2026 M. NCAA Division I Championships: Day 1 Early Heats Scratches – Wisconsin’s Romano Drops Mile

2026 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships

• Dates: Wednesday, March 25–Saturday, March 28
• Location: McAuley Aquatic Center, Atlanta, GA
• Defending Champions: Texas (1x)
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Day 1 Prelims Heat Sheets

With just one individual event on the schedule, the 1650 freestyle, the number of individual scratches was bound to be small. That said, there were three scratches out of this morning’s session with Yoav Romano, Pierre Largeron, and Finn Hammer all withdrawing from the mile.

Romano, the #26 seed from Wisconsin, is also entered in the 200 free, where he is the #48 seed, and the 500 free, where the sophomore is seeded 25th with a time of 4:13.82. The Badger did not swim the mile last year at his NCAA Championship debut. His scratch likely is to conserve energy as he was a part of his team’s Big Ten silver medal-winning 800 free relay. Wisconsin is the 6th seed in the event and is slated to be in the final heat of the event, which will swim tonight.

Pierre Largeron, the 28th seed from South Carolina, and Finn Hammer, the 31st seed from Georgia, have also dropped out of the event. Largeron is also slated to appear in the 200 and 500 free, where he is the 39th and 15th seed, respectively. Hammer, a first-year from Germany, is only slated to appear in this event and in the 400 IM, where he is seeded 22nd.

All Day 1 Early Heats Scratches 

• 1650 Free
  • #26 Yoav Romano (Wisconsin) – 14:54.42
  • #28 Pierre Largeron (South Carolina) – 14:57.46
  • #31 Finn Hammer (Georgia) – 15:05.13
• 200 Medley Relay
• 800 Free Relay