By Madeline Folsom on SwimSwam
It’s that time of the year again. SwimSwam will be previewing the top 12 men’s and women’s teams (and then some) from the 2026 NCAA Championships. Follow along with the College Swimming Preview Channel. Want to read even more? Check out the latest edition of the SwimSwam magazine.
#6 Men: NC State Wolfpack
Key Losses: Arsenio Bustos (23 NCAA points, 1 NCAA Relay), Aiden Hayes (23 NCAA points, 2 NCAA relays), Drew Salls (2 NCAA relays)
Key Additions: #6 Liam Carrington (FL – free/back/IM), Nusrat Allahverdi (Turkey – breast), Jan Gajda (Poland – breast), Andrei Theodor Proca (Romania – distance free), Vasileios Kakoulakis (Greece – distance free), Isaiah Aleksenko (Keiser University transfer – fly)
GRADING CRITERIA
Over the years, we’ve gone back and forth on how to project points, ranging from largely subjective rankings to more data-based grading criteria based on ‘projected returning points.’ We like being as objective as possible, but we’re going to stick with the approach we’ve adopted post-COVID. The “stars” will rely heavily on what swimmers actually did last year, but we’ll also give credit to returning swimmers or freshmen who have posted times that would have scored last year.
Since we only profile the top 12 teams in this format, our grades are designed with that range in mind. In the grand scheme of college swimming and compared to all other college programs, top 12 NCAA programs would pretty much all grade well across the board. But in the interest of making these previews informative, our grading scale is tough – designed to show the tiers between the good stroke groups, the great ones, and the 2015 Texas fly group types.
5 star (★★★★★) – a rare, elite NCAA group projected to score 25+ points per event 4 star (★★★★) – a very, very good NCAA group projected to score 15-24 points per event 3 star (★★★) – a good NCAA group projected to score 5-14 points per event 2 star (★★) – a solid NCAA group projected to score 1-4 points per event 1 star (★) – an NCAA group that is projected to score no points per event, though that doesn’t mean it’s without potential scorers – they’ll just need to leapfrog some swimmers ahead of them to do itWe’ll grade each event discipline: sprint free (which we define to include all the relay-distance freestyle events, so 50, 100 and 200), distance free, IM, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly and diving. Use these grades as a jumping-off point for discussion, rather than a reason to be angry.
Also, keep in mind that we are publishing many of these previews before teams have posted finalized rosters. We’re making our assessments based on the best information we have available at the time of publication. Still, we reserve the right to make changes after publication based on any new information that may emerge regarding rosters. If that does happen, we’ll make certain to note the change.
The final note is that we are not including athletes who graduated last spring after exhausting their college eligibility despite ongoing lawsuits against the NCAA regarding the new “Five-for-Five” rule.
2025-26 Lookback
NC State jumped three spots at the 2026 NCAA Championships, scoring 258.5 points to finish 6th overall, less than 20 points outside of Tennessee, who scored 272 points to finish 5th overall.
Every member of their individual NCAA roster scored individual points at the meet, a feat no other teams in the top 10 accomplished.
The team was led by Quintin McCarty, who scored 37 points after he finished 4th in the 50 free, 5th in the 100 free, and 9th in the 100 back. He was followed by a pair of 5th years in Arsenio Bustos and Aiden Hayes, who both scored 23 points.
There were three more athletes who scored double digit points. Junior Daniel Diehl scored 13 points after he finished 6th in the 200 IM, sophomore Kaii Winkler scored 13 with his 6th place finish in the 200 free, and junior Jerry Fox scored 10.5 points with his 13th place in the 50 free and 10th place in the 100 free.
Freshman Max Carlsen filled a crucial role in the NC State roster to score 7 points after he finished 12th in the mile and 15th in the 500. Junior Hudson Williams wrapped up the individual point scorers with 2 points after he took 15th in the 100 free.
The Wolfpack finished 3rd at the ACC Championships behind Stanford and Cal, matching their 2025 performance. Quintin McCarty scored 87 points, more than any other man at the meet.
Sprint Free: ★★★★ ½
One of the top sprint freestyle groups in the NCAA, the NC State men had historically struggled to perform at the end of the season. This earned them 2.5 stars in the sprint freestyle events in last year’s preview, which they far exceeded. In 2026, they were near perfect at NCAAs, earning a large number of NC State’s individual points.
Quintin McCarty is their top returning sprint freestyler after he finished 4th in the 50 free (18.47) and 5th in the 100 free (40.90) at last year’s NCAA Championships. His 50 free time at NCAAs was a lifetime best, and his 100 free was just two hundredths off the 40.88 he swam at the ACC Championships. Only one of the athletes ahead of McCarty in the 50 free – Ilya Kharun – will be back this season, and two of the athletes ahead of him in the 100 free are back, which means he could be looking at a top 3 finish in both events.
Kaii Winkler and Jerry Fox are also potential NCAA scorers with Fox finishing 13th in the 50 free (18.83) and 10th in the 100 free (41.28) last season. His best 50 free time stood at 18.80 from the ACC Championships, which would have jumped him up to 12th.
