By Madeline Folsom on SwimSwam
The NCAA season wrapped up last month, and as we have done the last few years, we are taking a look at how the first-year head coaches performed during their first season with their new teams.
There were six new Division I head coaches for the 2025-2026 swim season, three from Power Four schools and three from mid-major programs. We did a midseason check in back in November, and now we are looking at the season as a whole as coaches stepped into their new roles.
Stanford Women Didn’t Miss a Step
Former Notre Dame coach Chris Lindauer was hired to lead the Stanford women’s program last year after former head coach Greg Meehan, who led the team for 13 seasons, accepted a position as the USA Swimming National Team Director.
At the midseason mark, the Stanford women seemed to be transitioning well, and, overall, they had strong performances at the ACC and NCAA Championships, even with a few outliers.
One of the standout swimmers of the meet was senior Torri Huske. For the first time in her career, she won all three of her individual events at the NCAA Championships, setting new personal best times in the 50 free (20.66) and 100 free (45.17), becoming the 2nd fastest performer in history in both races. In the 100 fly, she set a personal best 48.26, which also made her the #2 performer in history. At NCAAs, she was just off her best, swimming 48.49 to win her 3rd individual event.
The Cardinal also had a very strong performance from Lucy Bell. She won her 2nd straight title in the 200 breaststroke, swimming 2:02.38, a total two-second drop during the season from the 2:04.28 she swam to win the event in 2024. Bell also won the 200 IM in 1:52.09, a four tenth drop from the 1:52.47 she swam at the 2024 NCAA Championships. Finally, she finished 2nd in the 400 IM, swimming 3:58.72 to take more than a second off her pre-season best of 4:00.24.
Other notable performances came at the ACC Championships. Freshman Annam Olasewere set a trio of personal best times in her first conference meet, finishing 4th in the 50 free (21.46), 6th in the 100 free (47.17), and 7th in the 200 free (1:43.23). Her 50 free time was a half-second best time (21.99), her 100 free was a full second drop (48.36), and her 200 free was a four second drop (1:47.36) all from her pre-college best times.
One of the outliers was junior Caroline Bricker. She had a very strong performance at the 2025 NCAA Championships, earning a gold medal in the 400 IM (3:57.36) and a bronze medal in the 200 fly (1:51.55) along with a 5th place finish in the 200 IM (1:52.01). All three swims were new personal bests. At this year’s NCAAs, she opted to swim the 200 breaststroke rather than race the 200 fly/200 IM double. She did not set any personal best times, finishing 18th in the 200 breast (2:09.09), 5th in the 200 fly (1:52.10), and 6th in the 400 IM (4:02.23).
As a whole, the Cardinal women went 31% best times at ACCs and 24% best times at NCAAs. This is a little off the 45% personal bests they swam at the 2025 NCAAs but slightly better the 16% personal best times at the 2025 ACC Championships.
Meet 2025 ACC Championships 2026 ACC Championships 2025 NCAA Championships 2026 NCAA Championships Overall Finish 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd Percentage Lifetime Bests 16% 31% 45% 24%In the next year, Lindauer will have the task of matching or bettering ACC performance at the NCAA Championships across the board, but it is clear that many of the swimmers improved under his guidance.
Badgers Hold Steady With New Coach
After last season, the Wisconsin Badgers lost long-time head coach Yuri Suguiyama whose tenure concluded with the women finishing 12th at NCAAs in 2025.
The women’s program lost their strongest swimmer, Phoebe Bacon, after the season and did not seem on track to come close to their 2025 performance. In 2026, the women finished 13th at NCAAs, just one spot back from 2025 after many women saw significant drops. They also matched their Big Tens performance, coming in 4th overall.
Dr. Jack Brown took over the position and quickly made his mark as both the men and women improved dramatically. On the women’s side, sophomore Maggie Wanezek went from a ‘B’ finalist in two events in 2025 to a two-time silver medalist in 2026.
She made her first improvements at the Texas Hall of Fame Invite, when she set entirely personal bests, dropping to 49.95 in the 100 back, 1:48.39 in the 200 back, and 1:44.23 in the 200 free. At the Big Ten Championships, she set all best times again, swimming 1:43.45 to finish 5th in the 200 free, 49.72 to win the 100 back, and 1:48.31 to win the 200 back.
A month later, at the 2026 NCAA Championships, she picked up silver medals with new bests in the 100 back (49.62) and 200 back (1:47.73) and she finished 18th in the 200 free (1:43.60).
The women had 4 personal best times (19%) at NCAAs and 23 personal best times (38%) at Big Tens. In 2025, they had 7 personal best times at NCAAs (28%) and 16 (22%) at Big Tens.
Meet 2025 Big Ten Championships 2026 Big Ten Championships 2025 NCAA Championships 2026 NCAA Championships Overall Finish 4th 4th 12th 13th Percentage Lifetime Bests 22% 38% 28% 19%On the men’s side, they improved their Big Ten’s finish, coming in 5th after finishing 6th in 2025, and they were less than eight points behind Northwestern for 4th. They dropped placements at the NCAA Championships from 22nd to 32nd.
Their top male swimmer, Dominik Mark Torok only scored one point in 2026 compared to the 14 he brought in in 2025, but he did set two new lifetime bests this season. In November, he dropped more than a second in the 200 fly to swim 1:40.07. At the Big Ten Championships, he swam 1:53.06 in the 200 breaststroke to set another personal beast, cutting two seconds off the 1:55.31 he swam in November 2024.
