By Mark Wild on SwimSwam
2026 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships
Wednesday, March 18 – Saturday, March 21, 2026 McAuley Aquatic Center, Atlanta, GA Defending Champions: Virginia (5x) Championship Central Preview Index Psych Sheet Live ResultsWomen’s 400 Individual Medley – By The Numbers
NCAA Record: 3:54.60 – Ella Eastin, Stanford (2018) American Record: 3:54.60 – Ella Eastin, Stanford (2018) U.S. Open Record: 3:54.60 – Ella Eastin, Stanford (2018) Championship Record: 3:54.60 – Ella Eastin, Stanford (2018) 2025 Champion: Caroline Bricker, Stanford – 3:57.36The 2025 NCAA 400 IM Final saw Stanford’s Caroline Bricker use a strong breaststroke leg to pull herself into the lead and from there the sophomore never looked back, hitting the wall in 3:57.36 an adding her name to the long list of Stanford champions, a list that includes the likes of Maya Dirado, Ella Eastin (The Everything Record holder) and most recently Brooke Forde.
Of the 16 finalists, only three don’t return, but each of those three, Emma Weyant (2nd), Mabel Zavaros (6th), and Callahan Dunn (7th) were all A-finalists last year, so many of those B-Finalists may be thinking this is their year to jump up into the A-final, especially as the freshman class was relatively weak in the IM events, (this is evidenced by the fact that of the top 16 only two are first-years and of the 48 entrants only six are in their first year.
However, those swimmers shouldn’t be too quick to assume a spot in the A-final, as three swimmers who were not part of the storyline last year are all seeded amongst the top 8, with the top seed of particular note as Bella Sims has entered the 400 IM conversation for the first time at NCAAs.
“Bella Bottom Blue”
Sims, a versatile swimmer whose personal best of 3:56.59 was the fastest swimmer in her high school class in the event, but as the fastest swimmer in all but four events, the former Florida Gator saw her talents being put to use in other areas. She won NCAA titles her first year in the 200 and 500 free as well as a pair of runner-up finishes in the backstrokes last year. But with a new coaching program and with a new NCAA event order, the Michigan star has opted to bring back the 400 IM into her repertoire, adding to the 100 back, where she is the #2 seed (49.12) and the 200 back (11th – 1:51.26).
Sims swam the 400 IM once each year for Florida, going 4:01.47 and 4:00.44 at the UGA Fall Invitational, and this year looked to be in that same pattern, albeit faster, as she posted a 3:58.02, her first time under 4 minutes since 2022, at the CSCAA Challenge. She also tackled the race at her conference champs, going 4:00.57, to win her first-ever Big Ten individual title. While swimming the event at Big Tens may have piqued some interest, Sims had always swum at least one event at SECs that she didn’t compete at NCAAs. So, it wasn’t until the Pre-Selection Psych Sheets were released that Sims’s intentions were known.
PB – Speedo Sectionals (12/22) SB – CSCAA Challenge (11/21) Latest – Big Tens (2/26) Fly 53.03 (24.89 + 28.14) 53.36 (24.92 + 28.44) 52.94 (24.57 + 28.37) Back 59.33 (29.92 + 29.41) 59.48 (30.29 + 29.19) 1:00.94 (30.50 + 30.44) Breast 1:10.28 (35.05 + 35.23) 1:09.92 (34.71 + 35.21) 1:10.71 (34.92 + 35.79) Free 53.92 (27.39 + 26.53) 55.26 (28.09 + 27.17) 55.98 (28.25 + 27.73) Time 3:56.59 3:58.02 4:00.57In looking at the splits, breaststroke is Sims’s obvious weakness, as two of the four events she wasn’t the fastest out of high school were the breaststroke events (the other two were the 50 free and 100 fly), and while she got away with a 1:10 split at Big Tens, she likely won’t be able to at NCAAs.
Sims was able to, in part, get away with her breaststroke splits because the Big Ten runner-up lost over a second on the first 50 alone and therefore wasn’t in any position to run her down despite closing in a 54.18. I doubt Sims would have been too upset if she had been run down, as that would have meant that her teammate, Hannah Bellard, would have been crowned champions. A fellow Junior of the Michigan Maize and Blue, Bellard has made NCAAs each of her years at Ann Arbor, but like Sims, this will be her first time contesting the event.
