By Sam Blacker on SwimSwam
With the conclusion of the dual meet season, schools across the country are gearing up for their conference championships and the subsequent NCAA championships at the end of March.
While for many swimmers their main tapered swims are still to come, there have been swimmers who have taken a leap already this year. There are always bolters in the NCAA, athletes who vault from relative obscurity to a key role for their team or become a title threat after sitting a level or two below the very top.
Some of these names may be prominent in the postseason in a way that may come as a surprise. We have highlighted seven swimmers who may not be on your radar, but should make a splash over the next few weeks.
Note that this list will not include any freshmen – they will have their own list. Here we are highlighting swimmers who were already in college, but have stepped up to reach another level compared to seasons past.
There will be swimmers who have made a leap this year who are not included here – if you have any others, let us know in the comments.
Honorable Mentions
Logan Robinson (FSU), Cooper Lucas (TEX), Luke Nebrich (MISS), Jacob Wimberley (TEX), Mariano Lazzerini (PITT), Kohen Rankin (ARMY), Nate Germonprez (TEX)
Raekwon Noel (USA) – Indiana, Sophomore
Indiana may be “Breaststroke U”, but it has churned out a fairly healthy number of elite swimmers in other strokes, notably the fly/back combo swimmer. Noel looks like the latest of these, carrying on the legacy of swimmers like Brendan Burns and Gabriel Fantoni with some great swims so far this season.
Noel doesn’t have one obvious event in which he has become a threat this year, but has dropped a second in four events – the 100 back, 100 free, 100 fly, and 200 fly – and 0.93 seconds in the 200 back. As a designated non-scoring swimmer for Indiana at Big Tens last season who also did not compete at NCAAs, now being in line to score at both meets is a big step up. Given Indiana’s losses to graduation last summer, he should be a key player for them.
He dipped below 45 seconds in the 100 back at midseason to go 44.91, dropping nearly a second from just six weeks earlier. New PBs in the 200 back (1:40.63) and 100 fly (45.28) also came in late November, but the good times have not stopped rolling.
Noel has since notched a 100 free best of well over two seconds, swimming 42.86 at a dual meet with Cincinnati in December, then dropped over a second in the 200 fly (1:41.14) this weekend against Louisville. He will certainly be on Indiana’s scoring roster for Big Tens this time around.
Event 2024-25 Best Time 2025-26 Best Time 50 free 21.02 19.95 100 free 45.63 42.86 200 free 1:37.31 1:35.33 100 back 46.13 44.91 200 back 1:41.56 1:40.63 100 fly 46.66 45.28 200 fly 1:42.35 1:41.14JT Ewing (USA) – ASU, Senior
JT Ewing transferred to the Sun Devils this summer after three years with NC State, and has swiftly shown why Herbie Behm is one of the top coaches in the NCAA. He has set best times in multiple events including his primary one, the 200 back, and expanded his repertoire to become an elite conference-level IM swimmer.
His 200 IM has seen a huge drop, going from 1:46.80 to 1:42.93 to rank 14th in the NCAA so far this season. He has been under his previous best on five occasions already, including three swims of 1:43.28 or better across three days in late November. Adding together his best splits across those three swims gives a 1:42.10 – a scoring time last year at NCAAs, and nearly five seconds under his pre-season best.
His backstroke drops have cemented him as a contender to score his first-ever NCAA points, having gone 46.12/1:39.00 at midseason, drops of 0.22 seconds and 1.06 seconds respectively.
His 200 back now ranks him second in the nation, and he has dropped nearly as much time this season as he had dropped prior to this season from his pre-college best. Alongside his 200 IM and 200 free drops, his senior season looks set to not just be his best, but also a significant one for ASU.
Event 2024-25 Best Time 2025-26 Best Time 200 free 1:34.28 1:33.79 100 back 46.34 46.12 200 back 1:40.06 1:39.00 200 IM 1:46.80 1:42.93Josh Staples (AUS) – Northwestern, Sophomore
Staples was a dyed-in-the-wool distance freestyler last season, dialled in on the 500 free and the mile. He swam both at NCAAs after qualifying at the IU Men’s Last Chance Meet, but added significantly to place 47th out of 47 in the 500. This season he has switched focus elsewhere and been rewarded not just with new best times in the shorter freestyle events (43.79 in the 100 and 1:33.76 in the 200), but also in a quartet of events he had hardly touched in his freshman season.
Staples’ big breakout this season has come in breaststroke and IM, strokes in which he swam a grand total of four races last year, all on breaststroke. The change has been inspired, as he is now a nailed-on NCAA qualifier with the 3:40.05 he swam in the 400 IM at midseason as well as Northwestern’s go-to medley relay breaststroker.
That 400 IM is huge, as it is already under what it took to score at last season’s NCAAs. Northwestern scored zero points last year – with qualification already assured, he can now focus on making sure that isn’t the case this time around. A 50.85 100 breast split at midseason, where he set the majority of his new best times, could make a case for some relay points too.
It will likely be a completely different lineup at nationals for him though. A 200 IM/400 IM/200 breast schedule almost looks the most likely for him now. The fact that he is in line to swim those three events at NCAAs would have been a huge shock 12 months ago.