In the 400 IM, he set a season best 3:38.53 at the Big Ten Championships, and then swam 3:40.28 at NCAAs to finish 16th. Both swims were off his lifetime best of 3:37.50 from the 2025 NCAAs.
There were a few men who saw big improvements as well. Freshman Enzo Solitario swam all personal best times at the Big Ten Championships, earning a bronze medal in the 200 free (1:32.12), a 6th place finish in the 500 free (4:14.02), and a 7th place finish in the 200 fly (1:40.96). At NCAAs, his highest finish was 19th in the 200 fly (1:40.97).
Junior Nathan Welker also went an entire lineup of personal best times, finishing 9th in the 100 back (45.43), 7th in the 200 back (1:40.94), and 13th in the 100 fly (45.74), though all three of his best times came from prelims. He did not earn an individual NCAA invite.
Overall, the men went one personal best time at the NCAA Championships (8%) and 38 personal best times at the Big Ten Championships (58%). In 2025, they went 6 lifetime bests at NCAAs (46%) and 35 lifetime bests at Big Tens (46%).
Notre Dame Makes Big Jumps On Both Sides
Chris Lindauer left the Notre Dame team to coach Stanford after last season, and Michael Norment took over the role.
Like we said in the midseason review, it is not completely fair to compare Norment and his coaching of the men’s team to the same standards as the rest of the list due to most of the men leaving the program or retiring from the sport after the team was suspended for the 2024-2025 season, but the women’s team can be closely analyzed.
Carli Cronk has been the top swimmer on the women’s team for the past two seasons and she had a strong year that saw her move far up the rankings in the 200 fly and finish 10th in the event at NCAAs. Her 500 free and 400 IM swims were both off her lifetime best times.
Cronk was the only individual scorer this year, but sophomore Lainey Mullins and freshman Emily Hamill both earned their first individual NCAA Invites.
Overall, the women improved their finishes from 2025. At the ACC Championships, they finished 11th with 11 personal best times (20%), a one spot improvement from 2025 when they finished 12th with 6 personal bests (11%). At the 2026 NCAAs, they also improved, finishing 33rd overall with no personal bests compared to their 2025 finish of 44th with 1 personal best time (17%).
Meet 2025 ACC Championships 2026 ACC Championships 2025 NCAA Championships 2026 NCAA Championships Overall Finish 12th 11th 44th 33rd Percentage Lifetime Bests 11% 20% 17% 0%The Notre Dame men came back from suspension strong this year. Sophomore Marcus Reyes-Gentry, who was one of a few men that still attended Notre Dame last season training by themselves, had an excellent year for the Fighting Irish.
At the ACC Championships, he finished 8th in the 100 back, swimming 44.87 in the prelims, 21st in the 200 back (1:41.10), and 18th in the 100 fly (45.58). At NCAAs, he dropped in the 100 back again, swimming 44.14 to finish 7th overall after he swam 44.07 in prelims. In the 100 fly, he swam 45.23 to finish 23rd.
Tommy Janton and Shane Eckler both had strong meets at the ACC Championships, but were just off the mark at NCAAs.
Janton set season best times in both backstroke events, finishing 4th in the 100 (44.68) and 9th in the 200 (1:38.98). He also set a lifetime best 45.41 in the 100 fly to qualify 9th out of prelims before he swam 45.60 to finish 12th in the final. At NCAAs, he was off his personal bests in the 100 back (44.94) and 200 back (1:40.96).
Eckler, a freshman, was one of the swimmers left out of the NCAA Championships due to the addition of Auto Qualifiers after he swam 18.89 in the 50 freestyle prelims at ACCs, putting him just out of qualifying. He also set a lifetime best 42.19 in the 100 free, finishing 13th overall. He swam all five relays for Notre Dame with highlight relay splits of 18.65 on the anchor leg of the medley and 41.67 as the anchor of the 400 medley.
The Fighting Irish men set 30 personal best times, finishing 9th at ACCs (53%) and 3 lifetime bests (33%) at NCAAs to finish 37th.
Mid-Major Programs
John Carroll, Georgetown — Carroll took over at Georgetown after the men were the Big East Champions in 2025. They repeated that performance in 2026, scoring 910.5 points, 80 more than the 836 they scored in 2025. They also improved their personal best percentage from 29% in 2025 to 58% in 2026. The women moved up from 4th in 2025 to 3rd in 2026, though their best time % dropped slightly from 26% to 24%. Owen Watkins also qualified for the meet via his conference title in the 50 free. Matt Bosse, Niagara — The Niagara men and women were coming off overall Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference titles in 2025 before Matt Bosse took over the position. This year, the men and women finished 3rd behind Fairfield and Marist. In 2026, the women set 28% best times at the MAAC meet and the men set 58% bests. The women were just off their 2025 percentage of 58% bests while the men slightly improved their 57%. Cal State Bakersfield — CSUB had a few coaching changes this year. Eric Bugby was originally hired into the position before he resigning in October, and assistant coach Ryan Brimer was promoted to interim head coach for the remainder of the season. At the 2026 Big West meet, the Roadrunner women finished 6th and the men finished 5th. The women dropped slightly from their 5th place finish in 2025, but the conference got more teams. The women set 35% lifetime bests at the meet in 2026, a slight drop from the 48% they set in 2025. The men had 48% personal bests, which was exactly in line with the 48% they set in 2025. They were also represented at the 2026 Men’s NCAA Championships after Vili Sivec qualified in both the 100 and 200 fly via conference title. Sivec swam just off his personal bests in both events at the meet.Read the full story on SwimSwam: How Did First Year Division I Head Coaches Perform During the 2025-2026 NCAA Season?
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