2025 American Athletic Conference (AAC) Championships
- Dates: Wednesday, February 19–Saturday, February 22
- Location: Robson & Lindley Aquatics Center and Barr McMillion Natatorium, Dallas, TX
- Defending Champions: Florida International women (1x)
- Live Results
- Live Video
- Championship Central
- Fan Guide
- Teams: East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, North Texas, Rice, Tulane
- Results: COMPLETE RESULTS
- Recaps: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
TEAM STANDINGS – FINAL
- Rice – 1475.5
- Florida International – 1474
- Tulane – 1234.5
- East Carolina – 1177
- North Texas – 1160
- Florida Atlantic – 1008
AWARDS
- Most Outstanding Swimmer: Nicole Frank, FIU
- Most Outstanding Diver: Kamryn Wong, North Texas
- Freshman of the Year: Ava Portello, Rice
- Swimming Coach of the Year: Amanda Caldwell, Tulane
- Diving Coach of the Year: Stephanie O’Callaghan, North Texas
The 2025 AAC Championships lived up to the hype, coming down to the very last event. Defending champions Florida International started the meet at the bottom, and systematically worked their way up the rankings throughout the weekend. In the end, they made it as close as possible, but fell just short. Rice ended up winning the title, scoring 1475.5 points to beat FIU by 1.5 points.
Often times, when a meet gets this close and comes down to the 400 free relay, the teams are battling at the top, but FIU came in 2nd in the relay and Rice was 4th. Rice clocked a 3:21.55, touching just ahead of North Texas (3:21.79). Had the Owls slipped to 5th in the relay, FIU would have won the meet by half a point.
Meanwhile, Tulane, whose coach, Amanda Caldwell, won Coach of the Year, won the 400 free relay convincingly. Rafaela Sumida (50.39), Olcatyu Hatipoglu (50.82), Catherine Russo (48.75), and Maya Wilson (47.70) combined to swim a 3:17.66, touching 1st by 2 seconds. Wilson and Russo had the fastest two splits in the field by a wide margin.
Nicole Frank, an FIU junior who won Swimmer of the Year, took the 200 breast on Saturday night, swimming a 2:10.49. She was just a hair off her career best of 2:10.46, which she swam at the 2023 AAC Championships.
Prior to helping Tulane’s relay to victory, Maya Wilson, a grad student who spent her undergrad at UCLA, won the 100 free in 48.52. She was just off her career best of 48.50, which she swam last month.
Rice was dominant in the 1650 free, taking the top 3 spots. Junior Ella Dyson won the race in 16:20.26, clipping her season best by half a second. Freshman Ava Portello, the Freshman of the Year, came in 2nd with a 16:23.43, while senior Amelia Kane clocked a 16:34.21 for 3rd. Portello’s swim marked a career best by 3 seconds.
Rice picked up another win in the 200 back, where junior Ava Hamblett won with a time of 1:55.81. This is another one of those little moments that wound up being very consequential. Hamblett touched out Florida Atlantic’s Meg Drover-Smith by 0.07 seconds. Had that race gone the other way, Rice would have scored 4 less points and FIU would have won the meet.
Arielle Hayon, a Rice senior, also won an event on Saturday. Hayon clocked a 1:57.63 in the 200 fly, winning the race by 2 seconds.
The diving event of the day was platform, where East Carolina picked up their first win of the night. Frida Zuniga Guzman, a junior, won the event decisively with a final score of 310.80. With that score, Guzman won by 63 points and shattered the championship record by 14 points.
Is big 12 psych sheet already out? Thanks