2026 NCAA ‘A’ Finalist Teagan O’Dell has entered the NCAA transfer portal. O’Dell is the biggest name on the women’s side so far to enter her name into the portal.
O’Dell was the #2 ranked recruit in the girls high school class of 2025 and had the fastest 100 back, 200 back, 200 IM, and 400 IM times in the class. She arrived at Cal last fall and just finished her freshman season.
She helped the Cal women to a 3rd place finish at the 2026 ACC Championships with 70 individual points and was highlighted by a 4th place finish in the 200 IM.
The freshman went on to have a strong showing at the 2026 NCAA Championships, scoring 46 individual points making her the #2 individual scorer for Cal just behind fellow freshman Claire Weinstein who scored 48 individual points. O’Dell made the NCAA ‘A’ final in all three of her individual swims, finishing 2nd in the 200 IM (1:52.76), 3rd in the 400 IM (3:59.43), and 6th in the 200 back (1:49.70). She also swam on four relays including the team’s 800 free relay that finished 3rd. The Cal women finished 4th as a team, their highest finish since 2021.
In addition to being the 2nd highest scorer for Cal, O’Dell was also the 2nd highest scoring freshman at NCAAs, only behind teammate Weinstein. O’Dell earned Freshman of the Year Honorable Mention Swammy honors for her performance.
O’Dell’s Best SCY Times:
| High School | Freshman Year | |
| 200 IM | 1:52.61 | 1:52.76 |
| 400 IM | 4:05.22 | 3:59.43 |
| 200 back | 1:49.16 | 1:49.51 |
O’Dell is the first NCAA ‘A’ finalist on the women’s side from this past season to enter her name into the portal. Associate Head Coach David Marsh announced he was leaving the program at the conclusion of the season. After NCAAs, O’Dell posted to Instagram saying she dealt with “multiple injuries” at the start of the season.
She is originally from Chino Hills, California, outside of LA. She attended Santa Margarita Catholic High School and most recently represented Pleasanton Seahawks at the club level.
Has anyone considered that she might be transferring to Indiana to be at the same school as her bf???
Not saying this is the case, but why does everyone always assume there was a problem with the swim team?
With all these “student/athletes”, no mention of whether the swimmer did not fit well academically in the college?
Is it all about the fit in the swim team or a fit in the entire college system?
Just saying..
Teagan’s Instagram Story is a picture of The Lawn. Just a photo from a visit or a hint of things to come?
Would be odd to post a picture of The Lawn/Grounds for just a visit. It’s one thing for high school recruits to do it; another thing entirely different for transfers. This is a teaser.
I believe she has a couple more schools she’s going to visit. Stay tuned
Is today’s story Indiana? I’ve never been there, busy she posted a new photo.
yes Indiana
It is.
i’m thinking Texas as the head coach just asked a former age group coach, if he had an experience coaching Teagan
You took the words right out of my mouth
This would indicate interest in bringing her on a trip, not that that’s where she WILL go. In my opinion. Which isn’t worth much 😅
College swimming is in a bad place.
That written, I hope she finds the college experience right for her as it is her prerogative to decide. I wish it could have worked out better for all involved at Cal. Hope she finds the right spot to be happy & have a brilliant college experience next.
kids nowadays have no patience, no loyalty, no desire to grind the hard way! Many titles will come(team for sure i am not sure about individual), but is it the best decision to go UVA? I see a lot of people mentioning im success with Alex and Kate but those were generational talents..Let’s see how it unfolds, but in my opinion changing teams constantly is not a good sign.
Kate and Alex (more especially Kate) were made into the talents they are at UVA tho
Kate was like a 1:56 2 IM coming out of highschool
Recently they have received though some already established IM swimmers, such as Grimes and Hayes and the results are not so great! I am not blaming Teagan or any athlete made the jump through the portal, but is not always Texas for men or UVA for women the sure path to success..I mean yeah the can take one or two or three titles but indivudually? That is why i admire Torri, she stayed when other jump from the ship, she stayed after many losses, but she managed to win, and not only in the NCAA!
and where do you think Grimes and Hayes would be swimming faster?
and what does Torri have to do with Teagan transfer?
Torri has been incredible at Stanford her whole NCAA career!
