College Swimming Check-in: Unexpected Names Leading Women’s National Rankings Entering Midseason
The fall slate of college dual meets has largely concluded, with top teams now turning their attention to midseason invitations that will provide the top times in the country in most events while providing insight into who is best positioned for championship season.
On the women’s side, the undisputed star of NCAA swimming is University of Virginia senior Gretchen Walsh, but outside of her signature sprint events, there is some parity across the board right now, with some unexpected names leading the way in national rankings. Expect some significant changes within the next two weeks, but for now, here are some swimmers sitting atop their respective events.
100 Freestyle: Camille Spink, Tennessee (47.30)
This Volunteers sophomore had an up-and-down first year of college swimming. She was an NCAA A-finalist in the 200 free before she was disqualified for a false start, and she narrowly missed making the top heat of the 100 free on the national level. She qualified for a pair of semifinals at the U.S. Olympic Trials (200 free and 200 IM) but did not make it back in her best event, the 100 free. Right now, though, Spink sits ahead of the country’s top sprinters in the 100 free, although Walsh has yet to race this event in yards.
Minna Abraham — Photo Courtesy: European Aquatics
200 Freestyle: Minna Abraham, USC (1:42.01)
Abraham is currently more than a second clear of anyone else in the national rankings in this event, having notched a mark just four hundredths off the 1:41.96 she swam to finish third at last year’s NCAA Championships. We’ll see what Bella Sims, Anna Peplowski, Aimee Canny and others have in store for midseason, but we won’t be surprised to see Abraham right in the mix in this event again. She recently placed 14th in the 200-meter free at the Paris Olympics.
500 Freestyle: Jillian Cox, Texas (4:34.41)
Coming off a pair of heartbreaking third-place finishes in the 400 and 800-meter free at the U.S. Olympic Trials, Cox has started off strong in college swimming. Her 500 time of 4:34.41 is more than three seconds clear of anyone else in the national rankings, and only four swimmers beat that time at last year’s NCAA Championships. Expect Cox to position herself in the conversation for a national title in the 1650 free as well when she races that event at midseason.
100 Breaststroke: Kaelyn Gridley, Duke (58.68)
This Duke junior has already posted a quicker 100-yard time than she did all of last season, which culminated in a disappointing 17th-place finish at the NCAA Championships. But since that moment, Gridley has looked the part of one of the country’s top breaststrokers. She took fourth in the 200 breast at the NCAA Championships, breaking 2:05 in the process, and she ended up fifth in both long course breaststroke events at Olympic Trials. Now, Gridley sits just ahead of the field in the country in the 100 breast, ahead of even U.S. Olympian Emma Weber.
Lucy Bell — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
200 Breaststroke: Lucy Bell, Stanford (2:06.32)
An excellent sophomore season with the Cardinal saw Lucy Bell finish third in the 400 IM, fourth in the 200 IM and ninth in the 200 fly at the NCAA Championships, and then she made finals in the long course equivalents of all those events at Olympic Trials, topping out at sixth in the 400 IM. But her junior year might include a change in her event lineup as Bell is currently first by a comfortable margin in the 200 breast, having clocked 2:06.32 this weekend when Stanford visited ASU. She is more than one-and-a-quarter seconds clear of anyone else, and the time would have qualified for the NCAA A-final last season.
200 IM: Angie Coe, Texas (1:54.33)
As a freshman, Coe finished 13th in the 400 IM at the NCAA Championships, but she faltered in the 200 IM, finishing 37th. She did not even race at Olympic Trials, but now she is sitting first in the national rankings in the 200 IM, with her time already one-and-a-half seconds quicker than she notched all of last season.
400 IM: Campbell Stoll, Texas (4:07.22)
Here is another member of Texas’ strong sophomore class, with Stoll having finished ninth in the 400 IM and 12th in the 200 fly at last year’s NCAA Championships. Stoll actually had the sixth-best time in the 400 IM at last year’s NCAAs at 4:03.89, but her rough prelims swim left her to win the B-final instead of scoring top-heat points. She struggled at Olympic Trials, failing to advance out of prelims in any events, but Stoll has started off strong as a sophomore. Only eight swimmers have broken 4:10 in the event so far this season, but three are Longhorns, with Campbell Chase and Coe also among the top performers.
Lucy Bell’s nation leading 200 Breast kind of came out of the blue. On the first day of the two-day Cal/Stanford/ASU meet, Bell had already swum two solid races, placing 2nd to teammate Caroline Bricker in both (200 Fly, 1:54.75; 400 IM 4:09.97).
On day two, she was second to another teammate, Torri Huske, in the 200 IM. Bell won only one race in the meet. But what a swim that one win was!
The 200 Breast was her first individual race on day two. But even in that one she was not in the first, generally fastest seeded heat. Stanford had two entries in the first heat, Caroline Bricker, winner of 200 Fly and 400 IM on day one, and Lucy Thomas, winner of the 100 Breast on day one with the only swim under a minute (:59.53).
Bell swam in heat two, which included her Stanford teammate Sam Tadder and ASU’s Iza Adame, and, by splits, led the overall race from the first 50, with :32+ splits on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th legs of the race. To give an idea of how dominant Bell was, the :32.98 of Bricker on the second 50 was the only other sub-33 second split across the entire field after the dive opening 50 of the race.