The College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) has released their women’s preseason poll, with Virginia and Stanford leading the way. The defending champion Cavaliers received 12 of 15 first place votes and the reloaded Cardinal received the other 3 first place votes. NC State, Michigan and Texas rounded out the top five.
While some teams have begun competition, as the ‘preseason’ poll, pollsters were instructed to not penalize teams that have not yet competed.
Note: the CSCAA polls are designed to reflect dual meet strength, not necessarily a projection of NCAA Championship meet finish.
The poll reflects what is likely to be a tight two-team race between Virginia and Stanford throughout the season. At last year’s NCAA Championship, Virginia won handily with 491 points, ahead of 2nd place NC State and 3rd place Texas. Stanford, which was hit hard by multiple redshirts and deferments last season, finished in ninth with 159 points.
From last year’s NCAA results, Stanford is the biggest riser, moving up from 9th to 2nd. Two programs also had significant drops from last season’s NCAA finish, as Alabama dropped from 5th to 14th, and Texas A&M fell from 14th to 21st.
Some notable Top 10 matchups are set to take place this weekend, as #1 Virginia travels west to take on #6 Cal, and #3 NC State heads to Knoxville to take on #7 Tennessee.
NCAA Division I Poll
Rk
Prv
Team
Points
1
Virginia
372
2
Stanford
363
3
NC State
333
4
Michigan
331
5
Texas
325
6
California
293
7
Tennessee
276
8
Georgia
267
9
Florida
250
10
Ohio State
243
11
Indiana
242
12
Kentucky
203
13
Louisville
187
14
Alabama
168
15
North Carolina
156
16
Northwestern
143
17
Southern California
141
18
Virginia Tech
111
19
Wisconsin
106
20
Missouri
94
21
Texas A&M
88
22
Arizona State
79
23
Auburn
35
24
Duke
31
25
Notre Dame
22
Also Receiving Votes
Florida State (8), San Diego State (3), Miami (FL) (2), Southern Methodist (1), South Carolina (1)
Women’s Poll Committee
Jen Betz, Kansas; Niko Fantakis, Brown; Naya Higashijima, Southern Methodist (Chair); Andrew Hodgson, Northwestern; Lars Jorgensen, Kentucky; Nathan Lavery, Drexel; Ben Loorz, UNLV; Sergio Lopez, Virginia Tech; Jonathan Maccoll, Rutger; Lea Maurer, Southern California; Jeana Kempe, South Carolina; Jos Smith, Utak; Mike Stephens, Boston College; Braden Keith, SwimSwam; David Rieder, Swimming World.
Originally posted on SwimSwam.com. Click here to Read More.