Only Two Mid-Major Swimmers Seeded To Score at 2021 Women’s NCAAs

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:
• Championship Central
• Psych Sheets
• Live Results

In a year where the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on mid-major athletic schedules, only two swimmers and zero relays from outside the Power-5 are seeded to score at women’s NCAAs.

The mid-major ranks have seen significant changes this year, with conferences like the Ivy League suspending all winter sports. Other conferences pushed their conference championship meets to later in the spring – that includes the CAA, the MAC, the Horizon League and the Summit League, among others. That made NCAA selection difficult for athletes in those conferences.

Here’s a look at some of the top mid-major swimmers (defined as swimmers from conferences outside of the Power-5 group of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC) to watch at this week’s national championship meet.

Top Projected Scorers From Mid-Major Conferences

Sydney Harrington, Navy (9): Harrington comes in as the 9th seed in the 200 fly (1:53.74). She was the 19-seed heading into last year, which would have been her first NCAA appearance. Harrington is a junior.

Klara Thormalm, San Diego State (3): Thormalm is the 14th seed into the 100 breast (59.14) as a senior. Last year, she was a bubble scorer (18th in the 100 breast; 21st in the 200 breast) heading into the meet, but was expected to move up from there. She won the NCAA B final back in 2019, going 58.9 in the 100 breast

Other Scoring Candidates (with seeds)

• Ioanna Sacha, Houston – 20th in 200 back
• Martina Thomas, Navy – 21st in 200 free
• Antonia Naccarella, Buffalo – 23rd in 100 free
• Sarah Watson, Akron – 24th in 100 fly
• Mykenzie Leehy, Houston – 24th in 200 free
• Anna Metzler, New Hampshire – 26th in 400 IM
• Susan Lagrand, Oakland – 26th in 200 back

Other invitees:

• Daisy Platts, Bowling Green
• Katie McBratney, BYU
• Petra Halmai, FGCU
• Jasmine Nocentini, FIU
• Payton Keiner, Liberty
• Donna Depolo, Nevada
• Ellery Parish, Rice

There won’t be any mid-major relay scoring. That’s because no mid-major schools qualified a relay for women’s NCAAs this season.