By Madeline Folsom 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 Psych Sheet SwimSwam Preview Index Live Results Live StreamWOMEN’S 200 IM – By The Numbers
NCAA Record: 1:48.37— Kate Douglass, Virginia (2023) U.S. Open Record: 1:48.37— Kate Douglass, Virginia (2023) American Record: 1:48.37— Kate Douglass, Virginia (2023) 2025 NCAA Champion: Torri Huske (Stanford) — 1:49.67 Returning 2025 Finalists: 6th – Lucy Bell (Stanford)With the new NCAA event order, the 200 IM has moved to the final day of competition and new event conflicts mean only one of the 2025 ‘A’ finalists will be back for the event this season. The event is also interesting because the winners of the ACC and Big Ten Championships (Torri Huske and Bella Sims) chose different events for the final day of the meet, leaving only four automatic qualifiers in the event.
All Alone
Stanford’s Lucy Bell is the only swimmer from the 2025 ‘A’ finals to return to the event this season. She finished 6th last year, touching in a lifetime best 1:52.47. This was the first race of a week that saw her earn a bronze medal in the 400 IM and a gold in the 200 breast. All three swims were drops from the times she set at the ACC Championships a month prior.
Lucy Bell (photo: Jack Spitser)
This year, Bell did not swim the 200 IM at the ACC Championships, opting to race the 100 breaststroke instead. She is coming into the meet seeded 3rd with the 1:52.50 she swam at Stanford’s last dual meet of the season against Cal. At all three of her previous NCAA meets, Bell set a personal best time in the 200 IM, which is a good sign for her as she tries to earn a spot on top of the podium
West Coast Threats
Bell is not the only swimmer at the top of the race who hails from the Pacific Time Zone. Cal’s Mia West is the 2nd seed, seeded at 1:52.30, which she swam at the ACC Championships to finish 3rd behind Stanford’s Torri Huske, who is not racing the event in Atlanta.
West has been one of the most surprising NCAA swimmers this season as she is looking to earn three individual ‘A’ finals swims after not qualifying for a single individual event at NCAAs last year. This season alone, West has dropped almost five seconds in the event from the 1:57.05 at the 2025 ACC Championships, which was 18th overall. She is a favorite to finish in the top three, potentially even topping the podium if she can continue to improve.
Cal also has freshman Teagan O’Dell in the running for the top spot, coming in seeded 4th with the 1:53.19 she swam at the Cal vs Stanford dual meet at the end of January.
At the ACC Championships, she swam only one personal best time, in the 400 IM, and she was 1:54.04 in the 200 IM to finish 4th. This is consistent with what we typically see from Cal, who does not typically do a full taper for conference, saving it for NCAAs. Her lifetime best in the event is 1:52.61, which should make her a serious threat for the top three, especially if she thrives under the Cal taper.
UCLA senior Rosie Murphy is seeded 7th in 1:54.04. She swam this time to finish 2nd at the Big Ten Championships, and it was nearly two seconds faster than her previous best of 1:55.93 she swam at the 2024 Pac-12 Championships.
Rosie Murphy (photo: Jack Spitser)
Murphy has had a strong season, setting new personal bests in all three of her events at Big Tens. She has swum individual events at two National Championship meets. Her sophomore year, she was 10th in the 400 IM, setting a new personal best time, but she added four tenths in her 200 IM. In 2025, her junior year, she added in all of her events, with her 200 IM of 1:58.00 being a 1.34 second add to finish 49th overall. She will need to be at her best in prelims if she wants to earn a spot in the ‘A’ final for the first time in her career.
Eastern Standard Time
A majority of the remaining athletes in the top 16 hail from the Eastern Time Zone, which is where this year’s NCAA Championships are being held.
Louisville’s Anastasia Gorbenko arrived in Kentucky for the 2nd semester, and in just three months she has made a huge impact on the Cardinals roster. At the ACC Championships, she earned two silver medals and a bronze. In the 200 IM, she finished 2nd in 1:51.30, just three hundredths behind Huske. This was a new lifetime best and the 2nd fastest time in the NCAA this season. The biggest obstacle in Gorbenko’s way is the fact that this is her first NCAA Championships, and sometimes the turnaround can be tough. She has clearly made the SCY transition with ease, and she is the clear favorite for the top spot.
