By Sean Griffin on SwimSwam
Anya Pelshaw, Madeline Folsom, Braden Keith, and James Sutherland contributed to this report.
It’s the beginning of the 2025-2026 NCAA season, which means that it’s time to make our early picks for who this season’s NCAA champions are going to be. As with last year, some of the SwimSwam staff debated who they think will win each event in March.
The midpoint of the Olympic quad is often when new names begin to emerge ahead of the next Games. Several key graduations last year—most notably Gretchen and Alex Walsh—have opened up events that were once straightforward picks.
Even so, there is still notable uniformity in our women’s selections: we agreed on 8 of 18 (44.4%) winners. While some races are now wide open, the women’s meet still has clear favorites in several events. Our consensus may also reflect early-season caution—we clearly don’t have much to go off of yet—along with uncertainty over how transfers and freshmen will adjust to new programs.
The staff unanimously agreed that Torri Huske will win three events, with all five of us choosing her for the 100 free and 100 fly. While there’s some disagreement on her third event, we all have her walking away with three individual golds. Virginia for both medley relays and the 400 free relay, and Stanford for the 800 free relay.
Everyone agreed that Virginia will win the 200 medley/400 medley/400 free relays, and we all have Stanford winning the 800 free relay. Other unanimous picks include Jillian Cox in the mile and Caroline Bricker in the 400 IM.
The 200 free relay is our only split pick, with Sean, James, and Anya backing Louisville and Braden and Madeline favoring Virginia to defend its title.
The biggest individual event disagreements came in the 50 free, 200 free, and 200 fly, with those three disciplines representing the only races where more than two different winners were chosen by our staff. The 50 free split comes from Madeline projecting Torri Huske to swim that race rather than the 200 IM, where she is the defending champion, while the rest of the staff is split between Louisville senior Julia Dennis (21.08) and Virginia junior Claire Curzan (21.11). Curzan out-touched Dennis for second at NCAAs last year by just nine-hundredths of a second.
In the 200 free, three of us have Cal freshman Claire Weinstein winning the race. She comes in with a personal best of 1:41.10, while Braden has Indiana freshman Alex Shackell (1:42.28) and Madeline has USC junior Minna Abraham (1:40.56) securing gold. While Abraham has a slightly faster career best, Weinstein defeated her by nearly three seconds at Short Course Worlds last December, which was her main focus meet of the season.
Nobody selected Michigan junior Stephanie Balduccini for the win, even though she owns a lifetime best of 1:40.89 and took third at last year’s NCAAs behind Abraham and the winner, now-graduated Anna Peplowski.
In the 200 fly, Braden and Sean have Shackell securing the win, and she enters the season as the fastest woman on paper since the two sub-1:50 swimmers of the past few years, Emma Sticklen and Alex Walsh, have graduated. Shackell is already on the cusp of that barrier with her 2023 personal best of 1:50.15.
James and Anya have tabbed Stanford sophomore Caroline Bricker to win, while Madeline picked Virginia junior Tess Howley. They were third and fourth respectively at last year’s championship, recording times of 1:51.55 and 1:51.79, and both have broken out in a big way in the long course pool this past summer with 2:05 clockings.
Without further ado, below are the ballots.
SwimSwam’s Top Pick Anya Madeline Sean Braden James 50 Freestyle TIE – Claire Curzan & Julia Dennis Claire Curzan Torri Huske Julia Dennis Claire Curzan Julia Dennis 100 Freestyle Torri Huske Torri Huske Torri Huske Torri Huske Torri Huske Torri Huske 200 Freestyle Claire Weinstein Claire Weinstein Minna Abraham Claire Weinstein Alex Shackell Claire Weinstein 500 Freestyle Claire Weinstein Jillian Cox Claire Weinstein Claire Weinstein Jillian Cox Claire Weinstein 1650 Freestyle Jillian Cox Jillian Cox Jillian Cox Jillian Cox Jillian Cox Jillian Cox 100 Butterfly Torri Huske Torri Huske Torri Huske Torri Huske Torri Huske Torri Huske 200 Butterfly TIE – Alex Shackell & Caroline Bricker Caroline Bricker Tess Howley Alex Shackell Alex Shackell Caroline Bricker 100 Backstroke Bella Sims Bella Sims Claire Curzan Bella Sims Bella Sims Claire Curzan 200 Backstroke Claire Curzan Claire Curzan Claire Curzan Claire Curzan Bella Sims Claire Curzan 100 Breaststroke McKenzie Siroky McKenzie Siroky McKenzie Siroky McKenzie Siroky McKenzie Siroky Eneli Jefimova 200 Breaststroke Lucy Bell Lucy Bell Lucy Bell Lucy Bell Lucy Bell Eneli Jefimova 200 IM Torri Huske Torri Huske Caroline Bricker Torri Huske Torri Huske Torri Huske 400 IM Caroline Bricker Caroline Bricker Caroline Bricker Caroline Bricker Caroline Bricker Caroline Bricker 200 Medley Relay Virginia Virginia Virginia Virginia Virginia Virginia 400 Medley Relay Virginia Virginia Virgina Virginia Virginia Virginia 200 Freestyle Relay Louisville Louisville Virginia Louisville Virginia Louisville 400 Freestyle Relay Virginia Virginia Virginia Virginia Virginia Virginia 800 Freestyle Relay Stanford Stanford Stanford Stanford Stanford StanfordSome Potential Upsets/Hot Takes:
Madeline: Torri Huske has historically swum the 200 IM on day one, but Stanford has another swimmer in Caroline Bricker who can take home the title, and Huske has been shifting her focus to the sprint events internationally. I think she swims the 50 free and challenges Curzan for the title.
Braden: Kennedi Dobson had a huge senior season in high school and collected a sizable medal haul in middle-distance freestyle at the World Junior Championships. She seems built for the Georgia model. I think she’s got a shot at the 500 free NCAA title.
James: Claire Weinstein takes down at least one of Franklin’s 200 free record or Ledecky’s 500 free record.
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