Breakdown of Swimming Scoring.

 

In Collegiate swimming there are two standards that are set to allow individuals to qualify for the National Championship Meet. There is the “A” Standard and the “B” Standard. The “A” standard, also called the “Hard Cut” guarantees an individual with that time into the event. It is based off of the previous years best times. The “B” Standard or the Soft Cut when earned gives an athlete the opportunity to be selected to the event but not a guarantee. About 50 athletes are selected in each event for the NCAA Championship.

In the prelims, which are in the mornings, all the athletes that have qualified swim. The Top 8 and Top 16 based solely on time are invited back in the afternoon to swim in Finals. The ninth thru 16^th place finishers are in the Consolation Final. They cannot finish better than 9^th place in the event. The Top 8 Prelim swimmers qualify for the Final (In the Olympics, this is the heat you see, also in Olympic competition they add another layer with a Semi Final).

The Top 8 swimmers, no matter the times will always finish ahead of anyone in the Consolation Final. Making 8^th a great place to finish and 9^th the worst place to finish after prelims.

The scoring is based off of the Finals and Consolation Finals finishes. Below is the chart of how the scoring is assigned.

1^st place earns 20 points

2^nd place earns 17 points

3^rd place earns 16

4^th place earns 15

5^th place earns 14

6^th place earns 13

7^th place earns 12

8^th place earns 11 points

9^th place earns 9 points (without regard to their time in comparison with the Top 8 times)

10^th place earns 7

11^th place earns 6

12^th place earns 5

13^th place earns 4

14^th place earns 3

15^rd place earns 2

16^th place earns 1

 

Relays are worth double the individual points. In other words there are 150 points an event and 300 points for each relay event.

Thus, scoring in relays is very important when it comes to team victories. Winning is given an advantage though getting as many people to score in an event as possible is also key.

In Collegiate swimming there are 18 individual events over 4 days.  There are 5 relays of 4 swimmers. The events broken down by day are as follows:

First Day (Relay Day)

800 Freestyle Relay (4×200 freestyle)

200 Medley Relay (4×50 Medley)

Second Day

500 Freestyle

200 Individual Medley

50 Freestyle

400 Medley Relay (4×100 Medley- each swimmer swims one of the 4 strokes in order backstroke, breastroke, butterfly and freestyle)

Third Day

400 Individual Medley

100 Butterfly

200 Freestyle

100 Breastroke

100 Backstroke

200 Freestyle Relay (4×50 freestyle)

Fourth Day

1650 Freestyle (Only swam once, Top 8 qualifying times are swum in the Final. But the scoring goes to the top 16 swims regardless of initial seeding)

200 Backstroke

100 Freestyle

200 Breastroke

200 Butterfly

400 Freestyle Relay (4×100 freestyle)