She took on the 500 free and 200 fly her first year, and last year added the 100 fly. Bellard, who finished 5th in the 200 fly in 2025, is our pick to win that event this year and is projected to earn second swims in the 500 free (#5) and in this event, where her 4:03.32 PB from Big Tens ranks her as our 7th seed. Bellard also contested the event at the CSCAA meet against Tennessee, where she went 4:05.92, which was a personal best until she chopped another 2.5 seconds off that at her conference championships.
The two Wolverines are a formidable pair and should be out near the front of the pack after the fly, but whether they remain so after the breaststroke is a big question, especially considering our next set of competitors.
“Another Brick in the Wall”/”Ring My Bell”
Caroline Bricker (photo: Jack Spitser)
Sims was missing four events from sweeping the board of fastest times coming out of college, and one of those swimmers just happens to be our defending champion, Caroline Bricker. In her first year at Stanford, Bricker placed 4th in the event at NCAAs in a new personal best of 4:02.14 and was our pick to move up one place and win the bronze medal after having broken the 4:00 barrier that season. However, Bricker blew by 3:58 to take the win in a best time of 3:57.36, thanks in no large part to a massive breaststroke split.
Fifth after the backstroke, Bricker dropped a 32.71 1st 50 split and then backed that up with a 33.41 2nd 50, to turn what had been a deficit of 2.39 seconds to early leader Katie Grimes, into a lead of 3.17 over Grimes. After the breaststroke, no one was within a second of Bricker, and in fact, the closest to her was her teammate Lucy Bell, whose 33.00 and 33.45 splits helped pull her from 6th to 2nd.
Bricker may be more known as a butterflier than a breaststroker these days, thanks in no part to her win at this past summer’s National Championships and the fact that Bricker did not contest the 200 breast at NCAAs last year. Bell did, however, and claimed her own NCAA title in the event, adding the win to her bronze medal in this event.
While Bricker got the better of Bell last year, Bell is seeded above her fellow Cardinal this year. Bell’s entry time of 3:59.11 is over two seconds faster than her time from last year and stands as a new personal best. Bell’s time came from her ACC victory, an event that saw Bricker finish 7th overall at 4:04.69. The junior looked a little off at the meet, placing 3rd in the 200 fly finals and 10th in the 200 breast, but is safely in the top 8 as the 3rd thanks to her 3:59.70 at the Texas Hall of Fame invitational. While Bricker and Bell may be a way back after the backstroke, no one should count them out.
“Orange Sky Pool”
Katie Grimes (photo: Jack Spitser)
Last year, Katie Grimes entered as SwimSwam’s pick to win the event, and through the first half of the race, our prognostication looked to be good. The first year for Virginia had a lead of over nearly a second and a half on Florida’s 5th year Mabel Zavaros, and a 1.52-second lead on defending silver medalist and Florida senior Emma Weyant. However, as mentioned above, the breaststroke turned out to be Grimes’s kryptonite as she slid from 1st to 5th, splitting 35.38 and 36.30.
She ultimately finished 4th in a time of 4:01.10, but had been as fast as 3:59.02 that season, and with a personal best of 3:57.02 dating back to 2022, Grimes cannot be counted out just due to her breaststroke woes. A three-time Worlds silver medalist (2xLC, & 1xSC) and the defending Olympic silver medalist in the event, Grimes took 2nd at ACCs to Bell going 3:59.80. Grimes was out a full second faster than she was at NCAAs, hitting the halfway point at 1:53.86, so she might just be trying to develop an insurmountable lead before the breaststroke hits, or at least a lead she can use her freestyle prowess to chase down.
It’s not just Bell and Bricker; Grimes has to worry about in chasing her down on the breaststroke as Aimee Canny, Sophia Umstead, and Leah Hayes all made inroads on her lead at ACCs. The trio, who all train with Grimes at Virginia, placed 3rd, 4th, and 5th at ACCs, and currently rank as the 6th, 9th, and 12th seeds in the event.
Canny, a South African Olympian, has been a vital piece to UVA’s dominance at this meet, often filling in roles and changing strokes as needed. Her first year, she swam the 100/200 free and 200 IM, placing 3rd in the 200 free. In her sophomore year, she swapped the 200 IM for the 500 free and dropped the 100 free in favor of the 200 breast, an order she kept last year. However, in this, her final go-around, Canny is back in the 2oo IM in addition to the 200 breast and this event.
