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 Stream Live ResultsDay 1 Early Heats Heat Sheet
Good morning, SwimFans and SwimFanatics! Welcome to the first Live Recap of the 2026 Women’s NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships. These championships include numerous exciting storylines and are projected to have many swims looking to shatter records, as well as some races where the winner could come from any lane. However, before we get to the pool action, there are some changes to go over.
SwimSwam will help explain the best we can, as things this year look a little different. For starters, we have a Day 1 Morning session. It’s not a prelims session, as every event swum is a timed final, so we opted to call this session the Day 1 Early Heats, although likely tonight will be referred to as prelims. With the dropping of B-finals, places 9-16 will score directly from prelims, so while it is not an issue this morning, we will be listing both the top 8 as well as those that place 9th-16th going forward.
With the new event order, the meet kicks off with the early heats of the 1650. Always relegated to the last day, the move up, while billed as a time-saving measure, also puts distance swimmers at the forefront and gives them the ability to swim their best event first, instead of having to tackle the likes of the 500 free and 400 IM. While some swimmers may enjoy swimming their way into the meet, with the mile now first, everyone will have to be on point and be able to perform at their best, from the get-go, for the 66 lengths.
Texas’ Kate Hurst is this morning’s top seed, entering as the 9th seed with a time of 15:56.37. Her placement is far from certain, however, as the three swimmers behind her are all seeded within half a second of her. Virginia’s Cavan Gormsen (15:56.76), Florida’s Michaela Mattes (15:56.85), and Louisville’s Leticia Fassina Romano (15:56.88) will be vying to knock Hurst out of 9th place and put up the time to beat this morning. As a timed final, our competitors this morning won’t know where they have placed until the final heat swims this evening, but those who place 1st through 8th this morning are guaranteed to score points.
The 200 Medley Relay and 800 Free Relay are also timed finals, as they have been since COVID, but they have joined the mile, in splitting into early heats and a final heat. As explained here in detail, all relays must submit the names of their athletes at the same time, so there will be no gamesmanship involved in relay line-ups, e.g., changing your team’s composition based on the early results.
Texas leads the way in the medley relay and will take to lane 4 this morning in our last heat. seeded at 1:34.52. The Longhorns finished tied for 6th last year at 1:34.00, but only return Piper Enge to the squad. They have reloaded the back end of the relay, with Campbell Stoll and Eva Okaro, the latter of whom has been on a tear of breaking and rebreaking the 100 free school record. However, Texas has struggled on the front half, and may need to play catch-up to LSU, Wisconsin, Auburn and Indiana, all of whom are also seeded sub 1:35.00. In fact, the whole last heat this morning is within a second of one another, so every team will be looking to go all out as there are valuable relay points on the line.
The same is true for the 800 free relay. Projected to start 45 minutes after the conclusion of the medley relay (the break gives rest for those teams having swimmers pulling double duty). The longest relay on the docket, the 800 free this morning, will see the 9th-seeded Tennessee flanked by Louisville and Ohio State. All three are seeded with 6:54s, with Tennessee leading the way at 6:54.56, but each will be looking to improve upon those times, targeting the 6:53.17 and 6:53.55 of USC and Georgia, who will swim this evening.
The Lady Vols, like Texas, finished 6th last year, graduating two of their legs. Ella Jansen returns, but Camille Spink, the 7th seed in the individual 200, may be absent, as she was left off this relay in favor of the other four at SECs. If she does show up this morning, Tennessee could easily be in the top 8. Don’t sleep on Louisville, as they too could pull in Julia Dennis, and when combined with Anastasia Gorbenko, who split 1:41.61 at ACCs, the Cardinals could be looking at a top 8 finish. While the splitting of the relays has received mixed reviews, it will be interesting to see, especially this morning, how coaches play with their line-ups. Texas, Tennessee, NC State, Louisville, Alabama, and Indiana all have relays split between the morning and evening, so swimmers pulling double duty will be under less of a time constraint than those of Virginia, Stanford, California, and Michigan, whose relays will both be swimming tonight.
