SwimSwam Pulse is a recurring feature tracking and analyzing the results of our periodic A3 Performance Polls. You can cast your vote in our newest poll on the SwimSwam homepage, about halfway down the page on the right side, or you can find the poll embedded at the bottom of this post.
Our most recent poll asked SwimSwam readers who should be favored to win next year’s men’s NCAA title:
RESULTS
Question: A year out, who is the favorite to win 2020 men’s NCAAs?
- California – 73.0%
- Texas – 19.4%
- Someone else – 7.6%
Almost three-quarters of voters selected California as the favorites to repeat for the men’s NCAA title next year. Cal won this season’s title after a dominant showing, ending a four-year run by the Texas Longhorns.
73% picked Cal compared to just 19.4% for Texas. That’s a massive swing from our pre-NCAA poll less than a month ago in which 44% picked Texas to win in 2019 compared to 43% for Cal. Some of that is the stellar showing by Cal at NCAAs. Perhaps more of it are the big points graduated by Texas (Townley Haas, Tate Jackson & John Shebat among them), plus the expected addition of Hugo Gonzalez to the Cal roster for next season.
On the other hand, 2020 NCAAs may be especially hard to predict a year out, with many potential Olympic redshirts looming. International athletes with Olympic Trial meets close to NCAAs may either take the college season off or train through the postseason, while many swimmers of all nationalities will choose to focus more on long course racing than short course in the year leading up to the Tokyo Olympics.
Below, vote in our new A3 Performance Poll, which asks voters to predict the gold medalist in the 100 free at Worlds this summer, between the 2016 Olympic champ Kyle Chalmers, the defending World champ Caeleb Dressel or a different swimmer:
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ABOUT A3 PERFORMANCE
The A3 Performance Poll is courtesy of A3 Performance, a SwimSwam partner
#throwback to when we knew nothing about 2020…I guess 7.6% of y’all were correct coronavirus won it and I picked cal like everybody else…
Poll results don’t surprise me, but I see it as a toss up between Cal and Texas with a slight edge to Cal. Biggest reasons for Texas optimism…
1. Really talented freshmen this year who could make a similar step forward as Cal’ SOs just did.
2. Texas has lot of hidden points in guys who didn’t have a good meet this year but who could easily score much more.
3. A much better incoming class, though Hugo may offset that.
With Cal “only” really losing Seliskar, I think they’ll have another lights out meet, especially with the sprint events. I hope to see Reece have a breakout season after a stagnant freshman season (compared to Max McHugh for example).
^ I’m hoping Cal can pick up a few distance guys since Nick Norman won’t be there to guarantee points.
I picked Dressel because the man is a legend but it really is a toss up; whoever’s having the better meet really
I feel that Dressel would win if he is at 100 %, but I think it will be super close, like 0.1.