Ranking the 2026 Women’s NCAA Recruiting Classes: 16-13 ...Middle East

By Madeline Folsom on SwimSwam

The 2026-2027 NCAA season is around the corner, and, as always, we will be ranking the top 16 recruiting classes for both the men’s and women’s NCAA Division I programs along with a few honorable mentions.

There are a number of changes in store for athletes this year. Last year, the NCAA introduced a new qualifying system and NCAA meet format, which saw the introduction of automatic qualifiers via conference championships. Earlier this summer, the NCAA approved new eligibility guidelines which gives athletes five years of NCAA eligibility.

The new five-for-five rule mandates that athletes get five years of eligibility, and their clock starts at full-time college enrollment or at the first academic year after their 19th birthday, whichever comes first. This means that our recruiting class rankings might be a little skewed if athletes fresh out of high school decide to take a gap year before starting school, but we are operating under the assumption that the Class of 2026 athletes will be arriving on campus as originally planned.

See Also:

A few important notes on our rankings:

Honorable Mentions

Ohio State, Arkansas, Alabama, Arizona

#16 Arkansas Razorbacks

The Arkansas Razorbacks don’t have any transfers coming in, so all their newcomers will have five years of eligibility. They have two ranked recruits from the class of 2026, one HM and one BOTR. They only have four other athletes coming in, and they are all domestic recruits.

Rachel McAlpin is potentially their most well-known recruit, though she was only a “BOTR” in our rankings. McAlpin is the World Junior champion in the 50 breaststroke with the 30.78 she swam long course last summer. In short course, she will be a major asset to the University of Arkansas team with her 1:00.97 from March coming in ranked 1st on the team making her a medley relay contributor from the moment she steps on campus.

They also have Honorable Mention recruit Hayden Gibson, who will immediately move to the top of the Razorbacks’ rankings in four different events and sits well under the NCAA cutline in the 200 back.

Gibson was a little off her best times in the backstroke events last season, but she dropped in the IM, fly, and breast events and will also lead the team in the 200 IM (1:57.95) and 400 IM (4:11.72). The 200 IM/200 backstroke schedule conflict was also eliminated with the reinstatement of ‘B’ finals, which makes that a viable option for her event lineup again.

Jezerinac will come in as the top 100 breaststroker on the team with the 1:01.39 she swam in March of 2025. She was a little off that mark her senior year, but her season best of 1:02.21 would still be one of the top times on the team. Chandler is 1:01.60 in the 100 breast, which is also one of the top times on the team.

#15 University of North Carolina Tar Heels

The top ranked recruit in UNC’s 2026 freshman class is #5 diver Juliet Radich from Florida. She joins one of the top diving programs in the country with Sophia Knight, who finished 6th on the platform last season.

On the swimming side, they picked up one ranked recruit in BOTR Morgan Farlow. A freestyle specialist, Farlow will add depth to the distance program that graduated their top swimmer, Lily Reader, after last season.

UNC’s other big addition is transfer Raya Mellott from Virginia. Mellott was one of the top 100 breaststrokers in the girls’ class of 2025 when she committed to Virginia, but she has struggled to get back to her top form in the event since 2023. Last year, she fell just short of making the ACC team for Virginia with a season best 100 breast of 1:01.43. UNC has developed some strong breaststrokers in the past, like Skyler Smith, and could get her back under 1:00 this season.

Mellott also has a recorded 200 breaststroke time of 2:09.53 and a season best of 2:11.56, and will likely score at ACCs in her first season with the Blue Devils.

They also picked up Turkey’s Defne Tanig, whose fly times convert to 53.54/1:55.45 and make her one of the top butterflyers on UNC’s roster and a potential NCAA qualifier.

#14 Florida Gators

The Florida Gators have a very large recruiting class coming in, but only two of their recruits are domestic, BOTR ranked Maddie Moreth and #8 ranked diver Quintilia Fidanza. This makes it hard to get an accurate read on how their freshman class will perform in the transition to SCY.

Moreth is a primary breaststroker, and, while the Gators lost their top 100 breaststroker, Anita Bottazzo, to Indiana after NCAAs, they still have a very strong breaststroke group. Her best time in the 100 breast stands at 59.91 from February of this year, and her 200 breast best time is 2:10.05 from June. Both times put her in ‘A’ final scoring position at the SEC Championships, but she sat over the NCAA cutline in both events.

They are also bringing in Francesca Zucca, from Italy, to swim breaststroke events. Their last Italian breaststroker, Bottazzo, worked out very well for them. Her best times convert to 59-low and 2:09-mid, which make her a potential NCAA qualifier as a freshman if she handles the transition well.

The Gators also picked up a host of foreign distance freestylers, a place they have historically thrived. France’s Carla Serra and Italy’s Valentina Procaccini are more distance-oriented while Maeline Bessard, also from France, and Kim Bomin, from South Korea, could swim the 500 free but probably won’t swim the mile. Serra and Procaccini are both scoring threats in the 500 and mile at the SEC Championships and come in well under the cutlines in the mile. Procaccini is stronger across the board, and could score in all of her events at SECs and is a potential NCAA scorer in the 1650.

Bessard will join Australia’s Lillie McPherson in the sprint free events, both will be potential SEC scorers, but where Bessard will have a little more competition within the team, McPherson is stepping into 50 and 100 free roles that are desperately needed. She will be a major relay piece in her freshman season.

Finally, the Gators picked up two divers, Quintilia Fidanza, from Pennsylvania, and Colombia’s Juliana Giron. Fidanza was ranked 8th in SwimSwam’s diving recruit rankings, and Giron is a primary platform diver who competed at the World Championships for Colombia last summer.

#13 Wisconsin Badgers

Wisconsin picked up three “Best of the Rest” recruits for the class of 2026, and a host of other domestic swimmers along with one international swimmer from Canada.

Ellie Kayser is a distance freestyler from Arizona with lifetime bests of 4:47.1 in the 500 and 16:28 in the 1650. She will be a depth piece to the program right now, but her best times are a little more than a year old and she just set two massive lifetime bests at the USA Swimming National Championships, so she could be looking for new bests in the SCY events this season.

Virginian breaststroker Lilla Wilbur joins the very strong Wisconsin breaststroke group with best times of 1:01.2 and 2:11.32 which would have been 6th and 7th on last season’s team respectively. That Wisconsin breaststroke group had a huge breakout season last year, collectively, and seems to be a new focus for the program.

Their final BOTR recruit is Vivian Moulson, from Massachusetts. She will come in as one of the top butterfly and IMers immediately. Her 200 fly time of 1:56.19 is under the NCAA Invite time of 1:56.22 and would have been 5th at the 2026 Big Ten Championships.

In the IM events, Moulson’s 1:59.96 and 4:11.99 are also Big Ten scoring times and would have been 6th and 4th on last season’s team respectively.

Canadian Taryn Weatherhead is also a potential butterfly point scorer at Big Tens with her 200 fly long course time converting under 2:00. In the 100 fly, her time converts to 53.4 which would have been 3rd on last year’s team.

The Badgers have a large class of domestic swimmers as well, including Wisconsin native Caroline Wanezek, whose older sisters Maggie Wanezek and Abby Wanezek have been huge members of the Wisconsin team and saw massive improvements in Madison.

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