Winkler finished 17th in the 100 free, stopping the clock in 41.60, half a second off his best of 41.03 from ACCs. If he can match that time this year, he is a potential ‘A’ finalist in the 100.
Hudson Williams will be a senior, and he scored 2 points in the 100 free after he finished 15th in 41.51, just off his 41.48 from ACCs.
In the 200 free, Winkler finished 6th at ACCs with his 1:30.93, which was a one tenth add from his prelims swim of 1:30.83 and would not have changed his overall placement. This was a huge drop for him, and made him the only sub-1:32 swimmer on the roster last year.
He will be joined in the 200 free by incoming freshman Liam Carrington. Ranked the #6 recruit for the class of 2026, he has the fastest 200 freestyle of all the incoming freshmen at 1:32.88 and has huge potential to drop into the scoring range of 1:31.62 during his freshman year. Carrington’s best 100 free is 42.3, which is also near the 41.56 it took to score last season.
Distance Free: ★★★ ½
Max Carlsen is back in the distance events this season after he swam 4:09.44 in the 500 free as a freshman to win the ACC title. He also won the mile in 14:32.68.
He struggled a little with the double taper, which is very typical of freshmen, and at NCAAs swam 4:12.47 in the 500 free to finish 15th and 14:44.27 in the 1650 to finish 12th. If he had matched his best times, he would have been 5th in the 1650 and 6th in the 500.
If he can match his best times at NCAAs this season, he has the potential to be a top-eight finisher in both events.
Lance Norris (4:15.19/15:52.16), Mikolaj Filipiak (4:16.23), and Matt Marsteiner (14:57.35) will also be trying to earn NCAA invites and potentially move into scoring position. Norris finished 13th at the 2025 NCAAs in 14:38.31, and will be trying to get back to that mark this year.
They also picked up international freshmen Andrei Theodor Proca from Romania and Vasileios Kakoulakis from Greece. Proca’s SCM 1500 free converts to 14:32 and Kakoulakis’ LC 1500 converts to 14:42, which means they are also potential scoring threats if they can match those performances SCY.
Backstroke: ★★★
Where the NC State men figured out their sprint freestyle struggles at NCAAs, they had some issues in the backstroke events outside of Quintin McCarty. The senior is the only returning swimmer who scored in the backstroke events at NCAAs, finishing 9th in 44.49, which was three hundredths off the 44.46 he swam at ACCs.
Hudson Williams and Kaii Winkler also swam the event at the meet, though both of them added from their best times. Williams swam 45.02 to finish 24th, a half-second off the 44.49 he swam at the NCSU Invitational which would have been 9th. Winkler touched in 45.55 to finish 31st, a near second off the 44.62 he swam at ACCs which would have been 14th.
If the Wolfpack can match their best times at NCAAs this year, they could have three finals qualifiers in the 100 backstroke.
Daniel Diehl was the top 200 backstroker on the team with the 1:39.53 he swam at ACCs. He was one of a number of athletes who had a difficult lineup with the new NCAA schedule, and he attempted to swim the 200 IM/200 back double on the final day of the meet. It did not work out for him, and he ended up swimming 1:41.17 to finish 34th in the 200 back. The men’s 200 backstroke prelims were exceptionally fast at the 2026 NCAA Championships as well and Diehl’s time from ACCs would have been 20th overall.
Breaststroke: ★
The NC State men graduated their only scoring breaststroker in Arsenio Bustos, who finished 12th in the 200 breast at 1:51.77. The next fastest 200 breaststroker on the team was Hudson Schuricht at 1:53.69, more than a second off the 1:52.29 cutline.
In the 100 breast, Schuricht was the fastest on the team at 52.66, a second off the 51.51 cutline.
NC State picked up two international breaststroke recruits in Turkey’s Nusrat Allahverdi and Poland’s Jan Gajda. Their breaststroke times convert to around the same spot as the other breaststrokers currently on the team.
Butterfly: ★
NC State is hurting for butterflyers this year after the graduations of Aiden Hayes and Arsenio Bustos. They picked up a strong butterfly recruiting class, though, which will help bridge the gap a bit.
The fastest returning butterflyer is Kaii Winkler, who swam 45.42 at the NCSU Invitational, but he is not likely to race the event at either ACCs or NCAAs since it is directly before the 200 freestyle. Behind him was Maximus Buff at 46.46, which is more than a second off the invite time of 44.91.
In the 200 fly, the Wolfpack did not have any swimmers under the cutline of 1:40.77 with Hayes coming in as their fastest 200 butterflyer in 1:41.44. Anton Kochu, who has also graduated, was 2nd in 1:43.11 and Buff was 3rd in 1:44.77.
Freshman Sam Marsteiner did not drop time in the 200 fly as a senior, but his best time of 1:44.66 would have been 3rd on last year’s team.
They also picked up Keiser University transfer Isaiah Aleksenko, who won the NAIA title in the 100 fly at 45.21 in 2026 and the 200 fly title in 1:42.87 in 2025.
Also joining the team is Pitt transfer Alan Vergine, who has best times of 45.66 and 1:42.03 from the 2026 ACC Championships.
