2022-2023 NCAA Women’s Power Rankings: February Edition

As in previous years, SwimSwam’s Power Rankings are somewhere between the CSCAA-style dual meet rankings and a pure prediction of NCAA finish order.  SwimSwam’s rankings take into account how a team looks at the moment, while focusing on each team’s NCAA scoring potential (see the CSCAA poll for dual meet rankings). These rankings are by nature subjective, and a jumping-off point for discussion.  If you disagree with any team’s ranking, feel free to make your case in our comments section.

Braden Keith, Spencer Penland, Robert Gibbs, Yanyan Li, Sophie Kaufman and Anya Pelshaw contributed to this report.

We’re now approaching the apex of the collegiate swimming season, with major conference championships set to get underway next week before the NCAA Championships go off in March.

We’ve seen a lot of change over the last month on the women’s side, as Alabama lost a few key swimmers, Tennessee got some of theirs back (but are still without one significant piece), and Florida added Emma Weyant to the fold.

As a result, the Gators crack the top 10 for the first time this season, while the Crimson Tide fall from the top-five down to 11th.

We’ve also seen some notable performances, particularly from Texas, which has solidified itself in the #2 slot after previously being ranked neck-and-neck with Stanford.

Previous Ranks

• Pre-Season Edition
• October Edition
• New Year’s Edition

Honorable Mentions: Arkansas Razorbacks, Arizona State Sun Devils, Georgia Tech Yellowjackets

#25: ARIZONA WILDCATS ↓1 (PREVIOUS RANK: 24)

#24: VIRGINIA TECH HOKIES ↑1 (PREVIOUS RANK: 25)

Emma Atkinson, Chase Travis, and Carmen Weiler Sastre could make a really good trio for this team. -YL

#23: TEXAS A&M AGGIES – (PREVIOUS RANK: 23)

#22: MIAMI (FL) HURRICANES ↓1 (PREVIOUS RANK: 21)

#21: AUBURN TIGERS ↑1 (PREVIOUS RANK: 22)

#20: NORTHWESTERN WILDCATS – (PREVIOUS RANK: 20)

Sure, Northwestern had a few sparks fire at their quad meet against Purdue, Iowa, and Minnesota (Ashley Strouse going her fastest times in years, multiple 21-point splits, etc.), but Jasmine Nocentini being out with an injury kills their chance of scoring any big NCAA points. -YL

Jasmine Nocentini injured is a blow, but there were a lot of positives to take away from their quad with Minnesota, Purdue, and Iowa, which they dominated. -SK

#19: DUKE BLUE DEVILS – (PREVIOUS RANK: 19)

Martina Peroni’s 1:53.76 in the 200 fly makes her the favorite to win the event at ACCs if Alex Walsh doesn’t swim it. I’ll expand on this more in my ACC preview, but the contributions of Blue Devil freshmen could make 2023 the year that Duke upsets their in-state rivals UNC at ACCs. -YL

Freshmen Kaelyn Gridley and Martina Peroni set school records in the 100 breast and 200 fly at Duke’s dual with UNC. Both times (Gridley – 59.12 100 BR and Peroni 1:53.76 200 FL) would’ve scored at 2022 NCAAs, a great sign for a team that’s relied on Sarah Foley for the majority of their points in recent years. -SK

#18: LSU TIGERS – (PREVIOUS RANK: 18)

#17: KENTUCKY WILDCATS – (PREVIOUS RANK: 17)

#16: MICHIGAN WOLVERINES – (PREVIOUS RANK: 16)

#15: WISCONSIN BADGERS – (PREVIOUS RANK: 15)

Wisconsin got a lot of pre-season hype but hasn’t done too much as of now. Will names like Phoebe Bacon, Blaire Stoneburg, and Paige McKenna show out at conferences? -YL

#14: USC TROJANS – (PREVIOUS RANK: 14)

Kaitlyn Dobler’s been quiet recently, but with the postseason approaching, we’re all going to remember how good she is in a hurry. She’s known for her breaststroke, but she can also throw down a great 50 free. -SK

#13: NORTH CAROLINA TAR HEELS – (PREVIOUS RANK: 13)

#12: GEORGIA BULLDOGS ↓2 (PREVIOUS RANK: 10)

The Lady Bulldogs dropping two spots is probably more indicative of a couple of teams surging rather than them dipping, though they were beaten handily by Tennessee in late January. -JS

#11: ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE ↓6 (PREVIOUS RANK: 5)

Alabama has always relied on its sprinters and relays to rank high, so the loss of their best sprinters in Morgan Scott and Cora Dupre warrants a big drop in the rankings. -YL

The losses of Morgan Scott and Cora Dupre will sting. -AP

#10: CAL GOLDEN BEARS ↓1  (PREVIOUS RANK: 9)

#9: TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS ↑2 (PREVIOUS RANK: 11)

