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
- Live Recaps
For those unfamiliar with swimming terminology, the concept of “Ups” and “Downs” is a good way to track which teams performed best in heats. During prelims, swimmers qualify for one of two finals: the top 8 finishers make the A final, while places 9 through 16 the B 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” and “Downs” after each prelims session. “Up” refers to swimmers and divers in the A finals, “Down” to B finalists.
These projections do not include relays or diving.
Top 10 Teams After Night 3
- Virginia — 437.5
- Texas — 272
- Stanford — 242.5
- Tennessee — 240.5
- Michigan — 228
- California — 199
- Indiana — 176
- Louisville — 144.5
- NC State — 141.5
- Florida — 113.5
Virginia and Cal both had huge mornings an will have at least one swimmer in each ‘A’ final tonight. Cal doubled up with two in the 200 IM while Virginia will have two ‘A’ finalists in the 200 IM and 100 free.
Stanford trails Texas by 29.5 points and will have three swimming ‘A’ finalists tonight compared to two for Texas. Cal only trails Michigan by 29 points and Cal’s additional two ‘A’ finalists will look to close that gap.
Ups/Downs
| 200 IM | 100 Free | 200 Fly | 200 Back | |
| Cal | 2/1 | 1/0 | 1/0 | 1/0 |
| Texas | 1/1 | 0/2 | 1/0 | 0/1 |
| Stanford | 1/1 | 1/2 | 1/1 | 0/1 |
| Louisville | 1/0 | 1/1 | ||
| Virginia | 2/1 | 2/1 | 1/1 | 1/1 |
| UCLA | 1/0 | 0/1 | ||
| Pitt | 0/1 | 1/0 | ||
| Michigan | 0/1 | 0/1 | 1/0 | 1/0 |
| Princeton | 0/1 | |||
| UNC | 0/1 | 0/1 | 0/1 | |
| Tennessee | 1/0 | 2/0 | ||
| Indiana | 1/0 | 1/0 | 1/1 | |
| Alabama | 1/0 | |||
|
Washington State
|
0/1 | |||
| Notre Dame | 0/1 | |||
| Wisconsin | 0/1 | 1/0 | ||
| LSU | 0/1 | |||
| Georgia | 0/1 | |||
| USC | 0/1 | |||
| NC State | 2/1 | |||
| Florida | 0/1 |
Those 28 points for Cal that they lost on the 200 medley DQ look to be the difference between 5th and 3rd or 4th
Is my math off? It seems like a lot of people are writing them in for 5th, but I think Michigan still has the inside track (albeit slightly).
Top 5 would be a great outcome this year. Top 2-3 next year!
VERY HAPPY TO BE WRONG!
Looks like UVA will smash the all time team points record it set a year ago at this meet. Looking forward, losing Canny will hurt but there’s so much coming back and coming in. The depth is real as is shown in the ups/downs. Other teams are losing and adding too, for sure, but just don’t have the sheer number of scorers across all events.
Reminds me of a year or two back in the day when the Texas men didn’t have to swim on the last day, and still win the championship. Schooling, Licon, and all that bunch.
2015-2017? Did they pull that off all 3 of those years?
The battle for second is going to be TIGHT. Through 4 rounds of diving, it’s looking like Texas is going to get one up, and Stanford’s going to get two up
Cumulative, with diving
Texas, 3 up +24 points
Stanford, 4 up + 27 points
Tennessee, 3 up + 0 points
Also definitely less meat left on the bone this year. No 1650 variable madness. Places 9-16 will be locked in all events but the 400 Free Relay by nightfall. Some of the “downs” in the chart above may be 1 point, or 9 points. Makes a huge difference in the outlook for the critical team races. Can some nerd crunch the specific numbers for us?
Funny how with a different event schedule and even a different gender, Cal still garnering a reputation of a last day mover in the team points.
Cal is definitely making Tennessee nervous – we’ll see if they can sneak in there for fourth
I think they’re too far back of Tennessee unfortunately. Passing Michigan for 5th is not a slam dunk either. I think it’s going to come down to the relay.
That relay DQ on night one could be the difference between 4th and 6th.
Texas has likely secured 2nd, which I don’t think anyone expected.
There are a lot of Capitani haters on these boards who need to eat some crow.
Speaking the truth – might even include Swimswam in the haters list. But – they showed up with a plan at this meet after winning SECs convincingly and put themselves into great position to take 2nd. Believe Swimswam had them down to 4th in their last poll.
I’m worried about Carol’s number one hater though – relay names guy might have to get therapy after this.
Stanford is not out of it. 2 good divers and Torri winning 100 free.
In terms of pure talent on their roster, Texas is probably tied with Stanford for 2nd. Anything worse than a competition for second with Stanford would have been a complete failure.
Texas has certainly gotten really good at getting 2nd place Lol