Women’s 1650 Freestyle – Early Heats
NCAA Record: 15:03.21 – Katie Ledecky, Stanford (2017) American Record: 14:59.62 – Katie Ledecky, Gator Swim Club (2025) U.S. Open Record: 14:59.62 – Katie Ledecky, Gator Swim Club (2025) Championship Record: 15:07.70 – Katie Ledecky, Stanford (2017) 2025 Champion: Jillian Cox, Texas – 15:33.54 2025 8th/16th Place Times: 15:52.06/15:57.60Top 8:
Kate Hurst (TEX) – 15:53.09 Michaela Mattes (FLOR) – 15:59.35 Katie McCarthy (MINN) – 16:03.41 Sydney Bergstrom (PENN) – 16:04.94 Cavan Gormsen (UVA) – 16:06.10 Clarke Neace (UGA) – 16:07.60 Grace Cummings (ISU) – 16:08.21 Anna Moehn (PENN) – 16:08.76Grace Cummings, a first-year student from Indiana State, took out the first heat of the mile in a quick 1:53.95. A native of Great Britain, Cummings won the Missouri Valley Conference Championships in a personal best of 16:17.25. Cummings continued to build upon her lead and by the first 500, she had an over 4-second lead, flipping in 4:50.53, a split that is just .27 off her time from the MVC Championships. Behind her at the 500 leading the chase pack was Harvard’s Alexandra Bastone out of lane 7, flipping at 4:55.04.
While being run down in the mile is always possible, Cummings continued to assert her dominance on the field, and by the 1000-yard mark, the first year was four seconds under her PB pace, flipping in 9:44.85, as compared to her 9:48.95 from three weeks ago. Getting the bell at 15:39.21, Cummings closed in a 29.00 to hit the wall in a new PB and conference record time of 16:08.21. Taking 2nd in the heat was Rice’s Ava Portello at 16:14.80. Portello was entered as the last seed cut over 9 seconds off her seed time of 16:23.84.
Swimming out of the same lane that just won heat 1, Stanford’s Bailey O’Regan opened up heat 2 in 1:53.08, 1.81 seconds ahead of UNC’s Lily Reader. Through the 500, the race has been following a very similar script to the first heat, with lane 5 leading the way and lane 7 leading the chase pack. O’Regan, who was ahead of Cummings’ pace at the 200, slipped back behind it as she hit the wall in 4:50.97, with Reader closing the margin by .18 to trail by 1.63.
The similarities ended there, however, as O’Regan may have paid for her early speed. Alabama’s Mackenzie Brandt took over the lead at the 800, with Florida’s Camile Deboer, the heat’s top seed, also making a move through the field. With two 500s completed, Brandt led her SEC rival 9:47.10 to 9:48.83, with Reader sitting in 3rd at 9:48.86. The Crimson Tide swimmer certainly had a game plan for the race as she quickly turned up the pace and had expanded the lead to over four seconds by the 1300.
Brandt continued to remain in the lead over the few laps and at the 1600 yard mark, the Bama swimmer’s lead was hovering around four seconds and would remain in front taking the heat win in 16.09.43, the 2nd fastest time of the morning, a drop of over three seconds from her seed time of 16:12.50. Taking 2nd in the head was UNC’s Lily Reader at 16:12.81.
Heat 3, the first with entry times under 16:10, saw Michigan sophomore Rebecca Diaconescu jump out to an early lead, hitting the 200 wall in the first sub-1:53 split of 1:51.99. The Sandpipers of Nevada trained swimmer who represents Romania internationally was well off her best at Big Ten’s, where she finished 12th in a time of 16:26.13, but looked to be putting that behind her as she opened up the 500 in a speedy 4:47.72, establishing herself a lead of 3.53 seconds on Anna Moehn, the Ivy League runner-up from UPenn.
