2026 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships
- Wednesday, March 18 – Saturday, March 21, 2026
- McAuley Aquatic Center, Atlanta, GA
- Defending Champions: Virginia (5x)
- Championship Central
- Preview Index
- Psych Sheet
- Live Stream
- Live Results
Entering the 2026 NCAA D1 Championships this year, there was a lot of discussion surrounding changes to both the format of the meet and the qualifying standards. Well, only one event into the first session, we’re already seeing the implications of those changes.
That’s thanks to Indiana State’s Grace Cummings, who put up a huge performance this morning to secure the 7th-fastest time so far, with only one heat remaining. While her time of 16:08.21 marks a new Missouri Valley Conference Record and personal best by 9 seconds, it has far greater implications on scoring as it guarantees her at least 15th overall.
Cummings qualified for the meet via her victory at the Missouri Valley Conference Championships late last month, where she hit a time of 16:17.25 to slip under the NCAA’s qualifying standard of 16:25.29. In previous years, Cumming’s performance likely would’ve sat right on the NCAA cutline. Last year, that time would’ve been good enough to make it in, but this year that time had her seeded 36th on the initial psych sheet, so she would’ve been left out of the meet without the AQ. While in previous years, she would’ve needed to wait to find out her qualification status with her time likely sitting right on the qualification line, Cummings knew well before the psych sheets dropped this year due to her auto-qualifying time.
By qualifying for the meet, Cummings also became the first Indiana State swimmer to ever compete at the NCAA Championships, and is now the first swimmer in school history to score at the meet as well.
Earlier this season the NCAA announced changes to the meet qualifying procedures, with conference champions being awarded automatic qualifying spots, assuming they hit the NCAA standard in their winning performance. These standards were generally slower than the traditional NCAA cutline as the the qualifying times were determined by averaging the 72nd-best time over the previous three years. While Cummings falls as an “in-between” case having both the auto-qualifying time and being around the cutline, there were 16 swimmers in this year’s field who qualified under the new system who would not have qualified previously, marking just 5.7% of the entrants.
She would have gotten in without AQ system since she was #36 and 38 or 39 got in per event this year.
I liked the idea of AQs. It was always a shot in the dark to figure out what was “safe” every year anyway. It’s the lack of B finals and how this mornings session was run that I dislike.
Congrats to Grace for taking advantage of her opportunity, a PR and conference record!
I would like to know where all those people who said “there won’t be any Cinderella’s in swimming” are right about now
It’s a great swim but does placing somewhere between 7th through 15th really qualify as a Cinderella story?
I mean. If a 10 seed at the NCAA Tournament makes the Sweet 16 at the NCAA Tournament, I think a lot of people would call that a Cinderella story. Not everyone, but many.
It’s not a perfect analogy, but the maths are about right.
Except for the fact that you’re comparing an individual performance to a team’s overall performance. If that one swim carried Indiana State to even a top 25 placement then it would carry a different tune, but having the 15th best performance in 1 of 21 events is like… having the 15th most rebounds or something? That’s not a great analogy either, but I think it’s better than yours.
Not to discredit the performance, and I don’t think there’s a dictionary definition of Cinderella story so can’t say it’s not that.
I’m still against AQs. My long list of reasons why is just one argument shorter.
I also would not like changes to the rules and systems in a way that might hurt my preferred team or alma mater.
Then again if it seems good for swimmers generally and the sport overall, I get why those changes need to happen.
Does anybody seriously argue that it is better for swimmers and our sport if the bulk of talent is isolated to a handful of teams and that in any given championship there are only a dozen or so teams truly competing and only 2 or 3 with a reasonable chance of winning?
Every year there are athletes that would have scored if there was not an entry cap, that is not a Cinderella story.
I think that’s the Missouri Valley conference.