By Madeline Folsom on SwimSwam
It’s that time of the year again. SwimSwam will be previewing the top 12 men’s and women’s teams (and then some) from the 2025 NCAA Championships. Follow along with the College Swimming Preview Channel. Want to read even more? Check out the latest edition of the SwimSwam magazine.
Women’s #12: Wisconsin Badgers
Key Losses: Phoebe Bacon (45 NCAA points, 4 NCAA relays), Callahan Dunn (12 NCAA points, 1 NCAA relay), Paige McKenna (9 NCAA points), Abby Carlson (3 NCAA relays)
Key Additions: Andrea Dworak (BOTR- Distance free), Brooke Corrigan (BOTR- BR/IM), Lucie Delmas (FL), Justine Delmas (BR)
GRADING CRITERIA
Over the years, we’ve gone back and forth on how to project points, ranging from largely subjective rankings to more data-based grading criteria based on ‘projected returning points.’ We like being as objective as possible, but we’re going to stick with the approach we’ve adopted post-Covid. The “stars” will rely heavily on what swimmers actually did last year, but we’ll also give credit to returning swimmers or freshmen who have posted times that would have scored last year.
Since we only profile the top 12 teams in this format, our grades are designed with that range in mind. In the grand scheme of college swimming and compared to all other college programs, top 12 NCAA programs would pretty much all grade well across the board. But in the interest of making these previews informative, our grading scale is tough – designed to show the tiers between the good stroke groups, the great ones, and the 2015 Texas fly group types.
5 star (★★★★★) – a rare, elite NCAA group projected to score 25+ points per event 4 star (★★★★) – a very, very good NCAA group projected to score 15-24 points per event 3 star (★★★) – a good NCAA group projected to score 5-14 points per event 2 star (★★) – a solid NCAA group projected to score 1-4 points per event 1 star (★) – an NCAA group that is projected to score no points per event, though that doesn’t mean it’s without potential scorers – they’ll just need to leapfrog some swimmers ahead of them to do itWe’ll grade each event discipline: sprint free (which we define to include all the relay-distance freestyle events, so 50, 100 and 200), distance free, IM, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly and diving. Use these grades as a jumping-off point for discussion, rather than a reason to be angry.
Also, keep in mind that we are publishing many of these previews before teams have posted finalized rosters. We’re making our assessments based on the best information we have available at the time of publication, but we reserve the right to make changes after publication based on any new information that may emerge regarding rosters. If that does happen, we’ll make certain to note the change.
2024-25 Lookback
The Wisconsin Badgers earned their highest NCAA finish since 2011 at the 2025 Women’s NCAA Championships, making the most of their last year with superstar Phoebe Bacon.
Bacon, a grad student last year, scored 45 points at NCAAs, the 9th most individual points among all athletes, and participated on four of the Badger relays. She qualified for the ‘A’ final in all three of her individual events, finishing 3rd in the 200 backstroke, 4th in the 200 IM, and 5th in the 100 back.
She also swam fly on both the 200 and 400 medley relays (11th and 10th) and was a member of the 200 and 800 freestyle relays (13th and 9th).
While Bacon was the top Badger last year, she was not the only individual scorer. Of the four swimmers who scored individual points, including Bacon, they will lose the top three for this season. Callahan Dunn was a 5th-year who brought in 12 points with her 7th-place finish in the 400 IM, and Paige McKenna scored nine points with her 9th-place finish in the 1650.
They will also be attempting to replace crucial NCAA relay member Abby Carlson, who swam on all three freestyle relays. She participated in the 400 freestyle relay, which placed 15th without Bacon in the fold.
They do have a few important swimmers returning to the pool for the team this year. Sophomore Maggie Wanezek scored four points with her 13th-place finish in the 200 backstroke. Junior Hailey Tierney is also returning, having swam on three relays at NCAAs.
They were 4th at the Big Ten Championships, the same place they have finished the last four years in a row, coming in behind Ohio State, Indiana, and Michigan. Despite earning their highest finish in more than a decade at NCAAAs, they collected about 100 fewer points at Big Ten Championships than they have in the last few years, racking up 849 total points.
Sprint Free: ★★
Hailey Tierney is the top returning 50 freestyler this season, coming in as the only swimmer on the team to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the event. At the meet, she finished 19th in the event, touching in 21.91, just a tenth off the 21.76 she swam a few weeks prior at the Wisconsin Last Chance Meet. She also swam the 100 freestyle, finishing 48th in 48.68. If Tierney matches her personal best time at NCAAs, she could end up in a ‘B’ finals scoring position, but she would need to see a significant drop in the 100 if she wants to score.