2026 NCAA Swimmer of the Year!
Nothing, i just talked about the importance to sometimes stick to your first choice even if everything is not going on your way. At some point Huske was not first in NCAA, and also she didn’t win any team title, as many discuss here that the team titles are the driving factor for Teagan. As for Grimes and Hayes, your question can not be answered, and in my opinion is not serious also, the fact is that they are not swimming as many expected in UVA..Or is it only their fault?
If Hayes is ur example of “not so great” that says good things about UVA lmao
Didn’t she also get back under 2:10 LC after like 3 years?
and won the World University Games 400 IM in a PB
Mate, are you some kind of keyboard UVA warrior? Did i say at any point that UVA is not good?How can i claim something like that since they dominate heavily at NCAA and of course produce every year swimmers that swimming exceptionaly in the world stage..I am only saying that as expected UVA system is not working well for everyone…When the big announcement of Grimes commitmeent came up(that went super viral) you wasn’t thinking about O’Dell will come at NCAA and will surpass Grimes, and now O’Dell is not swimming fast in CAL and we are questioning if Grimes will swamm elswheere faster, quitely meaning that the fact that she isn’t swimm fast is her fault and not of the… Read more »
I mean you quite literally said the results of Hayes have not been good so I was just referring to that
I also never said that you said UVA wasnt good lmao
Hayes has set 200 and 400 IM PBs at Virginia, along with a 3-second drop in LCM 400 IM. And she was just off her LCM 200 IM at last year’s World University Games. She’s doing fine.
Both were on 2017 US world jr team so they were pretty good in high school
Teagan holds the High School 200 IM Record
is that not a “generational talent”
I don’t think that is a much bigger generation talent than Grimes or even Hayes(an Olympian and American National team former member) that if i can recall passed them last month!
Kate was a very good swimmer coming into college. Based on 2019 NCAAs, her best times had her as an A-finalist in the 50 free (21.67) and a B-finalist in the 100 free (47.98), 100 fly (51.74), and 200 IM (1:56.09).
O’Dell was far more accomplished as an age-grouper:HS swimmer. Based on 2025 NCAAs, she came into Cal with:
A-Finals:
200 free: 1:42.27
200 back: 1:49.16
200 IM: 1:52.61
B-Finals:
100 Back: 50.70
400 IM: 4:05.22
If Kate was a generational talent, then so was O’Dell. And as you said, Virginia does well with generational talents.
I’m not arguing with you, just bringing up how on Swimswam we use “generational talent” willy nilly and I haven’t seen one person actually give a definition as to what that means. Everyone and their grandma’s a generational talent according to the Swimswam comment section.
I agree, in my opinion a generational talent is someone who’s preforming at the world stage even before college (on the women’s side at least), someone like McIntosh or sjostrom
Johnny Weissmuller = Generational talent…Cheetah too, Jane not so much.
I agree with your general point about jumping around, but in this specific case, I think that accusation would be premature. I don’t know O’Dell’s reason for entering the transfer portal and nor do I know whether the assumptions people are making about her going to Virginia or anywhere else are true until she announces her plans herself or formerly signs with another team. I will say there are many good reasons someone might have to transfer, whether for personal reasons, academic reasons, or athletic reasons. A single transfer after one year doesn’t really indicate anything other than that athlete decided they wanted to explore something else, for whatever reason.
Claire Curzan was recently asked on Unfiltered Waters why she… Read more »
and also remember that most of these athletes are just 16 or 17 years old in the fall of their junior
year in high school when they are recruited and sign!
many non athletes decide after the first year, that the college they chose is not a good fit, and transfer
Not a surprise. She likes jumping from team to team.
UVA’s “Portal Strike” IG post about 50 min ago was “liked” by Teagan O’Dell. Maybe she’s just a supportive friend.
Haley McDonald also liked.
Does UVA still have an IG account? I don’t see it
DID YOU GET BLOCKED??
https://www.instagram.com/uvaswimdive/
Wait what the heck, I think I did?!
Does any other school’s Insta account operate like UVA. Seems strange they are announcing transfers, new commits before the actual swimmer does, even if it’s with vague postings. If Teagan is going to UVA, why 24 hours later has she not said anything publicly. It’s also fascinating how they drop a swimmer as a follower who is committing to another school before they actually announce their commitment to that school.
Most do these “COMMITTED” before announced vagueposts these days. Virginia was probably among the first in swimming, but its pretty standard now.
I thought you were literally joking about an IG ‘portal strike’ post – then I checked.
Really?
This is about as classless as it gets.