By James Sutherland on SwimSwam
2026 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships
Dates: Wednesday, March 25–Saturday, March 28 Location: McAuley Aquatic Center, Atlanta, GA SwimSwam Preview Index Psych Sheets Live ResultsThe Women’s and Men’s NCAA Division I Championships are arguably the most unpredictable meets of the year, but we do our best to forecast what’s to come in each event before chaos takes over on two Wednesday nights every March.
During last week’s men’s meet, we didn’t fare quite as well as we did in the women’s in terms of our event-by-event picks.
We went eight-for-eight in picking the finalists (or top eight finishers) in one event, the 400 free relay, while we picked seven of the eight finalists correctly in three more races.
Our most common result was going six-for-eight in finalist picks, which happened in eight of the 18 events, while our roughest showing came in distance freestyle, where we only got half of the top eight right in both previews.
Overall, we picked 105 of the 144 finalists or top eight finishers correctly (72.9%), a significant downturn after going 122/144 (84.7%) last year. It was also a big dip relative to how we fared this year on the women’s side, going 120/144 (83.3%).
Below, find our top eight picks in each event, along with where the swimmer/relay team finished. We’ve also included who finished in the top eight we didn’t predict under “Moving In,” and the number in the bottom right of each event indicates how well we did in picking the top eight.
1650 Freestyle
PREDICTED FINISH SWIMMER ACTUAL FINISH 1 Ahmed Jaouadi (Florida) 1st 2 Zalan Sarkany (Indiana) 2nd 3 Ahmed Hafnaoui (Florida) 4th 4 Luke Whitlock (Indiana) 6th 5 Ryan Erisman (Cal) 10th 6 Nathan Wiffen (Cal) 15th 7 Noah Millard (Yale) 16th 8 William Mulgrew (Harvard) 9th Moving In Levi Sandidge (Kentucky), Gio Linscheer (Florida), Liam Custer (Stanford), Carson Hick (Kentucky) Correct Top 8: 4/8200 Medley Relay
PREDICTED FINISH TEAM ACTUAL FINISH 1 Florida 2nd 2 Arizona State 1st 3 Texas 3rd 4 Cal 6th 5 NC State 5th 6 LSU 10th 7 Michigan 7th 8 Florida State 15th Moving In Indiana, Kentucky Correct Top 8: 6/8800 Freestyle Relay
PREDICTED FINISH TEAM ACTUAL FINISH 1 Texas 1st 2 Stanford 2nd 3 NC State 5th 4 Ohio State 3rd 5 Arizona State 8th 6 Tennessee 16th 7 Cal 12th 8 Indiana 6th Moving In Virginia, Michigan Correct Top 8: 6/8100 Butterfly
PREDICTED FINISH SWIMMER ACTUAL FINISH 1 Josh Liendo (Florida) 1st 2 Ilya Kharun (Arizona State) 3rd 3 Hubert Kos (Texas) 2nd 4 Thomas Heilman (Virginia) 4th 5 Tyler Ray (Michigan) 5th 6 Gui Caribe (Tennessee) 11th 7 Aiden Hayes (NC State) 7th 8 Nicholas Finch (Yale) 9th Moving In Scotty Buff (Florida), Julian Koch (Pitt) Correct Top 8: 6/8400 IM
PREDICTED FINISH SWIMMER ACTUAL FINISH 1 Rex Maurer (Texas) 1st 2 Baylor Nelson (Texas) 2nd 3 Josh Bey (Indiana) 7th 4 Cooper Lucas (Texas) 6th 5 Tristan Jankovics (Ohio State) 3rd 6 Lorne Wigginton (Michigan) 4th 7 Ryan Erisman (Cal) 5th 8 Dominik Mark Torok (Wisconsin) 16th Moving In Joshua Staples (Northwestern) Correct Top 8: 7/8200 Freestyle
