2024-25 NCAA Women’s Power Rankings: Post-Invites Edition

As in previous years, SwimSwam’s Power Rankings are somewhere between the CSCAA-style dual meet rankings and a pure prediction of NCAA finish order. SwimSwam’s rankings take into account how a team looks at the moment, while keeping the end of the season in mind through things like a team’s previous trajectory and NCAA scoring potential. These rankings are by nature subjective, and a jumping-off point for discussion. If you disagree with any team’s ranking, feel free to make your case in our comments section.

Sophie Kaufman, Braden Keith, Spencer Penland, Robert Gibbs, Yanyan Li, and Anya Pelshaw contributed to this report.

Midseason invitationals are in the rearview mirror as NCAA teams take one foot off the gas for the holiday break—outside of a few mid-December dual meets—before diving into winter training and then descending into the new year with conference championship meets and ultimately NCAAs not too far away.

We saw numerous standout performances during midseason invites, resulting in a pretty big shakeup in our NCAA power rankings.

The top five teams remain the same: Virgina, Texas, Stanford, Florida and Tennessee. All elite teams that performed well at their respective invites and probably couldn’t have done much to alter their ranking.

From there, the NC State Wolfpack leapfrog Indiana to take over the #6 spot, while other teams moving up inside the top 20 were UNC, Alabama and Arizona State.

The biggest droppers were Texas A&M, LSU and Auburn, while Minnesota falls out of the top 25 as Florida State moves in.

Previous Rankings: 

• Pre-season
• Pre-Invite

Honorable Mentions: Utah Utes, South Carolina Gamecocks, Miami (FL) Hurricanes

The Hurricanes might have their best swimming team in years this season – which is crucial after the retirement of the program’s legendary diving coach Randy Ableman. -BK

#25: Virginia Tech Hokies – (Previous Rank: 25)

Carmen Weiler Sastre has been on an upward trajectory since the SMU Classic, and was outstanding at Short Course Worlds. Can she carry that through to NCAAs? -JS

#24: Florida State Seminoles + (Previous Rank: NR)

Maddy Huggins has been strong all season for Florida State and should alone propel them into the top 25. -SK

#23: Auburn Tigers -5 (Previous Rank: 18)

The relays were solid at the Georgia Tech Invite and Hungarian first-year Lora Komoroczy has been impressive thus far. -JS

#22: LSU Tigers -2 (Previous Rank: 20)

Montserrat Lavenant is LSU’s primary scoring threat as per usual. -JS

#21: UCLA Bruins – (Previous Rank: 21)

Emma Harvey set numerous best times at the OSU Invite, adding to the Bruins NCAA scoring prospects which are primarily on the boards. It remains to be seen if Harvey can score individually, but she boosts the relays. -JS

#20: Arizona State Sun Devils +4 (Previous Rank: 24)

Newcomers like Caroline Bentz, Miriam Sheehan, and Julia Ulmann have helped the ASU women break multiple program records this season. They’ve already earned two ‘A’ cuts and are in scoring position for both. -SK

#19: Alabama Crimson Tide +3 (Previous Rank: 22)

Alabama sneaks ahead of Arizona State for me because I think their sprint group, in addition to powering their relays, contains a couple more individual scorers than the Sun Devils have at the moment. – SK

#18: Purdue Boilermakers +1 (Previous Rank: 19)

Purdue diving flexed its muscles at their home invite, though individual swimming scorers may be hard to come by. Kathryn Ackerman might be their best chance. -JS

#17: Texas A&M Aggies -3 (Previous Rank: 14)

The Aggies have depth, but lagged a bit at the Art Adamson Invite and thus drop a few spots. -JS

#16: Duke Blue Devils -1 (Previous Rank: 15)

Duke gets a lot of love for its diving prowess, but Kaelyn Gridley, Tatum Wall and Ali Pfaff are all NCAA scoring threats in the pool. -JS

#15: UNC Tar Heels +2 (Previous Rank: 17)

