2027 College Swimming Previews: 12 Ohio State Women Primed For Big Season With Only One Major Loss ...Middle East

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.

Women’s #12: Ohio State Buckeyes

Key Losses: Lena Hentschel (13 NCAA points — diving)

Key Additions: HM Anna Shnowske (VA — free/fly), Morgan Lukinac (Brown transfer — sprint free), Chloe Cappola (GA — back), Macie McCarter (NC — back/IM), Sarah Juiris (IL — sprint free)

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.

We’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, but 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

The Ohio State Buckeyes moved back into the top 12 at the NCAA Championships in 2026 after finishing 14th at the 2025 Championships. In 2026, they scored 87 points to come in 16.5 points ahead of Wisconsin and rack up 20 more points than the 66 they scored in 2025.

A large portion of the Ohio State NCAA team was made up of underclassmen last year with a strong sophomore class just continuing to improve while in college. Four of their five individual point scorers came from the sophomore class. Senior diver Lena Hentschel was the only athlete in the top five who was not a sophomore, and she scored 13 points at the 2026 NCAA Championships with a 7th place finish on the 3-meter board and a 16th place finish on the 1-meter board.

Mila Nikanorov scored 14 points, the most at the meet for the Buckeyes, with her 5th place finish in the 1650 free. Maria Ramos Najji scored 13 points after finishing 6th in the 100 breast, and diver Mia Prusiecki scored 12 points with a 7th place finish on the platform.

Their final individual scorer at the meet was Emma Finlin, who scored nine points with her 9th place finish in the mile.

They also scored points in three of the five relays, finishing 12th in the 400 free relay, 13th in the 800 free relay, and 13th in the 200 medley relay.

At the Big Ten Championships, they finished 3rd, scoring 1066 points to come in just under 20 points behind Indiana, who scored 1084.5 for 2nd. This was a drop from 2025, when they won the meet by about 60 points over Indiana.

They had a few seniors score points at Big Tens, but sophomore Rachel Bockrath was the highest individual point scorer at the meet for Ohio State after she brought in 81 points for a 4th place finish in the 50 free, a 2nd place finish in the 100 free, and a 3rd place finish in the 200 free.

Hentschel (71 points), sophomore Sienna Angove (70 points), Nikanorov (60 points) and Finlin (56 points) also scored more than 50 points at the Big Ten Championships.

Sprint Free: ★★

Ohio State did not score any points at the NCAA Championships in the sprint freestyle events last year, but sprinter Rachel Bockrath set a few personal best times at the Big Ten Championships that would have scored at NCAAs if she had matched them.

Her lifetime best in the 50 free sits at 21.78, which would have been just outside scoring position in 21st at NCAAs. She finished 29th. In the 100 free, her lifetime best of 47.01, which was 2nd at the Big Ten Championships, would have been 10th overall. She finished 19th at 47.61. Finally, in the 200 free, she swam 1:42.82 at the Big Ten Championships, which would have also been 10th overall. She was 30th in 1:44.51.

Last year was her first time swimming individual events at NCAAs, so with more experience under her belt this year, she might get closer to her bests to score sprint free points.

Ohio State is particularly strong in the distance free events, which we will get to in a moment, but a few of their distance swimmers drop to the 200 free. Sienna Angove finished 17th in the 200 free prelims at NCAAs, stopping the clock in 1:43.56. They also had Erin Little finish 33rd (1:45.04). Both could find some speed this year to drop into the scoring range, particularly Angove who was just one spot out of scoring last year.

The Buckeyes also added Brown transfer Morgan Lukinac to their roster. She has two years of eligibility with the Buckeyes and qualified for NCAAs last year after she won the 100 free at the Ivy League Championships in 48.29 and the 200 free in 1:44.20. It took 47.46 to score in the 100 free and 1:43.46 to score in the 200 free. She sits a little outside in both events, but could work her way into the ‘B’ final.

Honorable Mention recruit for 2026, Anna Shnowske is coming in with a lifetime best of 1:46.12 in the 200 free, and could drop into NCAA qualification range or even scoring range as a freshman.

Distance Free: ★★★ ½

The distance group that brought in 23 points last year will not lose a single member and could add to their total in 2027.

Mila Nikanorov was their highest individual point scorer in 2026 and all 14 of her individual points came in the 1650 freestyle. She swam 15:46.48 to take 5th place overall. This was a slight add from the 15:46.19 she swam to finish 2nd at the Big Ten Championships.