PREDICTED FINISH SWIMMER ACTUAL FINISH 1 Henry McFadden (Stanford) 3rd 2 Kaii Winkler (NC State) 6th 3 Camden Taylor (Texas) 20th 4 Logan Robinson (Florida State) 14th 5 Koby Bujak-Upton (Tennessee) 2nd 6 Maximus Williamson (Virginia) 1st 7 Jere Hribar (LSU) 10th 8 Remi Fabiani (Arizona State) 5th Moving In Tomas Navikonis (Ohio State), Keaton Jones (Cal), Mitchell Schott (Princeton) Correct Top 8: 5/8100 Breaststroke
PREDICTED FINISH SWIMMER ACTUAL FINISH 1 Nate Germonprez (Texas) 3rd 2 Koen de Groot (Florida) 4th 3 Campbell McKean (Texas) 2nd 4 Yamato Okadome (Cal) 1st 5 Kohen Rankin (Army) 13th 6 Luka Mladenovic (Michigan) 5th 7 Will Modglin (Texas) 8th 8 Andrew Dobrzanski (Arizona State) 15th Moving In Alexei Avakov (Indiana), Matvei Namakonov (Delaware) Correct Top 8: 6/8200 Freestyle Relay
PREDICTED FINISH TEAM ACTUAL FINISH 1 Arizona State 1st 2 NC State 3rd 3 Florida 2nd 4 Cal 6th 5 Tennessee 4th 6 Louisville 8th 7 Indiana 12th 8 LSU 13th Moving In Texas, Michigan Correct Top 8: 6/8100 Backstroke
PREDICTED FINISH SWIMMER ACTUAL FINISH 1 Hubert Kos (Texas) 1st 2 Will Modglin (Texas) 4th 3 Jonny Marshall (Florida) 17th 4 Ruard van Renen (Georgia) 2nd 5 Luca Urlando (Georgia) Scratch 6 Adam Chaney (Arizona State) 3rd 7 Evan Petty (Cal) 10th 8 Johnny Crush (Army) 5th Moving In Owen McDonald (Indiana), Marcus Reyes-Gentry (Notre Dame), Aiden Hayes (NC State) Correct Top 8: 5/8200 Breaststroke
PREDICTED FINISH SWIMMER ACTUAL FINISH 1 Nate Germonprez (Texas) 5th 2 Yamato Okadome (Cal) 1st 3 Luka Mladenovic (Michigan) 3rd 4 Will Scholtz (Texas) 16th 5 Ben Delmar (UNC) 4th 6 Josh Bey (Indiana) 2nd 7 Noah Cakir (Indiana) 9th 8 Daniel Li (Stanford) 11th Moving In Toby Barnett (Indiana), Gabe Nunziata (Tennessee), Eli Martin (Virginia Tech) Correct Top 8: 5/8500 Freestyle
PREDICTED FINISH SWIMMER ACTUAL FINISH 1 Rex Maurer (Texas) 3rd 2 Ahmed Jaouadi (Florida) 2nd 3 Ryan Erisman (Cal) 9th 4 Ahmed Hafnaoui (Florida) 1st 5 Ethan Ekk (Stanford) 11th 6 Noah Millard (Yale) 10th 7 Zalan Sarkany (Indiana) 4th 8 Luke Whitlock (Indiana) 22nd Moving In Gio Linscheer (Florida), Leonardo Alcantara (Alabama), Aaron Shackell (Indiana), Sean Green (Georgia) Correct Top 8: 4/850 Freestyle
PREDICTED FINISH SWIMMER ACTUAL FINISH 1 Josh Liendo (Florida) 1st 2 Ilya Kharun (Arizona State) 3rd 3 Gui Caribe (Tennessee) 2nd 4 Jere Hribar (LSU) DQ (initially 8th in prelims) 5 Remi Fabiani (Arizona State) 5th 6 Quintin McCarty (NC State) 4th 7 Brendan Whitfield (Virginia Tech) 8th 8 Nikita Sheremet (Louisville) 7th Moving In Jonny Kulow (Arizona State) Correct Top 8: 7/8400 Medley Relay
PREDICTED FINISH TEAM ACTUAL FINISH 1 Florida 3rd 2 Texas 2nd 3 Arizona State 1st 4 Michigan 4th 5 Indiana 5th 6 Cal 7th 7 NC State 13th 8 Florida State 9th Moving In Tennessee, Virginia Correct Top 8: 6/8200 IM
PREDICTED FINISH SWIMMER ACTUAL FINISH 1 Owen McDonald (Indiana) 2nd 2 Arsenio Bustos (NC State) 5th 3 Baylor Nelson (Texas) 3rd 4 Maximus Williamson (Virginia) 1st 5 Will Modglin (Texas) 4th 6 Colin Geer (Michigan) 10th 7 Campbell McKean (Texas) 9th 8 Tristan Jankovics (Ohio State) 12th Moving In Daniel Diehl (NC State), Josh Bey (Indiana), Noah Cakir (Indiana) Correct Top 8: 5/8100 Freestyle
