Boy, if you weren’t watching you should be sorry, but you get one more chance.

If you are into swimming and did not watch the NCAA Division I Championships either in person or on-line, you missed something big! It was one of the great sports events I have attended with drama, excitement, and athletic achievement. What made it more special is that I got to be on deck for the entire meet with a (literally) front row seat). What differs from the club swimming experience is that team is what NCAA’s is about. Much like other sports, coaches will place their qualified swimmers where they will best place the team for scoring, individually and in relays. Swimmer & diver wins translate into points. A swimmer placing 8^th in an individual event may score 9 points, but save that swimmer to be fresh for the right relay and it could mean 20 or even 40 points.   Every event was hotly contested with swimmers side-by-side whether it was the diving, 50 Free, 1650 free or any of the relays. There is a lot of parity in NCAA swimming and diving and the score reflected it. There were 50 teams present at the Championships, 37 of them scored. 

The meet title came down to the last relay, as it should. When the water smoothed, California won its first title in 31 years followed by defending champion Texas.

The host Minnesota Golden Gophers kept their streak alive placing 15^th having placed in that position or better for the last 20 years. It took an 8 place finish in the 400 Free Relay to leapfrog past Louisville and Purdue( who scored all of their 88 points from the diving events).

The meet is spread out over 3 days to cover all the different event length and heights that take place. Preliminaries are held in the afternoon with the top 16 swimmers and 8 divers progressing on to the finals in the evening.

For in-depth coverage go to: http://www.collegeswimming.com/

The meet will be aired on ESPN on April 6^th, 12:30PM CST.

Final results:

1. California                        493

2. Texas                             470.5

3. Stanford                         403

4. Arizona                          302

5. Florida                           291

6. Auburn                          269.5

7. Southern Cali               206

8. Virginia                         200

9. Michigan                      181

10. Georgia                     125.5

11. Ohio St                      115

12. Tennessee               106.5

13. Texas A&M                 99.5

14. Unc                              97

15. Minnesota      91

16. Purdue University       88

17. Louisville                     73

18. Indiana                         61

19. Unlv                              56

20. Duke                             50

21. Arizona State                48

22. Missouri                       44

23. Florida St                     32

24. Wisconsin                    21

25. Clemson                     16.5

26. Louisiana St                 14

26. Penn St                        14

28. Virginia Tech                11

29. Alabama                       10

30. West Virginia                 7

30. Northwestern                 7

32. So. Methodist                 6

33. Brigham Young              5

33. Wyoming                        5

35. U of Iowa                        4

36. South Carolina               2

37. Columbia                       1