Abby Wanezek is the other major Wisconsin sprinter who will be returning this year. Last year, she was 15th in the 50 (22.22) and 14th in the 100 (48.65) at the Big Ten Championships. She did not earn an NCAA qualification in either event, but her prelims time of 22.22 was just two tenths off the invite time of 22.01. She will need to drop more than that to score, though.
Blair Stoneburg was 3rd in the 50 and 5th in the 100 last season, and she participated on the 400 freestyle relay at NCAAs. Her best times of 22.80 and 49.22 are not NCAA-qualifying swims, but she will make an impact on the freestyle relays.
They are in a rough spot in the 200 freestyle with Abby Carlson’s graduation. Wanezek is their fastest returning swimmer from last season in this event, swimming 1:45.48. Stoneburg was 4th in 1:46.21. Stoneburg’s best time of 1:44.63 is stronger, and would earn an individual swim at the NCAA Championships, but she has not been that fast since November of 2020.
The sprint freestyle has been a weak spot for the Badgers, and that doesn’t seem to be changing this year, with only one athlete close to scoring range.
Distance Free: ★
The top distance swimmers, Abby Carlson and Paige McKenna, have both graduated. Both swimming individual distance races at last year’s NCAA Championships.
Maddie Waggoner, Blair Stoneburg, and Izzy Enz were their distance swimmers at last year’s Big Tens who will be returning this year. Waggoner was only three seconds away from the NCAA cutline in the mile, swimming 16:12.17 to miss the mark of 16:09.37. She appears to be their strongest bet for an NCAA qualification in the event, but she would need to drop 15 seconds if she wants to make the scoring time of 15:57.60.
They have a few distance freestylers coming in, including BOTR recruit Andrea Dworak, who has best times of 4:46.55 in the 500 and 16:49.20 in the 1650. Neither of these times are NCAA scoring swims, but she will be one of their top swimmers.
Sarah Larsen is also a distance swimmer who will be joining the program at 4:50.76 and 16:46.74, but she is also not a likely scorer, though, with the right drops, she could be a Big Ten contributor
Just like the sprint events, they don’t have anyone who is a clear scorer, and they would need to see some significant drops to get on the board in these events.
Backstroke:★★½
Backstroke is one of the events where the team still has some likely individual points. Bacon was the top backstroker on the team last year, and while nobody is going to match her 45 individual points, there are a few swimmers who could earn second swims and points.
Maggie Wanezek is the only returning individual point scorer from last year, having finished 13th in the 200 backstroke to bring in four points for the team. Her 1:51.33 at the meet was a little over half a second off the 1:50.62 mark she set a few months prior in November.
She swam a new personal best in the 200 backstroke long course last month at the USA Swimming Futures Championships, coming in at 2:09.75 to drop more than a second. She is a likely scorer in the event this year, and if she drops a second, she could end up in the ‘A’ final.
Wanezek also swam the 100 backstroke at NCAAs last season, finishing 19th in 51.33, about three tenths off the 50.96 she set in November. She dropped over a second in the event at the same Futures meet last month, which helps her chances of moving up those three spots into the ‘B’ final this year.
The Badgers also have a few incoming freshman backstrokers, namely Lily Van Heel, who is coming in at 53.85 and 1:57.33. Neither of these times is under the NCAA cutline, but she’s still one of the best backstrokers on this season’s roster.
Breaststroke: ★★
Breaststroke is an interesting spot for the Wisconsin team. Their top breaststroker from last season, Hazal Ozkan, will be returning this year. She scored the second-most points at Big Tens and swam both breaststroke events and the 200 IM individually at NCAAs. She was also the breaststroker on both of Wisconsin’s medley relays.
She finished 35th in the 100 at 59.83, about three tenths off her lifetime best of 59.53 from November of 2023. In the 200, she was 25th in 2:09.49, a little more than a second off the 2:08.22 she swam in February. Her 2:08.22 would have been 14th in prelims at the 2025 NCAAs, making her a potential scorer in the event.
They also have transfer Justine Delmas coming in from Indiana, where she never swam a meet. Delmas has never swum SCY, but her LCM times convert to 59.68 and 2:07.13, respectively. The 100 breaststroke is still not a finals swim, but her 200 breaststroke would potentially qualify her for the ‘A’ final. She has not swam a meet since March of 2024, so it is not clear what kind of shape she is in at the moment.
Brooke Corrigan was one of our BOTR recruits for 2025 in the breaststroke events with best times of 1:00.35 and 2:11.62. These times would not earn her individual NCAA swims, but if she can find a second drop in the 100, she could be a scorer.
Butterfly: ★
Sprint freestyler Hailey Tierney also swam the individual 100 butterfly at NCAAs last year, finishing 44th in 52.77. Her swim was about three tenths off her lifetime best of 52.49 from Big Tens in February, but neither swim was under the NCAA cutline of 51.87 in the event.