Canny is very late to the game in the 400 IM, having raced the event a total of three times. Her 4:03.36 from February of this year was surpassed by her 4:02.35 a fortnight later at ACCs and makes her our 7th seed. A strong all-around IMer, with an obvious strength in the back half, Canny, who only trails Bell in the 200 breaststroke psych sheet, could be a force to be reckoned with, but she lacks the speed that Bricker has in the fly and may have too much room and too little time to make it up.
Hayes, a sophomore, is one of our returning finalists, after having placed 5th last year in a time of 4:01.62. She was off that time at ACCs, going 4:04.37, which is a shade over her seed time of 4:04.01, which ranks her 9th this year. A strong IMer, like Canny, the Cavalier is entered in both IMs and the 200 breaststroke, but so too is Umstead, and while Hayes had an off ACCs, Umstead flourished, going PBS in all of her events.
In the 400 IM, her prelim time of 4:07.47 was in itself a best, but she then chopped a further three seconds off that to set a best of 4:04.34. The first year lacks the early speed that Hayes has, but with splits of 32.92 and 33.95 on the breaststroke, she made huge inroads into all of her teammates’ leads. While just 12th in the seeding, Umstead could continue her impressive rise and earn a spot in the A-final.
Orange is surprisingly a popular color in college athletics, or at least it is in 400 IM-producing schools. In addition to the four Virginia swimmers, both Tennessee and Texas have a pair of swimmers looking to make it into the A-final.
Ella Jansen (photo: Jack Spitser)
Tennessee fans will be looking to back the sophomore pair of Ella Jansen and Emily Brown, each of whom fell short of making the A-final last year. Jansen finished 10th in prelims, nearly four seconds slower than her seed, but turned things around at night, winning the B-final in 4:02.53. She won’t be able to earn a second/redemption swim as there are no B-finals anymore, and as such, we expect almost the whole field to be all out in racing to make that A-final.
This year, Jansen won the event at SECs in 4:01.97, just .3 back of her personal best. The Canadian, who is a strong butterflier and freestyles, won comfortably by two seconds over Texas’s Angie Coe and her teammate Brown. Brown had a lead of nearly two seconds over Coe, but like Jansen, she struggled on the breaststroke leg, and Coe managed to catch her in the closing yards, taking the silver medals 4:03.94 to 4:04.07, both of which were new PBs. Brown sliced nearly a second off her best from the 2025 NCAAs, while Coe dropped over six seconds off her time from last year and more than two seconds off her time from the 2024 NCAAs.
Coe is in the midst of her best season with Texas, having hit personal bests in not only the 400 IM, but also in the 200 IM (which she won at SECs) as well as the 200 free, 200 breast, 200 fly, and 200 back. Seeded 8th, Coe will be looking to put the 2025 NCAAs behind her, when she finished 26th (4:10.35). With her great improvements, Coe could be looking to make a move up the top 8 and will be hoping to be joined by her teammate Campbell Stoll. Stoll, like Jansen, added time in prelims last year and was relegated to the B- final, where she finished 10th overall between the two Volunteers.
This year, the junior is seeded 15th, with her 4:04.49 from a dual meet against Tennessee in October. The Longhorn didn’t swim it at SECs instead taking on the 200 IM and 100/200 fly, the latter two events yielding not only personal bests but SEC titles for the Wisconsin native. Stoll is seeded 6th in the 100 fly, which is one event prior to the 400 IM, so she may be attempting one of the hardest doubles possible, or may scratch/DFS one of the events. If she does swim both events, however, she could find herself in back-to-back A-finals.
The orange trend somehow continues as last year’s 12th and 13th place finishers each are returning to the 400 IM. Princeton’s Eleanor Sun will have her work cut out for her to score points again for the Tigers as she finds herself seeded on the outside looking in, coming in as the 19th fastest entrant at 4:05.55, a time that not only won the Ivy League Championships this year, but is also a new personal best, faster than any of her swims at the 2025 NCAAs. Florida’s Julie Brousseau has not had the same luck in the event that Sun has had this season. The sophomore took 4th at SECs in 4:06.61, 2.40 slower than her time from the 2025 SECs, and she hadn’t dipped under 4:10 this season until the finals at her conference champs, whereas last season she never once went above it.
