Avidasports Performance Rankings - March 1, 2011

February 28th, 2011     
Avidasports Performance Rankings - March 1, 2011 The fourth-consecutive weekend of conference meets proved to be the second-fastest men's weekend of the year with championships for some premier conferences.  Two hundred and sixty teams were in action over the course of the weekend without the inclusion of teams attempting to get their NCAA qualification times at last-chance meets.  The results of those efforts are on display this week in the latest Avidasports Performance Rankings. 

Top Ten
All Team Data

The Avidasports Performance Rankings weigh two separate metrics: Performance – as measured by the relative ranking of a team’s swims vis-à-vis other collegiate programs, and Improvement – as compared to their previous best times.  The Toledo women and Michigan men led the overall rankings for Division I programs while Union College in New York swept the Division III top overall rankings.

Performance Metric
While the SEC dominated last week's performance metric, this week's top performing women's teams were split between the Pac 10 where Stanford and California ranked 1st and 4th respectively and the Big 12 where Texas A&M and the University of Texas ranked first and third respectively with less than 0.2 % separating the top three teams.  On the men's side the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12 champions took the top spots with Virginia leading the way over Michigan and Texas.  In Division III, it was another pair of conference champions - Williams College's men and Whitworth's women's programs won the NESCAC and Northwest Conference respectively. 

Improvement Metric
The second half of the Avidasports Peformance metric, Improvement, uses team’s best times as a gauge of performance.  Nearly 90% of all teams improved upon their previous-best times, with Utica College's women and Clarkson College's men's teams leading the way.  The two teams enjoyed the biggest time drops of the taper season by margins of 5.8% and 5.5% respectively.  In Division I Binghamton University of the America East Conference and Northern Colorado led the way with the biggest improvement rates.

Division I Women
Overall Ranking
 Performance Ranking
 Improvement Ranking
1 Toledo 10.0
2 Towson 10.5
3 James Madison 11.0
4 Ohio 16.0
5 Wyoming 17.5
6 Brigham Young 21.5
7 UNC-Wilmington 22.0
8 Richmond 23.0
9 Columbia 24.0
9 Cornell 24.0
 1 Texas A&M 2.6
2 Stanford 2.6
3 Texas 2.8
4 California 3.2
5 Arizona 4.1
6 Southern California 4.9
7 San Diego State 6.7
8 Princeton 7.5
9 UCLA 7.7
10 Harvard 8.2

 1 Northern Colorado 104.1%
2 James Madison 103.8%
3 Toledo 103.8%
4 Youngstown State 103.8%
5 Northern Arizona 103.7%
6 Towson 103.7%
6 Maine 103.7%
8 Florida International 103.6%
9 Saint Bonaventure 103.5%
10 Vermont 103.4%
Division I Men
Overall Ranking
 Performance Ranking Improvement Ranking
1 Michigan 13.5
2 Brigham Young 15.5
3 Virginia 16.5
4 Georgia Tech 17.0
5 Denver 18.5
6 Clemson 19.0
7 Wyoming 19.5
8 UNC-Wilmington 20.0
9 Western Kentucky 20.5
10 Duke 21.0
 1 Virginia 1.0
2 Michigan 1.2
3 Texas 1.4
4 Ohio State 1.6
5 North Carolina 1.7
6 Indiana 1.8
7 Minnesota 1.9
8 Virginia Tech 2.5
9 UNLV 3.1
10 Denver 3.3
 1 Binghamton   105.0%
2 Illinois-Chicago 104.5%
3 Pacific (CA) 104.5%
4 George Washington 104.3%
5 George Mason 104.3%
6 Wright State 104.2%
7 UNC-Wilmington 104.0%
8 Seattle 104.0%
9 Maine 104.0%
10 Wyoming 103.8%
Division III Women
Overall Ranking
 Performance Ranking Improvement Ranking
1 Union (New York) 3.0
2 Ithaca 4.5
3 Whitman 8.0
3 Whitworth 8.0
5 Smith 8.5
6 Alfred 9.0
6 R P I 9.0
8 Skidmore 9.5
9 Pacific (OR) 10.0
10 Saint Lawrence 10.5

 1 Whitworth 59.3
2 Ithaca 60.3
3 Stevens 60.5
3 Union (New York) 60.5
5 Puget Sound 63.7
6 Lewis and Clark 76.1
7 Whitman 76.2
8 Nazareth 77.5
9 Hartwick 81.0
10 R P I 82.7

 1 Utica 105.8%
2 Skidmore 105.3%
3 Union (New York) 104.5%
4 Smith 104.1%
5 Pacific (OR) 104.0%
6 Alfred 104.0%
7 Ithaca 103.9%
8 R P I 103.8%
9 Whitman 103.7%
10 Saint Lawrence 103.7%
Division III Men
Overall Ranking
 Performance Ranking Improvement Ranking
1 Union (New York) 8.5
2 Middlebury 11.0
3 Williams 13.5
4 Ithaca 14.0
5 R P I 14.5
6 Colby 15.0
6 Coast Guard 15.0
8 Amherst 15.5
9 Bates 16.0
9 Tufts 16.0
 1 Williams 24.6
2 Amherst 26.5
3 Stevens 30.8
4 M I T 31.1
5 Whitworth 39.5
6 Middlebury 42.8
7 Tufts 44.3
8 Stevens 44.7
9 Ithaca 45.1
10 Coast Guard 50.2
 1 Clarkson 105.5%
2 Colby 105.3%
3 Union (New York) 105.2%
4 Linfield 105.1%
5 Bates 104.9%
6 Skidmore 104.9%
7 Trinity (CT) 104.8%
8 Alfred 104.7%
9 R P I 104.6%
10 Vassar 104.5%

Methodology
  • Rankings are taken from Hy-Tek result files received from teams by 12:00 CST each Tuesday.  Percentile and Improvement indicators are averaged for teams swimming in multiple meets.
  • Overall rankings are an average of each team’s Improvement and Performance rankings. 
  • The Performance Metric is a percentile value based on each team’s relative rank among other collegiate swimmers in the same event.
  • The Improvement Metric is a measure of each teams time compared to in-season best times.

Comments