Virginia has a few swimmers at the top of the rankings, starting with senior Aimee Canny, who has changed her event lineup this year. The last time she raced the 200 IM at the NCAA Championships was back in 2023. The last two seasons, she has swum the 500 freestyle instead, but she returned to the 200 IM for these championships after swimming the 500 at ACCs. She is seeded 8th in 1:54.05, which she swam back in November at the CSCAA Dual Meet Tournament. This swim was a lifetime best, taking more than a second off her previous best time of 1:55.63, but this is the first season Canny has regularly swum the event. Her NCAA performances are inconsistent, which makes it hard to predict how she will swim this week. In 2024, she set personal bests in two of her three events, but last year, she was off her bests at both NCAAs and ACCs.
Just behind Canny is Virginia sophomore Leah Hayes. In 2025, Hayes finished 9th in the event, winning the ‘B’ final in 1:53.71, which was a season best. Her lifetime best comes from December of 2023, when she swam 1:53.57 at the West Winter Junior Championships.
Leah Hayes (photo: Jack Spitser)
Hayes is seeded 9th in 1:54.10, also from the CSCAA Dual Meet Tournament. She will be looking for her first best time in the event since moving to Charlottesville.
Letitia Sim, a senior from Michigan, is seeded 10th in her lifetime best 1:54.39 that she swam to finish 3rd at Big Tens. She has never swum a personal best in the 200 IM at NCAAs, which is likely what it will take for her to earn a spot in the final.
The final UVA swimmer in the top 16 is freshman Sophia Umstead. She is seeded 11th with the lifetime best 1:54.93 she swam to finish 5th at the ACC Championships last month. Umstead had dropped almost three seconds while in college, coming into the season at 1:57.69 from the 2024 East Winter Juniors Championships. She also performed well in prelims at ACCs, swimming similar times to her finals swims in all three of her individual events, which will be a crucial skill this year.
Texas Duo
Campbell Chase and Angie Coe are seeded 5th and 6th respectively for Texas. Chase is seeded in 1:53.48, which she swam at the Texas Hall of Fame Invite. She finished 4th at SECs, behind Coe, who had a very strong final 50 to overtake the field. Chase was just off her best time at the 2025 NCAA Championships, finishing 10th in 1:53.90 to add one hundredth from her pre-meet best time of 1:53.89. With another year of experience under her belt, she might have a stronger performance this year.
Coe has been strong for Texas this season, and after not ‘A’ finaling in any of her events at the SEC Championships in 2025 after adding time in all of them, she earned three ‘A’ finals swims in 2026. She swam 1:53.90 to win the 200 IM, which was a four tenth drop from the 1:54.33 mark she swam in November of 2024. She has shown an improvement in her championship performances, and it is a good sign for the Longhorns for this year’s NCAAs. Especially as the Texas women can struggle sometimes from SECs to NCAAs.
The Verdict
The women’s 200 IM is hard to predict because so many swimmers in the field are new in one way or another. It seems clear that Gorbenko is the favorite for the gold medal with a seed time a second faster than everyone else in the event.
Behind her, West, Bell, and O’Dell have all been under 1:53 and will be fighting for the other places in the top three, and could realistically end up in any configuration. Bell is the only one with NCAA experience, which is why she earns the edge for the silver.
Don’t count out the UVA swimmers. Virginia might not see the same kind of improvement from ACCs to NCAAs that we see from teams like the Cal men, but many of them still improve over the month between the meets.
Place Name School Season Best Lifetime Best 1 Anastasia Gorbenko Louisville 1:51.30 1:51.30 2 Lucy Bell Stanford 1:52.50 1:52.47 3 Mia West Cal 1:52.30 1:52.30 4 Teagan O’Dell Cal 1:53.19 1:52.61 5 Angie Coe Texas 1:53.90 1:53.90 6 Aimee Canny Virginia 1:54.05 1:54.05 7 Campbell Chase Texas 1:53.48 1:53.48 8 Leah Hayes Virginia 1:54.10 1:53.57Dark Horse: Lainy Kruger (Florida) — Kruger is seeded 14th after swimming 1:55.62 at the UGA Fall Invite in November. Her lifetime best in the event is 1:54.08, which she swam at the 2025 SEC Championships. Kruger has never dropped time at NCAAs, but if she gets back in the 1:54-low range, she could earn an ‘A’ finals swim.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: 2026 W. NCAA Previews: Anastasia Gorbenko Leads 200 IM Field With Only One Returning Finalist
Hence then, the article about 2026 w ncaa previews anastasia gorbenko leads 200 im field with only one returning finalist was published today ( ) and is available on swimswam ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( 2026 W. NCAA Previews: Anastasia Gorbenko Leads 200 IM Field With Only One Returning Finalist )
Also on site :