Swim Poll of the Week: 53% Think Virginia Will Win NCAA Division I Women’s Meet

This is the Swim Poll of the Week for Friday, March 12, 2021, sponsored by Strechcordz Swim Training Products. In our last poll, we wanted to know: Who do you think will win the NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships?

Every team and every athlete has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but, perhaps, no college team has been affected as much as the University of Virginia women’s swimming and diving team.

As the women’s swimming world was coming off of a dominating three-peat by Stanford (2017-18-19), Virginia rose to the top team in the nation last season, only to see the women’s NCAA Division I Championships canceled.

After finishing sixth in 2019, the Cavaliers lost their chance to prove they could unseat Stanford and push past Cal and the other contenders.

2021 brings an opportunity for Virginia to showcase its best team in school history—and possibly keep it going for a number of years, ushering in a new rivalry with Stanford. Virginia already features underclassmen Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh, while Stanford will add Regan Smith and Torri Huske next year to what should be another formidable team.

Usually, Swimming World puts together its predictions of the top 10 teams, including statistical analysis that includes the number of points lost and returning from last year’s teams, giving its readers a realistic expectation of what should take place.

This year, without the championships being held in 2020, that same kind of analysis wouldn’t be appropriate—or accurate. Many of the college teams have only swum in a handful of meets after spending a lot of time out of the water because of different COVID-19 protocols in different parts of the country.

Which school will win the 2021 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships?

Virginia – 53%

Cal Berkeley – 24%

NC State – 5%

Someone Else – 18%

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