Minimal Shakeup Atop CSCAA Polls Headed Into Holiday Training

The top of the newly released CSCAA poll stayed largely the same at the midway point of the NCAA season, with the defending National Champion Texas Longhorns holding down the top spot of the men’s poll, and the Stanford Cadinal maintaining their position a s the best women’s team.

Men

The men’s side saw a lot more shake-up than the women’s side, with several big movers. The Arizona Wildcats, who were largely written off early this season due to huge losses, moved from fifth to #2 in the current poll after their big midseason taper meet at the Texas Hall of Fame Invite.

Stanford and Cal, who were previously tied for the second spot, are now ranked #3 and  #4, respectively. This is an especially big slide for Cal, who has had a bit of an odd season with so much of their team participating in the World Short Course Championships. In their only head-to-head matchup, at the annual triple distance meet, Cal looked dominant over their archrivals Stanford, yet the Cardinal still received 14 more points in the latest poll.

In other rivalry action, the Ohio State men jumped Michigan thanks to some ridiculous performances at Short Course Nationals. This includes a 46.15 nation-leading time in the 100 backstroke to lead off the medley relay.

The #6 Auburn Tigers, who have begun to turn things around after some disappointment early in the season, moved up one position from seventh, which places them a spot behind SEC rivals Florida, who slid a place to #4.

Other big moves included the USC men jumping from 14th to 9th as the result of some very strong relays and explosive performances by freshman including Vlad Morozov.

After some gigantic early season wins, the #12 North Carolina men, who handled both #11 Georgia and #13 Minnesota, have dropped 3 spots in the latest poll. The #14 Indiana men, who had a big tie against Michigan early, also saw themselves drop thanks to a rough loss to #10 Virginia since the last poll.

The Texas A&M men also slid from #17 to #20, mostly as a result of a big question mark surrounding the program. The best competition that the Aggies have faced since their season-opening Southwest Collegiate Plunge is a resounding victory over rivals SMU: a win that doesn’t carry as much weight this season as it has in the past. We’ll learn a lot more about them when they face #23 LSU at the end of January.

Women

The women’s top 10 stayed almost identical, save for a minor shift in the middle. The top 3 teams: Stanford, Georgia, and Texas, held positions for the second consecutive poll. The Cal women, who swam pretty well in Columbus at SC Nationals, jumped up a spot to #4, and the USC women, who had dominant performances at that same meet, followed them in moving to #5. To make room for these shifts, the Florida Gators dropped from fourth to #6. The Gators, who only recently got leader Teresa Crippen back, seemed to rest less than many of the other teams at the recent Georgia Tech and Princeton Invites.

Seven through Ten didn’t change either, as Arizona, Texas A&M, Virginia, and Auburn held steady.

The top 4 teams in the Big Ten maintained their gridlock in the 13-16th positions. It seems to me as though, based on results and times, the #16 Wisconsin Badgers should be ahead of the #15 Michigan Wolverines, but that’s splitting hairs. Along with #19 Ohio State and #20 Purdue, the upcoming Big Ten Championship season should be a great one.

The biggest jump on the women’s side was the #17 Louisville Cardinals, who moved up three spots. They had some great swims at SC Nationals, notably two top-16 breaststroke times from Therese Bergstrom.

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Division II

In the Division II rankings, where it is not uncommon for teams to make massive movements from one week to the next, both Drury teams, which are the defending dual National Championships, are back on top after being ranked 4th in the previous poll. Coincidentally, both previous number 1’s, Ashland on the men’s side and Grand Valley State on the women’s, slid back to 5th.

Both Henderson State programs made huge moves up the rankings after dominating wins over previously-ranked Delta State. The Henderson men moved up 10 spots to #10, and the women moved up 7 to their current slot at #12.

Other big movers on the women’s side included #6 Clarion University, up 11 spots, and  #8 Wayne State, up 13 spots.

Division III

The Kenyon College men and women, who have won a combined 53 of the last 62 NCAA Division III titles, took a stranglehold on D-3 swimming with the top spot in both the men’s and women’s polls. The top 3 in both polls are identical, which shows how heavily interrelated men’s and women’s programs are at this level.