By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
2020 WOMEN’S ACC SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- When: Wednesday, February 19th to Saturday, February 22nd | Prelims 10:00 am | Finals 6:00 pm (1650 prelims Saturday at 4:00 pm)
- Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, North Carolina (Eastern Time Zone)
- Defending Champion: North Carolina State University (NC State) (1x) (results)
- Live Results (coming soon)
- Streaming: ACC Network
- Championship Central:Here
- Detailed Timeline:Here
- Psych Sheets: Here
Pre-cut psych sheets for the upcoming women’s ACC Swimming & Diving Championships have been distributed. Like the SEC psych sheets, which we posted on Wednesday, these ACC psych sheets are pre-cut, meaning that athletes can enter as many events as they want before cutting down to their limit of 3-per-athlete.
In the ACC, each team can send up to 18 swimmers and up to 3 divers to the meet as scorers.
The biggest questions for entries at the meet surround University of Virginia freshman Kate Douglass, who has exploded into her college career. Evolving from just a sprinter to one of the best all-around swimmers in the country in a span of a few months at Virginia. She ranks in the top 2 in the ACC so far this season in 5 different events, top 10 in 9 different events this season, and has 7 entries on the pre-cut psych sheets. Her possible individual swims are:
- Day 2 – 50 free, 200 IM
- Day 3 – 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast
- Day 4 – 100 free, 200 breast
Of those races, she is the top seed in the 200 IM, 50 free, 100 fly, and 200 breast. While she has the potential to win more than just those 4 races, a schedule of 50 free or 200 IM on day 2, 100 fly on day 3, and 200 breast on day 4 would avoid any doubles, and she is the top seed by a pretty substantial margin in all 4 races.
NC State’s own versatile youngster, Kylee Alons, is entered in even more – with 8 possible races on the pre-cut sheets. She ranks in the top 10 in the conference this season in all 8 races.
ACC coaches in general didn’t do the general public many favors with their entries, but we were able to glean a few good lineup notes from the psych sheets below:
2020 ACC Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships Lineup Keys:
- UNC junior Emma Cole is entered in the 50 free (9th seed), 200 free (6th seed), and 100 free (5th seed). While the 50 and 100 free were near-locks for her, she also had a day 3 option of the 100 fly, where a dual meet time against Duke 2 weeks ago ranks her as the 8th-best time in the conference. UNC coaches took the ‘conservative’ route here with the 200 free instead. Cole is one of a number of UNC swimmers who has benefited dramatically from the new coaching staff – she swam lifetime-bests in the 50, 100, and 200 freestyles mid-season, in addition to the 100 fly and 200 fly at dual meets.
- Notre Dame freshman Colleen Gillilan, who like Douglass can swim breaststroke or butterfly races, will focus on the 100 fly (6th seed), 200 fly (3rd seed), and 200 IM (4th seed) at the ACC Championships. She’s also the 5th-fastest swimmer in the conference in the 100 breaststroke with a 1:00.02 done at the Shamrock Invitational in late January – an in season meet. While the butterfly races and the 200 IM were always probably going to be her events, that 100 breaststroke a few weeks ago was enough to at least wonder.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: 2020 Women’s ACC Swimming & Diving Championship Psych Sheets Revealed