Tierney was their only 100 butterflyer at Big Tens. In the 200 butterfly, the Badgers only had Mackenzie McConagha, who was a senior last season.
Wisconsin does have some hope in the butterfly events, though, with Lucie Delmas, the twin sister of Justine, transferring in as well for this season. Lucie’s long course times convert to 51.90 and 1:54.97. Her converted 100 fly would not have qualified for NCAAs, but her converted 200 fly would have. She still would not have scored points in the event, but she appears to be their best bet for a scoring swim in either fly event.
IM: ★
Maggie Wanezek and Hazal Ozkan both swam the 200 IM at NCAAs in March after earning NCAA ‘B’ cuts in the event and invites in other events. Wanezek finished 48th in the 200 IM at 1:57.90, more than a second off the 1:56.74 she swam in November of last year. Ozkan was 53rd in 1:59.29, a second-and-a-half over the 1:57.58 mark she set at the same meet in November.
It took 1:55.50 to qualify for the ‘B’ final in the women’s 200 IM, which would be more than a second drop for Wanezek and almost two seconds for Ozkan.
In the 400 IM, the Badgers are sorely missing graduated senior Callahan Dunn, who finished 7th at NCAAs in 4:04.20.
Their next two fastest swimmers, Stella Chapman and Maddie Waggoner, both had season-best times of 4:13, which did not earn NCAA swims. Waggoner dropped three-and-a-half seconds in the long course version of the event at the end of July, which bodes well for a strong drop this season, but she would need to find six total seconds to match the 16th place in prelims time of 4:07.29.
Diving: ★
Wisconsin has signed two divers, Julia Herring and Zara Karimi, for next season, which should help them build a stronger diving program.
Herring spent the 2023-24 season at Alabama, where she scored points in the 3-meter event at SECs and qualified for the NCAA Zone meet in platform. She did not compete last season and will have three years of eligibility remaining at Wisconsin.
Karimi will be a freshman, and diving is not as easy to predict as swimming. She was the Minnesota State runner-up in the 1-meter, which could bode well for the Badgers’ point chances at Big Tens, but it is not clear how that will help their NCAA point total.
The Badgers only had one diver on the Big Ten team, Greta Kavanagh, and she finished 43rd in the platform event and did not score any points, which makes it hard to predict that they will score any points this year.
Relays: ★★
Note that the grading system doesn’t align perfectly for relays as double points.
Relay grading system:
5 star (★★★★★) – 31+ points per relay event 4 star (★★★★) – 22-30 relay points per event 3 star (★★★) – 12-21 relay points per event 2 star (★★) – 5-11 relay points per event 1 star (★) – 0-4 relay points per eventThe relays have the potential to be relatively strong for the Wisconsin team. The only relay that is not returning at least two swimmers is the 800 freestyle, where they finished 9th with three seniors and Abby Wanezek.
Wanezek swam on four relays last season, the most an athlete can swim at NCAAs, and the Badgers will get her relay performances for one more year. She joins three returning members from the 400 medley relay (10th) and the 400 free relay (15th), and two returning members of the 200 freestyle relay (13th).
Abby’s sister Maggie was also on four relays, including the 200 medley that Abby did not swim, which finished 11th overall and is returning three swimmers of the four.
While Bacon swam on four relays and will be missed, this is the area where the Badgers remain the strongest and have the best chance to make up points.
Total Stars: 12/40
2025-26 Outlook
Wisconsin has a major uphill battle upcoming this season. When the top three of four total individual scorers at the NCAA Championships all graduate in the same season, it makes it hard to predict another top-12 finish for the team.
They have some strong swimmers, with relay and individual swim experience at NCAAs, and they could find some surprising speed from transfers and freshmen coming in. The relays are the place where they retain the most continuity from last season, and that is going to be the major factor in their placement at NCAAs.
Tierney and the Wanezeks are crucial in any potential individual event scoring for this year’s championships.
Their biggest room for improvement and surprising finishes come in the diving, where they are bringing in two new athletes who can help shake up the points in their favor.
WOMEN’S 2025-26 COLLEGE PREVIEW INDEX
RANK (2024) TEAM SPRINT FREE DISTANCE FREE BACK BREAST FLY IM DIVING RELAY TOTAL 1 Virginia Cavaliers 2 Stanford Cardinal 3 Texas Longhorns 4 Indiana Hoosiers 5 Tennessee Volunteers 6 Florida Gators 7 Louisville Cardinals 8 California Golden Bears T-9 Michigan Wolverines T-9 NC State Wolfpack 11 USC Trojans 12 Wisconsin Badgers ★★ ★ ★★½ ★★ ★ ★ ★ ★★ 12.5/40Read the full story on SwimSwam: 2026 College Swimming Previews: #12 Wisconsin Women Dealing With Major Loss of Phoebe Bacon
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