Nikanorov finished 48th in the 500 free at 4:45.56, which was an eight second add from her lifetime best of 4:36.38, which would have been 6th overall at the meet. Nikanorov did not get back to that mark last season, swimming a season best 4:36.97 at the Ohio State vs Michigan meet in January when she set the 9th fastest 1000 freestyle in history.

Her biggest challenge will be matching her best times at NCAAs, but she will be a heavy ‘A’ final favorite in the 1650 free regardless.

Emma Finlin was the other point scorer at NCAAs, racking up nine points for her 9th place finish in the 1650. She stopped the clock in 15:55.22, which was almost six seconds off her best of 15:49.51 from the Big Ten Championships, which would have been 7th. This was a massive improvement from the 16:11.23 she swam at the 2025 meet, and if she can match her best in 2027, we could be looking at a top-eight finish for her.

Sienna Angove also swam the 500 free at NCAAs, but she finished 21st in 4:40.65. This was a three second add from the 4:37.44 she swam at the Big Ten Championships which would have been 9th at NCAAs.

Finally, rising sophomore Adair Shaw swam the 500 and 1650 free at NCAAs. In the 500, she finished 39th in 4:44.46 . This was a four second add from the 4:40.84 she swam at the Ohio State Invite in November, which would have still sat outside the 4:39.19 it took to score in the event.

In the 1650, however, Shaw has a lifetime best of 16:04.64, which she swam at Big Tens to finish 4th. This swim would have been 12th at NCAAs, picking up another five points for the Buckeyes, but she ended up finishing 36th in 16:31.01. This was her first ever NCAA Championship season, and a little experience under her belt might be able to help her improve her performance this year, and we could see three Ohio State athletes score in the event.

Backstroke: ★

Backstroke is one of Ohio State’s weakest events. They did not have any athletes score in the backstroke events at the NCAA Championships, and they did not have anyone ‘A’ final at the Big Ten Championships in either backstroke events.

KK LeBlanc leads the group after she qualified for the NCAA Championships as a freshman last season. She ended up finishing 47th in the 100 back (53.05) and 37th in the 200 back (1:55.07) with both swims being pretty far off her lifetime bests of 52.10 and 1:52.78 from the Big Ten Championships.

Her lifetime bests still put her just outside scoring position, but she has the potential to see some drops this year which could boost her standings at NCAAs, especially with a little more experience under her belt.

Delia Lloyd, who was a sophomore last year, is another returning backstroker for the program. She scored in both backstroke events at the Big Ten Championships, finishing 16th in the 100 (53.86) and 12th in the 200 (1:55.22), though she was off her season best times from the Ohio State Invite. Her lifetime bests in the event of 51.74 and 1:53.63 from the 2025 Big Ten Championships would put her in potential NCAA qualifying range this year if she can match them again in 2027.

Incoming freshman Chloe Cappola is another potential Big Ten scorer, coming in with lifetime bests of 54.21 and 1:58.59 from November of 2025. She will need to drop a few seconds in both if she wants to earn an NCAA invite, however.

Breaststroke: ★★★

Ohio State will return 13 points from the 2026 NCAA Championships, all 13 coming from Maria Ramos Najji‘s 6th place finish in the 100 breast.

She swam 57.99 at NCAAs after setting a personal best 57.95 in prelims. This was a massive improvement from her freshman year, when she barely cracked 1:00, swimming 59.97 at the Ohio State Invite in November of 2024. Another improvement this year would make her a potential medal threat in the event.

She is not quite as strong in the 200 breast, swimming 2:09.61 at NCAAs to finish 26th, about two seconds off her best of 2:07.82 from the 2025 Ohio State Invite. If she can replicate this swim at the 2027 NCAA Championships, she would be a scoring threat in this as well, potentially in the ‘A’ final.

Najji was their only swimmer under 1:00 in the 100 breaststroke, but in the 200 breaststroke, Danika Varda swam 2:09.47 at the CSCAA National Invitational, which was less than a second off the 2026 Invite time of 2:08.77.

Butterfly: ★ ½

While Ohio State did not score any NCAA points in butterfly last year, this is where their honorable mention recruit, Anna Shnowske, really comes into the equation.

The fastest 100 butterflyer on Ohio State’s roster last season was freshman Carrie Furbee. She swam 52.19 at the 2026 Big Ten Championships to finish 9th overall and lock up her spot as the butterflyer on the medley relays at NCAAs.

At the meet, she ended up swimming 52.64 to finish 40th, but even her best time would have fallen a little short of the 51.33 it took to score in 2026.