The Verdict
That said, however, both Sun and Brousseau stand a good chance of making it back into that 9-16 range, although the top eight may be too far for the pair. Four swimmers have separated themselves from the pack, with Bella Sim’s 3:58.02 leading the way. While she is clear of the field by over a second, Bell, Bricker, and Grimes all join her, seeded under the 4:00 barrier, and look to be near locks for the A-final. Of the four, Sims is our pick for the win, and while Grimes has the fastest PB of the remaining three, Bricker’s ability to not only close such a gap last year, but also to expand her lead on the field, gives her the edge over the other two.
After those two, Jansen and Canny seem to have isolated themselves from the rest of the pack (dare I say the peloton), with the two seeded two seconds back of Grimes but over a second clear of Bellard. And while a second is not a lot in a 400 as compared to a 100 or even a 200, they will be hoping for that lead to help carry them through, as the fight for the 7th and 8th spots is going to be vicious.
Rosie Murphy (photo: Jack Spitser)
As this is the 2nd trials/finals event in the new format and the first of the events where top seeds, in the past, may have shut things down in the closing yards, expect each race to come down to the wire. Bellard and Coe are the lone two swimmers in the 4:03s, but only 1.17 separates Bellard’s 7th seeded time of 4:03.32 and Stoll’s 15th seeded time of 4:04.49. Swimmers like UCLA’s Roise Murphy (11th – 4:04.08) and fellow California-based swimmers Teagan O’Dell (13th – 4:04.39) and Emily Thompson (13th – 4:04.39) are all within half a second of Coe’s 8th-ranked time and will likely compete with all those mentioned above for one of those spots.
Thompson’s entry time is a full 1.5 seconds faster than her entry time last year and faster than the 4:06.01 that earned her 14th place and a valuable three points for Stanford. O’Dell wasn’t at NCAAs last year, as she is a first-year at Cal, but Murphy has been on a tear. She broke the 4:05.00 barrier at Big Tens for the first time, and is looking to continue her banner season and end her career in a much better fashion than last year’s NCAAs, which saw her finish 31st overall.
If one swimmer were to break through the pack, it seems likely to be Hayes. With a PB of 4:01.34 and with a prelims time last year of 4:03.17 and a 5th place finish of 4:01.62, she would appear to be a shoo-in, but she was off all her bests at ACCs, so that raises the question of whether she was fully tapered or if she wasn’t rested. Naturally, we are going to make some people upset by not believing enough in their swimmer, but with her times and proven NCAA experience, we think Hayes will earn a spot in the final.
SwimSwam Picks:
Place Swimmer Entry Time Best Time Last Season Finish 1 Bella Sims (MICH) 3:58.02 3:56.59 NA 2 Caroline Bricker (STAN) 3:59.70 3:57.36 1st – 3:57.36 3 Lucy Bell (STAN) 3:59.11 3:59.11 3rd – 4:00.24 4 Katie Grimes (UVA) 3:59.80 3:57.02 4th – 4:01.10 5 Ella Jansen (TENN) 4:01.97 4:01.97 9th – 4:02.53 6 Leah Hayes 4:04.01 4:01.34 5th – 4:01.62 7 Aimee Canny (UVA) 4:02.35 4:02.35 NA 8 Hannah Bellard (MICH) 4:03.32 4:03.32 NADark Horse: Kimmy Shannon (Pitt)- Seeded 17th just outside of scoring range is Pittsburgh sophomore, Kimmy Shannon. As noted above, the field gets incredibly tight after the top 6. Less than a second separates 8th from 17th, with Shannon’s time of 4:04.82, the 9th time in the 4:04-4:05 range. Swimmers like USC’s Justina Kozan (16th – 4:04.77) and NC State’s Lisa Nystrand (35th – 4:08.78) would not be that much of a dark horse as Kozan holds a PB of 4:03.25 and Nystrand finished 15th last year, but Shannon won the B-final at ACCs in a new PB, her third PB in the event this season, as her 4:07.80 at mid season and her 4:06.18 in a dual against Villanova in January were her previous bests. While remarkable drops upon entering college are not unexpected, the sophomore did set foot on the Pitt campus with a PB of 4:22.3,8, a time that wasn’t fast enough to be mentioned in her high school’s classes Best of the Rest.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: 2026 W. NCAA Previews: For Whom the Bell(a?) Tolls – Sims and Two Cardinals Set to Clash in 4 IM
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