Swim Poll of the Week: Do You Think the NCAA Meets Should Only Have Timed Finals Relays at Championships?

This is the Swim Poll of the Week for Wednesday April 14, 2021, sponsored by Strechcordz Swim Training Products. In our last poll, we wanted to know: Should the NCAA meets have only timed finals relays at future championships?

The NCAA Division I & II championships experimented with timed final relays at the meets this year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were no prelim relays and it lessened the strain on the swimmers, removing a swim from their race load. For 2022, do you think the NCAA meet should continue with timed final relays only?

“NCAAs is already hard enough,” Texas women’s coach Carol Capitani said. “It’s the fastest meet and it showcases the best kids. It’s the most intense and it’s a lot of racing so why would we make it this one meet harder? At international meets like Worlds and Olympics, the very best may have 10 or 11 swims over eight or nine days, and at NCAAs the very best may have the same amount of swims over three and a half days. I don’t think we need to make it more difficult. It would be like in basketball if we moved the three point line back three feet just for March Madness.”

“It took the pressure off for having to qualify for the morning,” Georgia Tech coach Courtney Hart said. “We unfortunately didn’t get the results we wanted to across the board but I still think it was a good thing to have timed finals and I liked them at night. I would do it again for sure. We wanted better results but it was a learning experience for us.”

Do you think the NCAA meet should have only timed final relays at the national championships?

Yes – 57%

No – 43%

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