The next fastest 100 butterflyer was fellow freshman Lorin Tobler who swam 52.97 to finish 23rd in the event.

The fastest 200 butterflyer on the team was now graduated Jessica Eden, who swam 1:56.69 in January at Ohio State’s meet against Pitt, and Tobler was 2nd in 1:58.25.

Shnowske is coming onto the team with a lifetime best of 1:55.04 in the 200 fly, which is more than a second under the NCAA cutline of 1:56.22 in the event and sits just outside the 1:54.99 it took to finish 16th.

In the 100 fly, Shnowske comes in at 52.56 from March of this year. She sits a little outside the NCAA qualifying time of 51.99, but could easily drop into qualification range during her freshman year.

IM: ★

As typical for strong distance teams, the Ohio State women are significantly better at the 400 IM than they are in the 200 IM.

They did not score any IM points at last year’s NCAA Championships, but the potential is there, especially in the 400 IM.

Sienna Angove swam both IM events at the Big Ten Championships, finishing 5th in the 400 IM (4:06.51) and 10th in the 200 IM (1:57.72). Both swims were season best times, but she was off her personal bests of 4:03.92 and 1:55.06, which she swam at the 2025 Big Ten Championships before going on to finish 8th in the 400 IM and 29th in the 200 IM at NCAAs.

Despite swimming under the qualifying time in the 400 IM, Angove chose to swim the 200 freestyle instead. If she races the 400 IM this year, she will be a big point threat, though she will need to be closer to her freshman year time of 4:03.92. Her 200 IM is also a potential point scoring event, but it conflicts with the 500 freestyle, which is potentially a stronger event for her.

Angove has appeared to move away from the IM events both collegiately and internationally, only swimming the 200 IM prelims at Canadian Trials and not racing the 400 IM at the meet at all.

Rising senior Paige Delma was invited to swim both events at NCAAS after swimming 1:57.07 and 4:07.99 at the Ohio State Invite in November. She added in both events at the NCAA Championships, swimming 1:59.09 to finish 31st and 4:10.03 to finish 26th. While both of her best times sit a little outside scoring position, if she can match them at NCAAs this year, she will get much closer to a finals swim.

Diving: ★★ ½

The only place the Buckeyes lost any points after the 2026 NCAA Championships was in diving. Lena Hentschel scored 13 points, finishing 16th on the 1-meter event and 7th on the 3-meter.

Directly behind Hentschel was sophomore diver Mia Prusiecki, who scored 12 points after she finished 7th on the platform event.

The Buckeyes also had a pair of freshmen qualify for the platform diving event at NCAAs with Hannah Newbrook finishing 30th and Brooklyn Petit finishing 21st.

Their final individual diver at the 2026 NCAA Championships was rising senior Michelle Mazzara, who finished 34th on the 1-meter and 41st on the 3-meter.

Relays: ★★

Note that the grading system doesn’t align perfectly for relays as double points.

Relay grading system:

The Ohio State women are not losing a single member of any of their five NCAA relays, and are only gaining potential relay additions to the program this season.

Last year, they finished 12th in the 400 free relay, 13th in the 800 free relay and 200 medley relay, and 20th in the 200 free and 400 medley relays.

This year, they will likely add Brown transfer Morgan Lukinac to at least a few of these relays and freshman Anna Shnowske will also potentially earn relay spots during her first season.

Total Stars: 16.5/40

2025-26 Outlook

Ohio State could have a phenomenal year this year. Their core is getting older and with no major swimming graduations and only one point scorer not returning, they have a very high ceiling anc could finish in the top-10 in 2027.

The biggest question mark with Ohio State is their NCAA performance. With very few NCAA veterans on last year’s team, and only one junior swimmer and no senior swimmers at the NCAA Championships, it makes sense that a few of the swimmers added time from Big Tens.

With more experience under their belt, the Buckeyes will be attempting to replicate or improve their conference performances this year now that they know what to expect in regard to the tight turnaround.

Sienna Angove, Rachel Bockrath, and Mila Nikanorov are going to be huge pacesetters for the team with the potential to score highly in numerous events if they are in form at NCAAs.

Maria Ramos Najji‘s primary strength is in the 100 breaststroke, but if she is firing on all cylinders, her individual and relay contributions will be monumental for a hopeful top-10 result.

Ohio State also has very strong diving, and with more teams moving away from prioritizing their diving programs, any points they pick up on the boards will help their chances significantly.

WOMEN’S 2026-27 COLLEGE PREVIEW INDEX

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