Things quickly turned around, though, as Minnesota’s Katie McCarthy planned an excellent-timed move and jumped her way through the field to flip first at the 1000, splitting 9:44.22. She wasn’t alone under 9:45 as Moehn, too, made the jump on Diaconescu, flipping in 9:44.70, 1.6 seconds ahead of the Michigan Wolverine, Diaconescu, who had slipped back to 3rd. McCarthy and Moehn continued to lead the heat, but McCarthy, a junior, found a new gear and ballooned that lead to nearly two seconds with 100 remaining. Flipping at the 1600 wall in 15:35.91, the Golden Gopher came home in 27.50 to stop the clock at 16:03.41, a two-second drop from her seed and best time 16:05.46.
The last heat was a much tighter bunch at the 200-yard mark. Although no one was as fast as Diaconescu was, Louisville’s Letecia Fassina Romao did open up in 1:52.66, less than a second ahead of the top seed pair of Cavan Gormsen and Kate Hurst, who flipped .51 and .69 back. Seeded 12th overall, the Louisville Cardinal remained in the lead at the 500, flipping in 4:46.47, but was still being tracked by Texas’s Hurst (4:47.40) and by Virginia’s Gormsen (4:47.80).
Texas Kate Hurst may have been playing some possum as she exploded on the 2nd 500, flipping in 9:34.81. A result that is as close to a negative split as possible, with her 2nd 500 coming in at 4:47.71. Moving up into a firm 2nd was her SEC rival Michaela Mattes, who flipped at the 1000-yard mark in 9:38.65, with both Gormsen and Fassina Romao locked into battle for 3rd.
Hurst continued to expand her lead and cruised to the wall, stopping the clock in 15:53.09. While not a personal best, the result is over three seconds faster than her 15:56.37 from SECs and stands as the time to beat. Mattes, who finished one spot back of her at SECs, joined her under the 16-minute barrier with her 15:59.35, a drop of over eight seconds off her time from last month.
Hurst’s 9th-place time is right in line with what was 9th last year (15:52.21), but it took a 15:57.60 to score last year, whereas 8th this morning (presumptively 16th overall) was just 16:08.76.
Women’s 200 Medley Relay – Early Heats
NCAA Record: 1:31.10 – Virginia (Curzan, A. Walsh, G. Walsh, Parker), 2025 American Record: 1:31.10 – Virginia (Curzan, A. Walsh, G. Walsh, Parker), 2025 U.S. Open Record: 1:31.10 – Virginia (Curzan, A. Walsh, G. Walsh, Parker), 2025 Championship Record: 1:31.10 – Virginia (Curzan, A. Walsh, G. Walsh, Parker), 2025 2025 Champion: Virginia (Curzan, A. Walsh, G. Walsh, Parker) – 1:31.10 2025 8th/16th Place Times: 1:34.54/1:35.38Top 8:
Texas (Kern, Enge, Stoll, Okaro) – 1:33.52 Indiana (Grana, Laegreid, Shackell, Paegle) – 1:34.26 LSU (Carlos-Broc, Bulvic, Littlefield, De Villiers) – 1:35.26 Florida – 1:35.33 Wisconsin – 1:35.39 Ohio State – 1:35.54 Arizona State – 1:35.93 UCLA – 1:35.99Texas blasted their way to a new season best by nearly a second, winning the last heat and defending their 9th place seeding. Emma Kern led the team off in 23.79, but it was Piper Enge and her 26.08 that brought the Longhorns to the front of the pack, a spot from which they never looked back. Campbell Stoll‘s 22.73 and Eva Okaro‘s 20.78 on the backhalf saw the Longhorns win by nearly a second with their 1:33.38, beating out Indiana’s 1:34.26. Indiana did not use star sprinter Liberty Clark on the relay, instead calling upon senior Kristina Paegle to anchor the team, meaning Clark will most likely be on all of their other relays.
LSU took 3rd but added half a second to their seed time, almost not beating out Florida’s time of 1:35.33 from the first heat. Florida won the first heat thanks to sophomore Anita Bottazzo’s 25.69 50 breaststroke split, which looks to be just outside the top 10 fastest 50 breaststroke splits. Florida made a massive leap up the leaderboard. The Gators were entered as the 2oth seed with a 1:35.81, and while they didn’t drop as much time as Texas, they secured themselves at least 12th-place points.
