By James Sutherland on SwimSwam
Relays at the Division I NCAA Championships will remain timed finals in 2022, and the 200 medley relay has been moved up to the opening night of competition.
The news was announced by the CSCAA in its weekly newsletter on Monday, noting the changes are specifically related to Division I.
Timed final relays came into effect last season in light of the pandemic in an effort to mitigate the number of swimmers crowded behind the blocks for each race. 2021 NCAA relays also featured one empty lane between each team—it hasn’t been announced whether or not that will be back this season.
In a poll after the championships, 48.9 percent of SwimSwam readers said they actually preferred timed final relays (compared to 40 percent saying they were worse and 10 percent saying it was the same).
As for the schedule change, the 200 medley relay moves to Wednesday night, along with the 800 free relay (like it is at most conference championship meets), which clears up the schedule a little bit during the rest of the meet and allows there to be just one relay per day for the remaining three days.
NEW NCAA RELAY SCHEDULE
Wednesday Night
- 200 medley relay
- 800 free relay
Thursday
- 200 free relay
Friday
- 400 medley relay
Saturday
- 400 free relay
The 200 medley relay has taken place at the end of the third day of competition (Friday) at NCAAs for the last six seasons, and before that it was at the start of Day 3 and the 800 free relay was at the end. The 800 free relay was moved to Wednesday night prior to the 2015-16 campaign.
The schedule move also allows the 400 medley relay to move from Thursday to Friday, meaning the 200 free relay will likely be held at the end of Day 2 finals as opposed to the beginning (because the 400 medley relay used to be at the end). That has not been confirmed, however.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: 200 Medley Relay Moved To Day 1 At NCAAs, Timed Final Relays Remain
No comments:
Post a Comment