheet is even more difficult to score than the women’s because more of the athletes are over-entered (in 4 or 5 individual events). We have therefore tried to compensate by making certain assumptions, but it is far from a perfect science.
We should also point out that our model includes the invited relays but not diving. The lion’s share of diving points went to St. Cloud State, Grand Valley State, Clarion, Cal Baptist, and Wayne State last year and these teams look poised to score heavily again this year on the boards.
As a reminder, last year’s top ten were: Queens (NC) 433.; Drury 417.5; Lindenwood 359; Wayne State 285; Florida Southern 273.5; Grand Valley 264; Nova S’Eastern 260; Bridgeport 214.5; Tampa 176; Cal Baptist 171.5.
Here is our version of the psych sheet –without diving included– for 2016 NCAA Division II Men’s Championships:
| Team | Points |
| Lindenwood | 386 |
| Queens | 355 |
| Nova Southeastern | 204 |
| Tampa | 194 |
| Delta State | 183 |
| Saint Leo | 177 |
| Drury | 174 |
| Missouri S&T | 173 |
| Grand Valley | 165 |
| Florida Southern | 164 |
| Colorado Mesa | 159 |
| Cal Baptist | 153 |
| West Chester | 120 |
| Simon Fraser | 117 |
| Wingate | 102 |
| Indianapolis | 93 |
| Florida Tech | 80 |
| UC San Diego | 79 |
| Fresno Pacific | 58 |
| Bloomsburg | 57 |
| Wayne State | 44 |
| Northern Michigan | 43 |
| Limestone | 36 |
| Truman State | 30 |
| Southern Connecticut | 21 |
| Findlay | 16 |
| Ouachita Baptist | 13 |
| St. Cloud State | 13 |
| Missouri St. Louis | 13 |
| Saginaw Valley | 9 |
| Bridgeport | 9 |