Last week, the NCAA approved massive changes to the NCAA Championships, and part of the approved proposal included a new NCAA Championship event order to start this season. This new order will impact three of the top swimmers on the women’s side of the meet.
Many people in the swimming community have been focused on the new qualifying processes for the Championships, including the addition of automatic qualifiers from the conference championship meets, but one of the biggest changes is a shift to the NCAA event order that will see a few swimmers in an awkward position and others in a better spot than last season.
The new lineup has some changes that swimming fans have been asking for for years, including moving the 100 back and 100 fly to different days. Historically, these events have both been swum on Friday, leaving many swimmers in a difficult situation where they have to swim two events on one day or choose which event they feel they have a better chance in.
Now, the 100 fly will swim on Thursday while the 100 back remains on Friday, which opens up more swimmers to compete in both.
Distance swimmers also have a new world of opportunities. With the mile on the first day by itself, milers will have the opportunity to swim a 200 of stroke without worrying about mile fatigue.
Other changes will have a more negative impact on current athletes. The biggest of these is the new Saturday schedule, which will see the 200 fly, 200 back, and 200 IM all swim on the same day. Of the 17 women’s swimmers who will have event conflicts this season, 12 come from the 200 stroke and 200 IM .
Order of Events (Finals)
| Day Of Competition | Old Format | New Format |
| Day 1 | 200 Medley Relay |
1,650 Freestyle — Top 8 seeds |
| 800 Freestyle Relay | ||
| Day 2 | 500 Freestyle | 100 Butterfly |
| 200 Individual Medley | ||
| 50 Freestyle |
One-Meter Diving (rds 1-3) |
|
| One-Meter Diving | 200 Freestyle | |
| 200 Freestyle Relay | 100 Breaststroke | |
|
One-Meter Diving (rds 4-6) |
||
| Day 3 | 100 Butterfly | 100 Backstroke |
| 400 Individual Medley | 200 Breaststroke | |
| 200 Freestyle |
Three-Meter Diving (rds 1-3) |
|
| 100 Breaststroke | 500 Freestyle | |
| 100 Backstroke | 50 Freestyle | |
| Three-Meter Diving |
Three-Meter Diving (rds 4-6) |
|
| 400 Medley Relay | ||
| Day 4 | 1650 Freestyle | |
| 200 Backstroke | 100 Freestyle | |
| 100 Freestyle |
Platform Diving (rds 1-3) |
|
| 200 Breaststroke | 200 Butterfly | |
| 200 Butterfly | 200 Backstroke | |
| Platform Diving |
Platform Diving (rds 4-6) |
|
| 400 Freestyle Relay |
Starting with the swimmers who will likely need to swim new events this year, we have three of the top female swimmers in the NCAA, Bella Sims, Torri Huske, and Claire Curzan.
Curzan and Huske will both have one day of event conflict, and it could affect their NCAA titles.
In our Pre-Season Event Picks, we chose Curzan as one of the favorites in the 50 free, 100 back, and 200 backstroke events. The new event order will see the 50 free and 100 back swim on Friday, which puts Curzan in a difficult situation.
Last season, She was the NCAA Champion in the 100 backstroke on Friday and the runner-up finisher in the 50 free on Thursday, with Gretchen Walsh graduating after the season. She could try to swim both events on the same day with the 100 back coming as the first event and the 50 free as the last.
She could also choose one of the day two events (100 fly, 400 IM, 200 free, 100 breast) instead. The 100 fly seems the most likely choice for her, but she will have Torri Huske to compete with and will come in as the underdog rather than the favorite.
Huske has a conflict of her own, though hers comes on Saturday, but she is in a similar situation to Curzan with regard to NCAA titles. Last year, she was the Champion in the 200 IM on Thursday and the runner-up in the 100 free on Saturday to now graduated Gretchen Walsh. Both events now find themselves on Saturday, and they will be back-to-back.
Huske has a little bit less freedom of choice than Curzan and will likely have to choose a day three event. She will probably find herself in the 50 freestyle on Friday, though which event she drop is up in the air.
This event choice is complicated further by the fact that Stanford teammates Caroline Bricker and Emily Thompson have conflicts with the 200 IM and 200 fly on Saturday which means Stanford has some balancing of point totals to look at.
Michigan transfer Bella Sims also has an event choice issue. The junior has swam two different NCAA lineups while in college. Her freshman year, she swam the 500 free, 200 free, and 200 back, winning NCAA titles in the 500 free and 200 free. Last year, she swam the 500 free, 100 back, and 200 back and finished 2nd in both backstroke events.
This year, she is looking at two potential event conflicts. The 500 free and 100 back are both on Friday now, so she will have to choose. The 100 back seems more likely after she missed the final in the 500 free last season. She will probably shift to the 200 freestyle on day two (Thursday) and drop the 500 free.
A few athletes are also positively impacted by the changes. Five women who will be back for this season swam the 100 fly and 100 back double last season: Lora Komoroczy (Auburn), Grana (Indiana), Erika Pelaez (NC State), Leah Shackley (NC State), and Carly Novelline (Virginia).
Here are all the female athletes who have event conflicts with the new NCAA order:
**Note: This list only includes athletes who were invited in both events. We also only included swimmers who will be back this season.
