The 2020 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships will be swum in short course meters, according to a press release released Monday.
The decision comes in light of the upcoming Olympic year where the majority of the swimmers competing at NCAAs will be focusing on training in long course meters. The NCAA will swim its annual championships in short course meters to allow athletes the chance to focus on meters more during the season.
The NCAA had its swimming and diving championships swum in short course meters in 2000 and 2004. The 2020 championships will be the first time the meet will be swum in short course meters in 16 years, allowing the athletes competing to set world records.
At the 2004 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships in Long Island, seven world records were set by George Bovell, Fred Bousquet, Ian Crocker, Peter Marshall, Aaron Peirsol and Texas’ 400 medley relay team. At the women’s meet that same year, two world records were set by Tara Kirk and the University of Georgia’s 200 free relay team.
Looking ahead to the 2020 meet, Cal’s Abbey Weitzeil and Harvard’s Dean Farris are some of the frontrunners to take a crack at the world record book. Weitzeil had the fastest 50 free in history with a 21.02, which converts to a 23.43 in short course meters, which is a little off the world record of 22.93 by Ranomi Kromowidjojo.
Farris will be in his senior season next year for Harvard as he is coming off his most successful NCAA meet this past weekend in Austin, Texas. Farris set the 200 free American Record with a 1:29.15, which converts to a 1:38.78 in short course meters. That converted time is under Paul Biedermann’s current world record of 1:39.37.
The 2020 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships will be in Athens, Georgia (women’s) and Indianapolis, Indiana (men’s).
Swimming World wants to ensure that the above “press release” is an April Fool’s Day joke and is not meant to be taken seriously.
Isobel Jones
And the diving boards and platforms will be changed to heights measured in yards!
Finally.
World records here we come
Alex Semchenko Chris Rousseau swimming news pages are just having a blast today
Ross Gardner lmao after the first one I fell for I literally just assume all headlines are April fools jokes
Jonathan Reeder
Hook, Line, and sinker!!! Nice….
April fools ?
April Fools but seriously it would make more sense.
They did it in 2000 as well. I hated it.
Lol
April fools?
Ty Grubb
THIS BETTER NOT BE AN APRIL FOOLS
Ty Grubb Gotch Ya!
interesting
Alexis Keto i seriously fell for this
Kylie Youmans word, just got angry
Matt Ramey i was like “but isn’t that more work than it’s worth?” And 100000 other questions ?
They did it in 2000. Just saying…
Alexis Keto alright Ms. Facts! Lol I’ll always loathe competing in 25m
It was a huge CAC advantage
Why? Is this an April Fools joke?
They’ve done it in the past. Thankfully after I was done.
April fools
Not even close to convincing
My sons home pool is already a meter pool. ??
Victor Johansson
Ivana Ninkovic
John Steven LaLime
David A. Griffith april fool ?
Mazen Shoukri for sure
Murica yardssss
David A. Griffith they did it in early 2000’s i guess
No they didn’t dude!
No they didn’t!
David A. Griffith someone said that in comments ??
Mazen Shoukri ya they did. 2000 and 2004 NCAA were SCM
Brian Kremers aw thank you for letting us know, David A. Griffith dang man
Deanna Johnson Andrew Johnson
Lol, April Fool’s!
Deanna Johnson lol
Victor Johansson
SCY is so dumb anyway
If not April fools I’ll say this my daughters college is a scm pool
And was it I believe in 1992 it was a lcm meet to help get trials cuts
1992 was yards in Indianapolis. The day after they did time trials LCM to allow for cuts.
Not the greatest April fools because they’ve used SCM format in the past and it was great. Anthony Ervin broke the 50 free WR, something you can’t do in yards.
If not April fools I’ll say this my daughters college is a scm pool
And was it I believe in 1992 it was a lcm meet to help get trials cuts
April fools?
Abdelrahman Abouzeid eh el hzar da????
April fool’s???
April Fools!
My college pool was short course meters, and when I saw this I got really jealous . And then I realized what day it was.
I know it’s April Fools BUT unfortunately across the country we do the spring Sectional meets LCM. That’s no joke. It helps no more than 5-10% of the athletes that swim the countless meets across the country. Why can’t we designate 1 meet in each zone as LCM and keep the rest for the rest of the athletes!?!?
Ncaa finallly realized the large number of international swimmers that actually compite in scm lcm.
Lol
NCAA has done SCM before in some Olympic years
Arvel McElroy first one for me was back in 2000. Everything was in SCM that year. Hated it so much!
You totally had me there…
Meredith Cooper Marian Cooper
Why not swim LCM and make it meaningful?
Jack how does this feel
Vee Vanderpoel this is a bad April fools joke!
Vee Vanderpoel it could actually be real that’s the problem
Why
Kathryn Pound Lindsey Krause that would have been the dream back in the days
Bente Heller no crashing into the wall for backstroke for the first month of college!
David Garcia