2026 Women’s Big Ten Championships:Ups/Mids/Downs; Wisconsin Put 6 Swimmers Into 200 Breast Finals

2026 WOMEN’S BIG TEN SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Dates: Wednesday, February 18–Saturday, February 21
• Location: Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center, Minneapolis, MN
• Defending champions: Ohio State women (1x)
• Live Results (also available on Meet Mobile: “2026 B1G Women’s Swim & Dive Championships”)
• Live Video ($): B1G+
• Championship Central
• SwimSwam’s Meet Preview
• Teams: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, UCLA, USC, Wisconsin
• SwimSwam Live Recaps
  • Prelims: Day 2| Day 3
  • Finals: Day 1 Relays | Day 2

For those unfamiliar with swimming terminology, the concept of “Ups” and “Downs” is a good way to track which teams performed best at prelims. In prelims, swimmers qualify for one of three finals heats: the top 8 finishers make the A final, places 9 through 16 the B final and places 17 through 24 the C final. In finals, swimmers are locked into their respective final, meaning a swimmer in the B heat (spots 9-16) can only place as high as 9th or as low as 16th, even if they put up the fastest or slowest time of any heat in the final.

With that in mind, we’ll be tracking “Ups,” “Mids” and “Downs” after each prelims session. “Up” refers to swimmers and divers in the A final, “Mid” to B finalists, and “Down” to C finalists.

*these scores and projections do not factor in points from diving

Scores after Day 2:

1. Michigan – 517.5
2. Indiana – 398
3. Ohio State – 390
4. Wisconsin – 384
5. USC – 296
6. Minnesota- 290
7. UCLA – 255
8. Northwestern – 202
9. Nebraska – 184.5
10. Rutgers – 171.5
11. Purdue – 164
12. Iowa – 149
13. Illinois – 114.5
14. Penn State – 106

Wisconsin will have the most scoring swims of any school at Big Tens tonight, having 16 finals in total including seven ‘A’ finalists. Six of their total finals swims come in the 200 breaststroke, after they had five swimmers score in the 100 breaststroke yesterday. With 11 scoring swims in the stroke, they have four more than the next best school, USC. Brooke Corrigan led the way for the Badgers again after her school record in the 100 yesterday, coming within a hundredth of her best of 2:07.97 to take the top seed, as Wisconsin are set to take over 100 points from that event tonight.

Michigan are still slated to be the highest scorers tonight though, thanks to having the top seeds in the 100 back, 50 free, and 400 medley relay tonight. Bella Sims holds a narrow advantage over Wisconsin’s Maggie Wanezek in the former, and will be a big threat in the 400 medley for a Wolverines squad that has set a meet record in all three relays they have raced so far. Hannah Bellard (500 free, #3 seed) and Letitia Sim (200 breast, #2 seed) will hope to make it a title sweep for them tonight.

Ohio State are also seeded with more than 300 points for tonight, as they should leapfrog Indiana thanks to a 107-point performance in the 500 free. They are seeded for the most points of any school in a single event in that one, with 115 points the benchmark from a prelims performance that saw Sienna Angove and Mila Nikanorov take the top two seeds. Indiana have the #2 and #3 seeds in the 50 free courtesy of Liberty Clark, who won the 200 free yesterday, and Kristina Paegle.

UCLA are set to overtake Minnesota thanks to a strong performance in the 100 back, where they have two ‘A’ finalists in Claudia Yovanovich and Fay Lustria, and the 50 free where they have freshman Jada Duncan seeded 5th.

Day 3 Ups/Mids/Downs

Day 3 Prelims Scoring + Relay Seed Scoring:

Projected Scores (Excl. Diving)