Welcome to our first version of the 2015-16 NCAA Women’s Power Rankings, where, throughout the season, we’re looking to highlight each of the NCAA’s top 20 teams. It’s (very) early in the year, so these rankings are a mix of both how the teams have looked so far, and, ultimately, the team’s end-of-season prospects.
In addition, here’s some other factors we considered (these haven’t changed from last season):
- How the team looks so far this year
- Divers. It’s easy to ignore them to pander to the “what is diving doing with swimming” audience, but they’re part of the game, sorry.
- Year-over-year improvements, adds, etc.
- Depth and flexibility of roster, because teams with more options have a larger margin of error come NCAA’s.
- How the team placed last year at NCAA’s, and how many points they graduated.
20. Michigan Wolverines
Not too much to read into so far; we’re only one meet in, and it was an outdoor long course invitational. The Wolverines bring back almost all of their key personnel from one of their best team runs in years last season.
19. UCLA Bruins
We never like to read too much into the SMU Classic, where the Bruins tied the next team on our list for second place. Teams have a tendency to get up and swim abnormally fast at that meet. Still, it’s hard to ignore Linnea Mack dropping a 52.9 100 back and freshman Caroline McTaggart putting up a 48.6 100 free.
18. Missouri Tigers
Missouri gets the nod over UCLA with more returning NCAA scoring talent. Dani Barbiera is a big loss, but the other three legs of their fourth place NCAA 400 medley relay (Hannah Stevens, Abby Duncan, and Anna Patterson) are all off to great starts.
17. North Carolina Tarheels
The Tar Heel women had a tough NCAA Championship meet last year, but with a young nucleus and a hot start to the fall recruiting season (along with taking Georgia to the final relay last weekend), the program is on their way back up toward the top 15.
16. Minnesota Golden Gophers
Minnesota has had two nail-biters to open the season, with a tie against Florida and a two-point loss to rival Wisconsin. Plenty of talent on this squad, but Kierra Smith (redshirt) was missed in both meets.
15. Florida Gators
Don’t be shocked to see Florida this low early on; it’s that time of year for the Gators. They’ll rise up soon enough. That being said, there were a number of red flags in their meets against Indiana (loss), Texas (loss), and Minnesota (tie).
14. Wisconsin Badgers
Chase Kinney has stepped up to fill in for the graduation of Ivy Martin, including 22.0 and 48.6 splits against Minnesota in the Badgers’ season-opening win.
13. Indiana Hoosiers
The Hoosiers are without Brooklynn Snodgrass (redshirting), but they do finally have breaststrokers, thanks to freshmen Lilly King and Miranda Tucker.
12. Arizona Wildcats
The Wildcats haven’t competed yet this season; we’ll see their top-flight freshmen class for the first time this weekend against UNLV and Washington State.
11. Auburn Tigers
They’ve only had one meet, but it may be the best early-season Auburn has looked in years. The Tigers drubbed rival Alabama, with strong performances by freshmen Bailey Nero and Aly Tetzloff.
10. USC Trojans
No Kendyl Stewart hurts, and it showed against NC State; the Wolfpack won the 100 and 200 backstrokes, and also went 1-2 in the 100 fly (Stewart’s NCAA lineup last March). On a brighter note, transfer star Anika Apostalon is fairing well in her first semester.
9. Tennessee Volunteers
Last weekend was mixed bag for the Volunteers. They looked great against Missouri, only to turn around and get knocked out cold by Virginia. Of course, less than 24 hours between meets and having to fly from Columbia to Charlottesville may have played a role in that result.
8. NC State Wolfpack
NC State surprised a number of swim fans last weekend, flying to Los Angeles and downing the Trojans in their home pool by a substantial margin. Alexia Zevnik and Riki Bonnema led the way, as the Wolfpack won 7 of 8 swimming events to open the meet, and captured all four relay titles on the weekend.
7. Texas A&M Aggies
Big jump from #8 to #7. The Aggies had some big losses coming into the year, but there are still NCAA scorers abound on the roster. Their first big test of the year is in two weeks against arch-rival Texas.
6. Texas Longhorns
The Texas women (as well as the men) are known for going toe-to-toe against high-caliber regular season competition. They took on Indiana and Florida last weekend, dismantling both in their home pool. This is another freshmen class we need to keep our eyes on.
5. Virginia Cavaliers
Their top 5 is as good as anyone else’s in the country, but the Cavaliers are starting to show more depth. Virginia took the first six events in their dominant win over Tennessee, highlighted by a 1-2-3-4 finish in the 200 free that included three swimmers (CeCe Williams, Eryn Eddy, Megan Moroney) under 1:49.
