Stanford Women To Send NCAA Qualifiers Home Midway Through ACC Championships ...Middle East

By James Sutherland on SwimSwam

The Stanford women’s team will take a unique approach to their first conference championship meet in the ACC, opting to send some top swimmers home midway through the competition.

The Cardinal will have their swimmers who have secured NCAA qualification travel home to Stanford following Friday morning prelims at ACCs, with lengthy travel at the heart of the reasoning behind the move.

Stanford head coach Greg Meehan spoke to SwimSwam’s Coleman Hodges about the decision, detailing how the conference championships have always been about NCAA preparation, and that won’t change just because the Cardinal are now in the ACC after the Pac-12 effectively dissolved last year.

“We’re trying to keep things normal, we’re trying to also adapt and continue for us,” Meehan said. “We’ve always approached conference meets with the idea of what’s going to best prepare us for the NCAA Championships.”

The 2025 ACC Swimming & Diving Championships will take place in Greensboro, N.C., a seven-plus hour flight from the closest airport to the Stanford campus in San Jose.

“Even if things go smoothly, it’s a 10-hour travel day from door to door… it makes us pause and think about ‘what do we wanna get out of the ACC Championships?’,” Meehan said.

“So much is different. It’s a four-and-a-half day meet, it’s men and women, the event order for prelims and finals isn’t the same either as NCAAs. So like, so much of it is different.”

The SEC and ACC currently run combined conference championship meets with a five-day schedule, which is different from the Pac-12, which hosted women’s and men’s meets one week apart and followed an identical event schedule to the NCAA Championships over four days.

“Walking into this meet with 15 teams, 14 teams, it’s gonna be crazy, and it’s gonna be so much fast swimming,” Meehan said. “So we’re going to lean into that part. But for our group that’s got NCAA qualifying times, we’re gonna send them home after Friday morning prelims.

“So they’ll go out, they’ll race Tuesday night, they’ll race all day Wednesday, all day Thursday, go Friday prelims. That’s getting each of them enough touches with their best events, again just kind of one last tune-up. Then travel back to campus. They’ll travel back with our assistant coach Kim Williams and then Katie Robinson and I will stay out in Greensboro with the group that’s still there.”

Watch the full interview here: 

The implication of Stanford taking its top swimmers out of the meet with two finals sessions remaining will be seen in the team standings. The Cardinal women would’ve been favored for a runner-up finish behind Virginia, but now would likely be overtaken by Louisville, NC State and Cal, at a minimum.

Some of the key finals swims we’ll likely miss on Friday include Lillie Nordmann and Caroline Bricker in the women’s 200 fly, Torri Huske in the women’s 100 back (though she may scratch), and Lucy Bell and Lucy Thomas in the women’s 100 breast.

On Saturday, we’ll miss Huske in the 100 free, Bell and Bricker in the 200 breast, and Aurora Roghair in the women’s 1650 free. Their top seeds in the 200 back are Natalie Mannion (13th) and Levenia Sim (15th).

Stanford will also miss out on key points in the 400 medley and 400 free relays.

Meehan reiterated the team’s focus is solely on performing at NCAAs, with the Directors’ Cup, an award given to the most successful athletic departments in the NCAA, a primary focus.

“At Stanford, It’s always about the Director’s Cup and trying to score as many points for Stanford as we can in the Directors Cup, and that’s based on NCAA performance.”

Stanford won 25 straight Directors Cups from 1994-95 until 2018-19, and in the last four seasons, they’ve been the runners-up to Texas three times, winning once in 2021-22.

Meehan, who is in his 13th season as the head coach of the Stanford women, also spoke about the strain Stanford’s move to the ACC has had on the athletes because of travel.

He noted that late-season fatigue played a role in the Stanford women’s soccer team losing a few close games down the stretch, resulting in the team missing the ACC Championships. However, the Cardinal did qualify for NCAAs and earned a spot in the final four, which could be credited to the team being able to rest and not having to focus on ACCs (which were in North Carolina).

The other three teams in the NCAA final four were also from the ACC, but located in North Carolina (UNC, Wake Forest and Duke), meaning they didn’t have as much travel.

Another notable change to the Stanford swim & dive’s team’s postseason schedule this year with the conference change is the timing with NCAAs.

Last season, the Stanford women had three weeks separating Pac-12s and NCAAs. This season, the women will have four weeks from ACCs to NCAAs (the men had three weeks last season and will have five weeks this season). However, it’s clear the impact of the travel is enough that Meehan feels the need to pull his swimmers from the meet early, even with the extra time before nationals.

The 2025 ACC Championships will get underway on Tuesday, Feb. 18 and run through Saturday, Feb. 22.

SWIMSWAM PODCAST LINKS

In the SwimSwam Podcast dive deeper into the sport you love with insider conversations about swimming. Hosted by Coleman Hodges and Gold Medal Mel Stewart, SwimSwam welcomes both the biggest names in swimming that you already know, and rising stars that you need to get to know, as we break down the past, present, and future of aquatic sports.

Music: Otis McDonald www.otismacmusic.com

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