PREDICTED FINISH SWIMMER ACTUAL FINISH 1 Josh Liendo (Florida) 1st 2 Jere Hribar (LSU) 2nd 3 Gui Caribe (Tennessee) 3rd 4 Remi Fabiani (Arizona State) 9th 5 Jonny Kulow (Arizona State) 5th 6 Brendan Whitfield (Virginia Tech) 8th 7 Tomas Lukminas (Arizona) 7th 8 Quintin McCarty (NC State) 6th Moving In Julian Koch (Pitt) Correct Top 8: 7/8200 Butterfly
PREDICTED FINISH SWIMMER ACTUAL FINISH 1 Ilya Kharun (Arizona State) 1st 2 Thomas Heilman (Virginia) 2nd 3 Tyler Ray (Michigan) 3rd 4 Logan Robinson (Florida State) 5th 5 Mitchell Schott (Princeton) 7th 6 Haakon Naughton (Arizona) 9th 7 Colin Geer (Michigan) DFS 8 Raekwon Noel (Indiana) 6th Moving In Jacob Johnson (Minnesota), Abdalla Youssef (Auburn) Correct Top 8: 6/8200 Backstroke
PREDICTED FINISH SWIMMER ACTUAL FINISH 1 Hubert Kos (Texas) 1st 2 Jonny Marshall (Florida) 2nd 3 Humberto Najera (Cal) 21st 4 Tommy Hagar (Alabama) 5th 5 David King (Virginia) 3rd 6 Adam Chaney (Arizona State) 28th 7 Ruard van Renen (Georgia) 6th 8 Kai van Westering (Indiana) 4th Moving In Nick Simons (Tennessee), Jack Aikins (Virginia) Correct Top 8: 6/8400 Freestyle Relay
PREDICTED FINISH TEAM ACTUAL FINISH 1 Arizona State 1st 2 Florida 3rd 3 NC State 2nd 4 Tennessee 4th 5 Texas 6th 6 Indiana 7th 7 Michigan 5th 8 Cal 8th Moving In Correct Top 8: 8/8TAKEAWAYS
Two swimmers made two finals after we didn’t pick them to qualify for any: Pitt’s Julian Koch and Florida’s Gio Linscheer. Koch, who has been on fire all season, was the only swimmer in the 100 free final we didn’t correctly predict, and he was the top qualifier out of the prelims after dropping a big PB of 40.52. He followed up by going 40.43 in the final to place 4th, and earlier in the morning session, he led off Pitt’s 400 free relay in 40.71, giving him three sub-41 swims in one day after waking up with zero in his career. Two days earlier, Koch had a breakthrough swim in the heats of the 100 fly, breaking 44 seconds for the first time in 43.85 to make the final. He went on to place 8th (44.28). Linscheer had a strong NCAA performance in his senior year, kicking things off by placing 5th in the 1650 free on the opening night in a time of 14:34.18, more than 12 seconds under his season-best and just over a second shy of his PB set at the 2025 NCAAs. He followed up by qualifying for the 500 free final in 7th (4:11.28), and then set a lifetime best of 4:09.13 in the final to place 5th. In addition to Linscheer, Florida also had Scotty Buff make the 100 fly final after he wasn’t predicted to, though he did place 5th last season. Buff set a new PB of 43.67 to take 6th in the final after coming in seeded 11th. The team that outperformed our predictions the most was Indiana, which had six different swimmers make a final they weren’t predicted for, along with one relay. Alexei Avakov (100 breast), Owen McDonald (100 back), Toby Barnett (200 breast), Aaron Shackell (500 free), Josh Bey (200 IM) and Noah Cakir (200 IM) all qualified for the final in their respective events after not being picked. Bey also moved up from being picked 7th to finishing 3rd in the 400 IM, and from being picked 6th to finishing 2nd in the 200 breast. The Hoosiers also weren’t picked in the top eight of the 200 medley relay, but fired off a time of 1:21.12 to claim 4th place as the #8 seed. Virginia and Michigan, the