Event 2024-25 Best Time 2025-26 Best Time 100 free 45.80 43.79 200 free 1:36.39 1:33.76 100 breast 54.46 51.83 200 breast 2:11.29 1:54.71 200 IM – 1:42.45 400 IM – 3:40.05Lucca Battaglini (USA) – Cal, Sophomore
Jack Alexy broke out in his second year at Cal, and it looks like the same is happening for Lucca Battaglini. He was an ACC ‘B’ finalist last season in the 50 free but missed NCAA qualification by a tenth of a second. After his midseason swims this year, there will be no near-misses for him.
He dropped significant time in all the events he swam there in Minnesota. He threw down a pair of 18.7s in the 50 free, breaking 19 seconds for the first time, and then hacked a second off his 100 free best of 42.60 to take the win in 41.56. Both of those swims would have scored at 2025 NCAAs, and he added a 45.39 100 fly (it took 44.94 to score) and a rapid 20.59 50 back leadoff – a second faster than he was last year.
He added free relay splits of 18.45/40.89, both quick enough to have made Cal’s relay teams last season. He should now be Cal’s go-to sprint freestyler, and is one of their top swimmers in what is a transitional year for the Bears.
Event 2024-25 Best Time 2025-26 Best Time 50 freetw 19.15 18.78 100 free 43.32 41.56 50 back 21.52 20.59 100 fly 46.78 45.39Julian Koch (GER) – Pitt, Sophomore
Koch had a big summer in long course, and has translated that form to the short course season with aplomb. He went 48.57 in the 100 free and 52.16 in the 100 fly, and those are the two events he has made the biggest leaps in back in yards.
The 100 free is an event where he is a dark horse for an ACC podium and NCAA ‘A’ final. He dropped 1.26 seconds from the 42.41 he swam at last season’s ACCs to go 41.15, ranking him 4th in the NCAA this year having not qualified last year, and having only been 16th at ACCs. Additional improvements in the 50 free (19.19), 200 free (1:33.21), and 100 fly (45.43) make him a multi-event threat at ACCs, and he is poised to score far more than the 13.5 points he brought home last year.
He has an additional 41-point swim in the 100 free (41.85), and has swum between 19.19 and 19.23 in the 50 free four times so far this year. Similarly, he has been between 45.43 and 45.53 in the 100 fly three times as well. That is a near-certainty to be his championship line-up.
Koch is now in the conversation in the 100 free on a national level, and has some solid secondary events – that is a huge step up from where he was last season.
Event 2024-25 Best Time 2025-26 Best Time 50 free 19.41 19.19 100 free 42.41 41.15 200 free 1:34.68 1:33.21 100 fly 46.76 45.43Elliot Woodburn (GBR) – Georgia, Sophomore
Woodburn was a fantastic junior, a multi-time British age group champion but one who didn’t quite manage to immediately transition to the seniors. His swims for Georgia so far this season indicate that he has now made the leap.
He has dropped a second in his 100 breast to go from 52.26 to 51.20, and two seconds in his 200. An additional two second drop in the 200 IM makes him a threat to score in three events at SECs next week.
His 100 is a quarter-second under the time it took to make the NCAA ‘B’ final last year, and threw down a stunning 22.56 50 breast split at Georgia’s midseason invite. That is a rapid swim full-stop – the #12 performance in history – and given he dropped time from midseason to conferences last year the sky really could be the limit.
At that midseason meet Woodburn also dropped a fantastic 18.87 50 free split – off a flat-start best of 20.62. Casper Corbeau and Carles Coll Marti were both breaststrokers who stepped onto free relays in college, and subsequently internationally in short course meters – Woodburn looks like he could be a swimmer of the same ilk.
Event 2024-25 Best Time 2025-26 Best Time 100 breast 52.26 51.20 200 breast 1:56.58 1:54.39 200 IM 1:46.49 1:44.20Garrett Gould (USA) – Texas, Sophomore
Texas has had relatively few elite sprint freestylers in recent years, and with the graduation of Chris Guiliano last summer it looked like the one gap in the juggernaut that is the Texas NCAA squad. However they have had a swimmer who did not even make their SEC squad last year step up to fill that void in Garrett Gould.
He has dropped nearly half a second in the 50 free this year and broke 19 seconds for the first time at the Texas Hall of Fame Invitational, going 18.99 in prelims and 18.94 in finals. He threw down splits of 18.45 and 18.51, faster than any non-Guiliano split from Texas last season, and added times of 42.02 in the 100 free and 45.40 in the 100 fly.
That already appears to be a scoring lineup at SECs, and the 50 would have qualified him for last season’s NCAA championships. He has been consistent with his swims too – five swims in the 50 free between 18.94 and 19.15, and four swims in the 100 free under his 2024-25 best of 42.66.
Texas did not necessarily need a sprint free specialist in order to be a scary team this year. Gould coming out of the blue to be just that should see him play a key part for them at SECs and NCAAs this year.
Event 2024-25 Best Time 2025-26 Best Time 50 free 19.43 18.94 100 free 42.66 42.02 100 fly 46.37 45.40
Read the full story on SwimSwam: NCAA 2026 Pre-Conference Review: Men’s Breakout Swimmers
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