4. Louisville Cardinals
Louisville isn’t slowing down after last season’s program-best 6th place NCAA finish. Andee Cottrell has put up some eye-popping breaststroke times, including a 2:08.6 200 in the Cardinals’ SMU Classic victory. This team is looking to replace the lost points of Tanja Kylliainen and support superstar Kelsi Worrell.
3. Georgia Bulldogs
Their win against North Carolina was a tight one, and it showed the lack of sprint depth without Chantal van Landeghem, as well as the Bulldogs’ massive void in the breaststroke events. However, there’s too much talent on this team to (probably) ever fall below third on this list.
2. Stanford Cardinal
The Cardinal have six returning NCAA champions on the roster (two of whom have individual titles), and freshman IM star Ella Eastin is fitting right into the mix without issue.
1. California Golden Bears
Our preseason favorite to run the table. The breaststroke problem persists, but the Bears have been on point through their first two wins. Elizabeth Pelton is back in action, and the freshmen class is leading the way.
Come back next week for our men’s power rankings!
UVA could win all of the relays this year. Not saying will, but could. I’d put them in top 3 right now.
All? Mmmh not too quick there buddy… I don’t think they can win it all at the ACC level with Louisville, UNC, and oh NC State sprinters.. They can win the medley relays but not deep enough in the free. NC State girls won the sprint fr relays at the ACC last year and scored high at NCAA. I don’t see them getting beat by UVA in the sprint free relays just yet. And LOUISVILLE girls are on fire… So who knows what those girls can do!
Ehhh go get em Bears! Thats what Im talkin about
Tennessee actually flew back to Knoxville after their meet against Mizzou, and then drove to Charlottesville the next morning. Seems like a much harder turn around than a flight from Columbia to Charlottesville.
Having familiarity with both locales, a flight from Columbia to Charlottesville was probably nearly impossible to come by (without 2 if not 3 lay-overs). I agree it may explain their lackluster performance against UVA, but it may not have been avoidable.
Actually, they flew to Richmond from Missouri. Got in about midnight and drove to Charlottesville the next morning.
Still a rough travel weekend, but having driven from the Richmond airport to Charlottesville numerous times, it’s not too bad. Much better than driving from Knoxville!
An ok first attempt at rankings. Maybe a bit premature as a few of the teams on this list have had a suited/rested meet while the vast majority of them have not. A more apples-to-apples ranking would come after the fall/winter invites (UGA, US Nats, Texas, OSU, A&M, etc.) when everyone has had a chance to rest and swim fast.
Simone Manuel skipped Stanford’s first two meets. Is she injured, redshirting for a quarter, or redshirting for the entire season?
What benefit do USC swimmers get by enrolling in January? Still burn an entire year of eligibility.
Simone Manuel has skipped Stanford’s first two meets. Is she injured, red shirting first quarter, or redshirting the whole season?
What benefit do USC men’s swimmers get from entering in January? Still use up
Hearst Pool – we’ve reached out to the Stanford athletics department about Manuel’s status, but have not heard definitive word back yet.
Hearst Pool – NCAA scholarship rules allow them to save scholarships on their cap by having swimmers sit out the fall semester.
if you are a freshman and taking a semester off, are you allowed to train with the team? I thought NCAA rules aren’t allowing any incoming freshmen to train with the college team without taking any classes or live within 50 miles radius.
I’m a parent and trying to figure some options for my son for next summer.
if you are a freshman and taking a semester off, are you allowed to train with the team? I thought NCAA rules aren’t allowing any incoming freshmen to train with the college team without taking any classes. *i thought this could only be possible if the incoming freshman lives within 50 miles radius of the campus. Can someone please help me out with this?
I’m a parent and trying to figure some options for my son for next summer.
Hi Swimfan – it depends on a lot of things regarding the swimmer’s specific situation. My suggestion would be to check with the NCAA, the coaches/compliance folks at a specific school you’re looking at. You can also go through a paid recruiting service like ACC Recruiting – Rick Paine writes a lot of articles for us (and is also a SS advertiser – full disclosure).
UGA vs. UNC was very close! Not a breeze
I agree. The UGA UNC meet came down to the final relay. Anything but a “breeze”.
Whoops. I swapped the men’s and women’s scores in my head (men was 170-125) when I wrote Georgia’s. Just fixed.
Go bears!