Wisconsin’s Maggie Wanezek had the fastest backstroke split (23.45), with Bottazzo having the fastest breaststroke split. Alex Shackell posted the lone sub-22.50 50 fly split, going 22.27. Okaro had the fastest 50 free split with her 20.78, bettering her 20.85 from SECs.
Auburn posted the 3rd fastest time of the morning, going 1:35.05, thanks in part to a fast anchor leg by Eveta Klevanovich, but her 20.89 was aided by a -.04 reaction time, which caused the relay to be disqualified.
Relay line-ups are out for tonight’s 200 Medley. Stanford has opted to use Torri Huske on Backstroke. She has a PB of 23.82 dating back to 2022
— SwimSwam Live (@SwimSwamLive) March 18, 2026
Women’s 800 Free Relay – Early Heats
NCAA Record: 6:44.13 – Virginia (G. Walsh, A. Walsh, Canny, Curzan), 2025 American Record: 6:45.91 – Stanford (Manuel, Neal, Eastin, Ledecky), 2017 U.S. Open Record: 6:44.13 – Virginia (G. Walsh, A. Walsh, Canny, Curzan), 2025 Championship Record: 6:45.91 – Stanford (Manuel, Neal, Eastin, Ledecky), 2017 2025 Champion: Stanford (Bricker, Roghair, Nordmann, Wilson) – 6:46.98 2025 8th/16th Place Times: 6:55.14/7:01.17Top 8:
Tennessee (Jansen, Armen, Mason, Brown) – 6:53.78 Louisville (Golovaty, Gorbenko, Cardwell, Ignatova) -6:56.76 Florida (Brousseau, Kruger, Ramey, Statkevicis) – 7:00.22 Pittsburgh – 7:00.57 Ohio State – 7:00.77 Wisconsin – 7:01.09 South Carolina – 7:03.73 Notre Dame – 7:04.11Much like the Texas women in the 200 medley relay, the Tennessee Women did what was needed to defend their 9th place seeding and put up a time that may crack into the top 8. They got out to a big lead thanks to their lead-off Ella Jansen, The Canadian, opened in a new personal best of 1:41.73, a drop of over half a second, as her previous best was a 1:42.26 from last month’s SEC. Jansen turned things over to Emily Armen, who tried her best to keep the Lady Vols in the lead, but Louisville’s 2nd leg was too much.
Trailing by 1.67 after the 200, Louisville’s Anastasia Gorbenko dove in and turned the deficit into a lead as she split 1:42.18 to Armen’s 1:44.13. Gorbenko and Louisville fans may have been hoping for something a little faster as the Israeli Olympian was 1:41.61 on the relay at ACCs, but that time would not have made much of a change, as Tennessee’s final two legs, Amelia Mason and Emily Brown, were more than enough to rein in the Cardinals, with Tennessee hitting the wall in 6:53.78. Their time easily overtook South Carolina’s 7:03.73 from the first heat and puts them in good standing to score more points, as the result is .11 faster than their 6th place finishing time from last year.
What’s even better news for Tennessee fans is that, not only is their star sprinter Camille Spink now free to be used on the other four relays (last year she split 1:43.99 on this relay, but also the entirety of this morning’s relay are underclassman, with Amelia Mason a first-year and the other three sophomores.
Florida continued their strong relay performances, as they moved up the board thanks to their 7:00.22. While .36 slower than their seed time, the Gators jumped from 14th to a guaranteed 11th place. Julie Brousseau, who scratched this morning’s 1650, led off for Florida, going 1:44.48. Blair Stoneburg, the other scratch from this morning, anchored Wisconsin’s 6th-place finishing relay in 1:44.88.
Jansen and her 1:41.73 had both the fastest flat start, the lone swimmer under 1:43.00, and the fastest split overall, with Gorbenko’s 1:42.18 the next fastest overall split and fastest flying start.
While not a definitive reflection of the change in schedule, three events are too small a sample size; all three events this morning have had the presumptive 16th place time be slower than last year’s. The mile was 11 seconds slower; the 200 medley was 1:35.38 last year and cannot be faster than 1:35.99. The 800 free relay went from 7:01.17 to 7:04.11.
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