2021 NCAA WOMEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- When: Wednesday, March 17 – Saturday, March 20, 2021
- Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center / Greensboro, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
- Prelims 10 AM / Finals 6 PM (Local Time)
- Short course yards (SCY) format
- Defending champion: Stanford (3x) – 2019 results
- Streaming: ESPN3
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results – Swimming
- Live Results – Diving
The NCAA has published heat sheets for the prelims session on the 4th and final day of the 2021 NCAA Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships.
There were no swimmers seeded to score who scratched the final day, though we’re sure to see a lot of declared false starts and empty lanes, driven in part by the early scratch deadline (which is before the prior night’s finals session).
There were a handful of scratches, though, from lower heats. Among those is Georgia’s Gabi Fa’Amausili, who was the 26th seed in the 100 free.
In her first individual event of the meet, Fa’Amausili finished 30th in the 50 free, adding four-tenths (and 13 places) to her seed. That led to her scratching the 100 back and now the 100 free.
She has continued to swim on Georgia’s relays, however, and will be a key leg on their meet-ending 400 free relay, where she’s much more likely to impact the Bulldogs’ final placement.
The same is true for Michigan sophomore Megan Glass, a key relay leg who added time and didn’t score in the 200 free on Thursday. She’ll drop the 200 fly to focus on the 400 free relay, where Michigan needs a fresh leg after losing their #2 sprinter Darya Pyshnenko to retirement before the meet.
Glass came out of high school as a YMCA National Champion in the 200 fly, but that event hasn’t really materialized for her at Michigan. Her sprint freestyles, however, have really come along well – including a 48.63 400 free relay anchor. She was seeded 48th in the 200 fly.
Also scratching are Tennessee senior Emily Sykes as the 33rd seed in the 200 breaststroke – that means she’ll finish the meet without racing – and Florida freshman Madison Kolessar – the 38th seed in the mile, who also hasn’t raced this meet.
There are some low seeds worth watching out for, including Stanford senior Brooke Forde, the 400 IM champion on Friday, in the 200 breaststroke. Forde didn’t swim that race at Pac-12s, and as such is just the 35th seed in the 200 breaststroke on Saturday. She’s a likely A-finalist in that event and a strong top-3 contender.
Other headline races to look for on Saturday include the women’s 100 free, which will feature the 3rd and final matchup between Virginia’s Kate Douglass and Michigan’s Maggie MacNeil, the two stars of this meet so far.
I think Florida may have had to pull Kolessar from the meet because they brought 2 relay only swimmers, had 16 girls qualified for the meet, and also qualified two divers.
Brooke is good. I’m not sure if she’ll get top 3 with Hansson, Nelson, Dobler
Borrke?