Ellen Walshe is scheduled to race this coming weekend in Portugal. With the SEC Championships just a week away, it’s looking less and less like the two-time SEC Champion will be back for the Vols this season. -BK

It looks like Ellen Walshe won’t be swimming at SECs, but after the news on Alabama, Tennessee appears to be a heavy favorite to win conferences with names like Kristen Stege and Jasmine Rumley back. -YL

The Tennessee women have gotten some of their star power back, a nice boost on top of how well they swam at midseason. -SK

#8: FLORIDA GATORS ↑4 (PREVIOUS RANK: 12)

Emma Weyant has been swimming REALLY well, which is significant considering how slow Florida usually goes in-season. I’m excited to see what she can do at NCAAs, and just her addition to the team convinces me to put Florida back in the top 10. -YL

It doesn’t look like Caroline Pennington will race in a Gator cap this season but Emma Weyant getting cleared is more than enough to bump the Gators up the standings, and she’s already been faster in the mile than she was at NCAAs last year. -SK

#7: INDIANA HOOSIERS ↑1 (PREVIOUS RANK: 8)

The Hoosiers are entering Big Tens on a high after a trio of wins over Michigan, Purdue and Louisville in January. -JS

#6: LOUISVILLE CARDINALS – (PREVIOUS RANK: 6)

The Louisville women have been putting up some fast suited swims lately. -YL

#5: OHIO STATE BUCKEYES ↑2 (PREVIOUS RANK: 7)

After a “meh” midseason performance, Ohio State had great performances at the Tim Welsh Classic (and they gained Hannah Bach back, amongst other things) and are now up near the top of the leaderboard in relays once more. If they can pull it together and not peak at Big Tens, I can see them beating Louisville at NCAAs. -YL

#4: NC STATE WOLFPACK – (PREVIOUS RANK: 4)

The Wolfpack is the team that stands to benefit most from Alabama’s losses. They lost to Texas both days of their dual, but still had some solid swims. -SK

#3: STANFORD CARDINAL – (PREVIOUS RANK: 3)

This freshmen class is living up to the billing, they look exceptional. Do they look better than Texas, or Virginia for that matter? Not so sure, but maybe Pac-12s will change our perspective on that. -SP

Their meet schedule gives Stanford absolutely no reason to show their cards until the postseason, and they’ve been swimming well in their January duals. -SK

#2: TEXAS LONGHORNS – (PREVIOUS RANK: 2)

Stanford never shows their cards until at least Pac-12s, so there’s always some mystery, but after Texas’ performance against NC State, they’re a clear #2 for me. -BK

For the first time this season, I’m putting Texas over Stanford—their performances against NC State and at the Jill Sterkel Classic convinced me. Emma Sticklen seems to have unlocked a new gear within her, Erica Sullivan is swimming faster than her NCAAs times, and swimmers like Abby Pfeifer and Olivia McMurray are having breakthroughs. -YL

Texas looks great, like really great. We also have to remember they’ll get their diving points too. Not only are their stars swimming very fast in recent weeks, but they’ve had new NCAA qualifiers emerge. For example, Abby Pfeifer just went 16:07 in the mile and Olivia McMurray went 4:39 in the 500 at the Sterkel Classic. Both those times are top eight in the NCAA this season, and neither swimmer had even qualified for NCAAs before. -SP

Texas newcomers Lydia Jacoby and Dakota Luther have been great, but it’s the surges from the returning Longhorns like Pash, Sticklen, and Sullivan that convinced me to bump Texas ahead of Stanford. -SK

The Texas women have really been dropping time and making moves lately. -AP

#1: VIRGINIA CAVALIERS – (PREVIOUS RANK: 1)

Aimee Canny’s weekend boosts Virginia and fills the only event they had zero ‘A’ finalists in. -AP

The discussion about whether Douglass, A. Walsh, and G. Walsh could go 9-for-9 at NCAAs shows just how dominant this UVA team is. Throw in Tuggle hitting a yards PB for the first time in 5 years and Canny really figuring out yards swimming and you’ve got a group that’s primed for a three-peat. -SK

Virginia is still Virginia, we know the drill at this point. No holes, except for diving, and an unbelievable amount of depth. NCAA is absolutely still their meet to lose at this point, although in recent weeks Texas has been doing its best to start making things interesting. -SP

Many of Virginia’s swimmers that were relatively quiet during midseasons showed out at the Cavalier invite. There were some big performances from swimmers outside the UVA “big three”, such as Ella Nelson dropping a second in her 200 IM and breaking a minute in the 100 breast, Aimee Canny’s breakout 1:42 200 free, Claire Tuggle hitting her first best time in four years in the 200 free, and Sam Baron setting season-bests in her primary events—which all show that UVA is a team that is stacked from top to bottom. -YL

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