By Madeline Folsom on SwimSwam
2026 NCAA Division II Swimming & Diving Championships
March 10-14, 2026 Deaconess Aquatic Center — Evansville, Indiana SCY (25 Yards) Defending Champions Women: Nova Southeastern (3x) Men: vacant Psych Sheets Men Women Live Video Live Results Live Recaps: Prelims: Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5The Tampa men won their 2nd ever NCAA Division II Team Title on Saturday night in an electric finish after the meet came down to the final relay.
Tampa won their first title back in 2024, scoring 64 more points than the Drury men’s team. Last year, the Drury men scored 525 points, 74 more than Tampa, to take home the trophy.
That was until August, when it was announced that Drury would be vacating their 2025 title following a positive caffeine test from one of their athletes at the meet. The disqualification of the athlete dropped Drury‘s point total from the top spot in the team standings, indicating that relays were affected as well as individual results. Tampa was not elevated to the championship position after this situation, leaving the men’s title vacant, and the Tampa men with a vengeance.
They started this year’s meet off with a win and NCAA Championship record in the 800 freestyle relay, swimming 6:16.64 to take more than a second off their 2025 record time of 6:17.93. They ended the day in first place, just six points ahead of the Drury men. This was the only time the Tampa men finished the day in the lead until the last day of competition.
On day two, Jacob Hamlin won the men’s 1000 freestyle in 8:50.02, a second ahead of the rest of the field. He was their only event winner of the day, but William Beckstead-Holman finished 4th in the 200 IM (1:44.68), and Tibor Tistan finished 4th in the 50 free (19.49). In the 200 medley relay, Tampa touched 3rd in 1:24.68, five hundredths behind Drury‘s 1:24.63. They finished the day with 149 points, three points behind Drury‘s 152.
Day three saw zero individual event champions for the Spartans. Beckstead-Holman finished 4th in the 100 fly (46.46), and Hamlin was 2nd in the 200 free (1:33.10). They were the only top-five finishers for the team along with the 400 medley relay, which finished 4th in 3:08.37, two spots behind Drury‘s 2nd place relay of 3:06.54. Tampa sat in 2nd with 244 points after the day ended, nine points behind the Drury men who had 253.
Day four started with Hamlin picking up his 2nd individual title and an NCAA record in the men’s 500 of 4:14.35. Rufus Bernhardt tied for 4th in the 100 back (46.47), and Nicholas Cavic finished 5th in the 200 fly (1:44.96). Day four ended with one of the best swims of the meet for Tampa. They won the men’s 200 freestyle relay in 1:17.36, just one hundredth ahead of Colorado Mesa after they came into the race seeded 8th. With one day remaining, the Tampa men were still in 2nd, 2.5 points behind Drury with 381.5 to the Panthers’ 384.
The final day of competition saw the Drury men put on an excellent prelims session, which saw them projected to score 92 points to Tampa’s 75, but the Spartans were not going down easy.
Hamlin kicked off the session with a 2nd place finish in the 1650, touching in 15:00.42. Tistan finished 6th in the 100 free, beating Drury‘s 7th place finisher by just two tenths. In the ‘B’ final of the 100 free, Riccardo Pandin won to beat Drury‘s Lucas Minuer.
In the 200 backstroke, Tampa’s Beckstead-Holman finished 4th in 1:43.90. The meet wrapped up individually with the 200 breaststroke where Britton Spann swam 1:55.57 to finish 4th. He dropped more than a second from his previous best 1:56.66, and improved his prelims finish by two places to help Tampa move into the lead by 7.5 points over Drury going into the final relay.
Tampa was seeded 9th in the 400 freestyle relay, coming in at 2:55.11 from the Gamecock Invite. Drury was the top seed in 2:51.14. The point gap between 1st and 2nd is six points, but if Drury won and Tampa finished in any place 3rd or below, the Panthers would have earned the overall title. Tampa was coming off an upset win in the 200 freestyle relay, but they were not going to be in the same heat as Drury, and would have to dominate their heat with nobody to race.
Tampa had an electric performance in heat two of three, swimming 2:51.14 with every swimmer on the relay setting a lifetime best relay split. They won their heat by more than three seconds, and then sat back and watched the final heat race.
Tampa outsplit Drury on the first three relay legs, sitting nearly a second ahead of Drury with just one swimmer remaining. Drury ultimately touched in 2:51.50, finishing three tenths behind Tampa, securing the Spartans their 2nd-ever Division II team title 522.5 to 509.
Tampa Individual Event Winners:
1000 Free: Jacob Hamlin, Junior — 8:50.02 500 Free: Jacob Hamlin, Junior — 4:14.35 **National RecordTampa Individual Scorers
Jacob Hamlin, Junior — 74 William Beckstead-Holman, Senior — 58 Tibor Tistan, Senior — 41 Joshua Noll, Junior — 35 Nicholas Cavic, Freshman — 31 Barnabas Fluck, Senior — 22 Britton Spann, Junior — 21 Riccardo Pandin, Junior — 17 Rufus Bernhardt, Freshman — 14.5 Cody Ano, Freshman — 13 Elliot Weisel, Junior — 13 Oliver Pope, Sophomore — 1Final Team Standings
Tampa — 522.5 Drury — 509 Colorado Mesa — 416 Indy — 399 Lynn — 260 McKendree — 246.5 Wingate — 210 Findlay — 167 Catawba — 164 Florida Southern — 161 Grand Valley — 139 NMU — 129 St. Cloud State — 83 Wayne State/Clarion — 81 — Delta State — 72 Rollins — 59.5 West Chester — 57 Missouri S & T — 56 Carson-Newman — 48.5 Florida Tech — 39 Bridgeport — 26 Davenport — 24 Roberts Wesleyan — 14 Nova Southeastern — 13 Barry U — 12 Ouachita — 9 Quincy/Mines — 8 — UMSL — 3 Lewis — 1Read the full story on SwimSwam: Tampa Reclaims Men’s Division II Title in 2026, Winning Nail-Biting Final Relay
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