two teams that improved the most in terms of point totals from last season, both cracked the top eight in two relays we didn’t predict them for. The Cavaliers kicked off their meet with some momentum when they placed 4th in the 800 free relay from the early heats, and then they followed up by placing 8th in the 400 medley relay as the 11th seed. Virginia also had Jack Aikins make the 200 back final, which we didn’t predict him to do, and of course, stud freshman Maximus Williamson won the 200 free and 200 IM after we picked him to finish 6th and 4th, respectively. Michigan placed 7th in the 200 free and 800 free relays after they weren’t picked in the top eight. Also taking 4th in the 400 medley, 5th in the 400 free and 7th in the 200 medley relay, the Wolverines scored 130 relay points, tied for fourth-most among all teams and 25 more than they were seeded for, to help earn them 8th in the overall standings. Other teams that had multiple swimmers earn top-eight finishes that weren’t predicted were Kentucky, NC State and Tennessee. The Wildcats’ duo of Levi Sandidge and Carson Hick made the top eight in the 1650 free, placing 3rd and 8th, respectively, and Kentucky also snagged 8th in the 200 medley relay, their first top-eight relay finish since 2010. NC State’s Aiden Hayes was 8th in the 100 back after inching out teammate Quintin McCarty for the last spot in the final in the prelims, while Wolfpack junior Daniel Diehl took 6th in the 200 IM after coming in as the 19th seed. Tennessee freshman Gabe Nunziata was 7th in the 200 breast and his senior teammate Nick Simons matched that placement in the 200 back after neither was picked to make the final. Nunziata was coming in seeded 8th in the 200 breast, while Simons came in ranked 12th in the 200 back. In terms of winners, we went 11/18, missing in both medley relays, both breaststroke events, the 200 and 500 free, and the 200 IM. We picked Florida to win both medley relays, but Arizona State came out on top, while Texas’ Nate Germonprez was the pre-race favorite to sweep the breaststrokes, but it was Cal’s Yamato Okadome who ended up pulling off the double. Okadome’s breast sweep made him the first to do so since Max McHugh in 2021. We also didn’t predict Maximus Williamson‘s two wins in the 200 free and 200 IM, having picked Henry McFadden and Owen McDonald to claim those titles. In the 500 free, we opted for defending champion Rex Maurer, but Ahmed Hafnaoui pulled off the victory in his NCAA Championship debut. A total of eight swims we picked for top-eight finishes didn’t end up scoring at all, though that includes Jere Hribar‘s DQ in the 50 free, Colin Geer‘s DFS in the 200 IM, and Luca Urlando in the 100 back, who scratched pre-meet but we hadn’t updated our picks to take him out. The biggest surprise of the other five swims was 2025 NCAA runner-up Jonny Marshall placing 17th in the 100 back. The others were Camden Taylor in the 200 free (20th), Luke Whitlock in the 500 free (22nd), and Humberto Najera (21st) and Adam Chaney (28th) in the 200 back.Read the full story on SwimSwam: Reviewing SwimSwam’s 2026 NCAA Event Predictions – Men’s Edition
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