UNC’s diving and relays will surely remain the engine behind the bulk of their points, but Skyler Smith is someone to keep an eye on. She’s had a strong first term which she capped off with a U.S. Open title to give her a confidence boost heading into the second semester. – SK

#14: Ohio State Buckeyes +1 (Previous Rank: 15)

The Buckeyes had some big swims from the likes of Sienna Angove and Mila Nikanorov at their midseason invite, plus four relay ‘A’ cuts which looks good. -JS

#13: Georgia Bulldogs – (Previous Rank: 13)

Three relay ‘A’ cuts and the emergence of Marie Landreneau at the UGA Fall Invite were two big positives for the Bulldogs. Rachel Stege and Abby McCulloh form a nice 1-2 distance punch. -JS

#12: USC Trojans – (Previous Rank: 12)

It will be interesting to see if USC opts to use Minna Abraham on all five relays again this year. But her 1:42 in the 200 free is a reminder that she’s a force in the 100/200 free individually as well. – SK

#11: Wisconsin Badgers – (Previous Rank: 11)

The Badgers were on fire at the Texas Hall of FGame Invite, hitting three relay ‘A’ cuts as Phoebe Bacon and Maggie Wanezek were on fire. Abby Carlson and Hailey Tierney give them four likely individual scorers. -JS

#10: Michigan Wolverines – (Previous Rank: 10)

Michigan looked great at the Georgia Tech Invite. Stephanie Balduccini has taken another step forward in her 2nd year with the program. Freshman Rebecca Diaconescu has been incredible so far, already having gone 4:35 in the 500 and 15:56 in the 1650. -SP

#9: Louisville Cardinals – (Previous Rank: 9)

The Cardinals may lack the depth of IU and OSU, resulting in their third-place finish at the OSU Invite, but they certainly have the high end ability. Daria Golovaty was impressive, particularly in the 200 free where she broke 1:44 for the first time. -JS

#8: California Golden Bears – (Previous Rank: 8)

It looks like the Golden Bears have found a bona fide sprinter in freshman Mary-Ambre Moluh. Her first term peaked at the Minnesota Invite with a school record in the 100 back but it seems like she’s just getting started. -SK

#7: Indiana Hoosiers -1 (Previous Rank: 6)

Miranda Grana is coming into her own and the Hoosiers hit ‘A’ cuts in all five relays at the OSU Invitational. -JS

#6: NC State Wolfpack +1 (Previous Rank: 7)

It’s no surprise, but first-year swimmers Erika Pelaez and Leah Shackley have been phenomenal thus far for the Wolfpack. -JS

#5: Tennessee Volunteers – (Previous Rank: 5)

The Volunteers have largely held their own without Olympic medalist Mona McSharry. Camille Spink has been a highlight and Josephine Fuller has been strong as well. The Vols will still welcome McSharry back though as they chase another top-five finish. -SK

The return of Olympic medalist Mona McSharry, with good form, could vault the Volunteers up these tight middle-rankings. -BK

#4: Florida Gators – (Previous Rank: 4)

Bella Sims and Emma Weyant performing well is no surprise, but Mabel Zavaros, Zoe Dixon and freshman Anita Bottazzo have exceeded expectations thus far for the Gators. -JS

#3: Stanford Cardinal – (Previous Rank: 3)

The continued improvements of swimmers like Aurora Roghair, Caroline Bricker, and Lucy Bell give a lot of momentum to a Stanford team that already had a lot of reasons to feel confident heading into the season. -SK

#2: Texas Longhorns – (Previous Rank: 2)

Texas just keeps getting better. They’re so well-rounded this season. Breaststroke is a little thin, but a few of their top breaststrokers are still pretty young, so there’s still room to grow there. -SP

#1: Virginia Cavaliers – (Previous Rank: 1)

I’m not really sure how much there is to say here. They’re really good. – SP

Most of the top 10 remained status quo for me from pre-invites. Virginia’s performance at the Tennessee Invite just further cements their status as the dominant force in women’s collegiate swimming and if that weren’t enough, Katie Grimes joins the roster next term. Alex Walsh should be back as well, as she had a great showing in her return to competition at SC Worlds. -SK

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