While none of the new swimmers are under the NCAA qualifying standards, Aleksenko and Vergine will be the top 100 and 200 butterflyers on the team, respectively.
IM: ★★★
NC State has one returning IM point scorer in Daniel Diehl, but he is a big one. He took 6th place at the 2026 NCAA Championships, stopping the clock in 1:41.03 to set a new lifetime best in the event.
He will be trying to dip under 1:41 this season to move up in the rankings with three of the athletes who finished ahead of him graduating.
Their next fastest returning IMer is junior Simon Bermudez, who swam 1:43.62 at the ACC Championships.
In the 400 IM, Kyle Ponsler was the fastest on the team with the 3:41.88 he swam at the ACC Championships. He had sort of a down year, having won the ‘B’ final in the event at the 2025 meet in 3:37.42. If he had matched that time last year, he would have qualified for NCAAs and finished 8th overall.
Diving: ★
After cutting all their male divers last season, NC State recruited two freshmen to the program this year, putting them back in the star rankings with Grant Hester and Mason Lawson. Since they are both freshmen it is hard to predict how they will perform, but Lawson was ranked #6 in SwimSwam’s dive rankings for the class of 2026.
Relays: ★★★★★
There is a very real possibility that the NC State men walk home with two of the three men’s freestyle relay titles at the 2027 NCAA Championships. Their graduations affected a few relays, but the swimmers they have still on the team and the swimmers they brought in will help fill those roles very well, especially in the free relays.
The team does not lose any members of their 400 free relay that finished 2nd – behind an ASU team that graduated three of their four members – or their 800 free relay that finished 5th.
The only swimmer they lost off the 200 free relay was Drew Salls, and with the major graduations from Florida and ASU, who finished ahead of them it would not be shocking to see them win that either.
They are hurting a little more in the medley relays, but their international breaststroke additions will likely help make up most of the speed they lost from Aiden Hayes graduating.
Relay 2026 NCAA Result (Time) Lineup Losing Potential Adds Season-Best Time 200 FR 3rd (1:13.73) Quintin McCarty, Drew Salls, Jerry Fox, Kaii Winkler Drew Salls Liam Carrington, Wells Walker, Hudson Williams 1:13.73 400 FR 2nd (2:43.31) Jerry Fox, Quintin McCarty, Hudson Williams, Kaii Winkler None N/A 2:43.31 800 FR 5th (6:07.20) Kaii Winkler, Daniel Diehl, Hudson Williams, Jerry Fox None Liam Carrington 6:07.20 200 MR 5th (1:21.23) Quintin McCarty, Daniel Diehl, Aiden Hayes, Drew Salls Aiden Hayes, Drew Salls Nusrat Allahverdi, Jan Gajda, Isaiah Aleksenko, Alan Vergine, Jerry Fox, Hudson Williams, Wells Walker 1:21.23 400 MR 13th (3:02.33) Hudson Williams, Arsenio Bustos, Aiden Hayes, Kaii Winkler Arsenio Bustos, Aiden Hayes Nusrat Allahverdi, Jan Gajda, Isaiah Aleksenko, Alan Vergine, Jerry Fox, Wells Walker 3:01.66Total: 22/40
2026-27 Outlook
The NC State men will be relying on relays to maintain their 2026 position, and their relays look really good.
Their veterans will be huge members of the team when it comes to points across the board, and they will be leading a group of freshmen/newcomers who have the potential to see some big drops/improvements as they work their way to the NCAA Championships.
The breaststroke and butterfly events will be the biggest gaps on their roster this season, but if they can develop some of their newcomers into strong relay members, even if they don’t get to individual NCAA scoring range, NC State could work their way into the top five teams, especially if everyone matches or betters their performances at NCAAs, something the Wolfpack has struggled with in the past.
Men’s 2026-27 College Preview Index
Rank (2026) Team Sprint Free Distance Free Backstroke Breaststroke Butterfly IM Diving Relays Total Stars 1 Texas Longhorns 2 Florida Gators 3 Indiana Hoosiers 4 Arizona State Sun Devils 5 Tennessee Volunteers 6 NC State Wolfpack ★★★★½ ★★★½ ★★★ ★ ★ ★★★ ★ ★★★★★ 22/40 7 California Golden Bears ★★ ★★★½ ★★★½ ★★★★ ★★½ ★★★½ ★ ★★★ 23/40 8 Michigan Wolverines ★ ★★ ★ ★ ★★★ ★★★★ ★★ ★★ 16/40 9 Virginia Cavaliers ★★½ ★ ★★★ ★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★ ★★★½ 19/40 10 Stanford Cardinal ★★★½ ★★★ ★★ ★★½ ★★ ★ ★★★ ★★½ 19.5/40 11 Virginia Tech Hokies ★★★ ★ ★★ ★★ ★ ★ ★ ★★ 13/40 12 Louisville Cardinals ★★★ ★ ★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★★ 16/40Read the full story on SwimSwam: 2026-27 NCAA Previews: #6 NC State Men Expecting Huge Relay Points in 2027
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