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)
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Day 3 finals at the 2026 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships will be underway in a few hours. It was a great morning of swimming at the McAuley Aquatic Center, setting the stage for what should be the most exciting night yet of these championships.
First, let’s take a look at where the team standings are heading into tonight’s session:
Top 10 Teams After Day 2
- Virginia — 249
- Texas — 183
- Stanford — 173
- Tennessee — 158.5
- Cal — 133
- Michigan — 132
- Indiana — 128
- Louisville — 79
- NC State — 76
- Florida — 62.5
The evening’s action will kick off with the 100 back, where Virginia junior Claire Curzan was dominant this morning, clocking a 48.81. Curzan was the only swimmer in the field to go under 50 seconds this morning, but most of the final should join her in that club tonight. Her swim was a little less than half a second off her season best of 48.38. Curzan is the defending NCAA champion in this event, having won by 0.01 seconds last year over Bella Sims.
Sims, who swam for Florida last year but is with Michigan now, entered the meet with a season best 49.12 tonight, and went 50.08 this morning for 3rd. While Curzan certainly appears to have the edge in this race, Sims has some momentum, as she won the 400 IM last night. Adding to Sims’ momentum, Michigan had a terrific morning today, qualifying a swimmer to each of the 4 individual finals tonight.
The 200 breast was a fast affair this morning, with 4 swimmers going 2:05-something. Lousiville’s Anastasia Gorbenko led the way with a 2:05.16. Gorbenko is the most experienced swimmer in this field as far as high level (and pressure) finals goes, but she’ll have her work cut out for her tonight. Virginia’s Aimee Canny was 2:05.25 this morning, but has already been 2:02.97 this season. Stanford’s Lucy Bell, the defending NCAA champion in this event, was 2:05.51 this morning, and has been 2:02.67 this season.
Speaking of defending champs, Texas sophomore Jillian Cox will be trying to defend her title in the 500 free tonight. Cox won the event last year as a freshman. This morning, she swam a 4:33.89, taking the top seed for tonight’s final. Cox should have a fight on her hands tonight with Georgia freshman Kennedi Dobson, who has already been 4:30.70 this season. There’s always Cal’s Claire Weinstein as well, who came in 2nd in the mile behind Cox on Wednesday. Weinstein was only 4:36.66 this morning, but she holds a career best of 4:29.38 in the event.
The last individual event of the meet will be the 50 free. This morning, Virginia freshman Sara Curtis had an awesome swim this morning, popping a 20.93, which was her first time under 21 seconds in the event. With both Gretchen Walsh and Kate Douglass now out of the picture, this 50 free final should be a dogfight tonight for the first time in several years. Curtis was the fastest this morning, but Tennessee’s Camille Spink still holds the fastest season best in the field with a 20.87. Meanwhile, Stanford’s Torri Huske holds a career best of 20.92.
The 400 medley relay will conclude the session tonight. Texas got the ball rolling this morning, posting a 3:24.64, which would have seeded them 4th. As for the teams competing tonight, Virginia should win this relay resoundingly. The Cavaliers are the top seeds by 3.6 seconds, and it would be shocking to see anyone challenge them.
Looking past Virginia, the battle for 2nd should be an exciting one. Michigan (3:24.08), Tennessee (3:24.58), NC State (3:24.65), and Louisville (3:25.16) will be battling with Texas for that 2nd place finish. Each of those teams swam well this morning, and any of them could take it.
Stupid format, kids deserve a second swim.
Texas” built-in advantage — diving — doesn’t look like it’s going to yield them >50 this year. Didn’t they have an incredible freshman diver last year?
Yet, the University of Texas women’s diving program may just carry Texas over the top of Stanford, Tennessee, California, Michigan.
It’s time for payback for the Huske/Curzan 100 FL.
We need pickem standings
The carrier pigeons ended up in Greenland.
Where’s the projected scoring article? I’m bad at math.
Texas will widen its lead over Stanford and TN.
Once again, the University of Texas women’s diving program props up the women’s swimming program.
Four in the 500, great morning relay plus the 50 and maybe diving…
University of Texas
100 BK: 0
200 BR: 0
500 FR: 20, 9, 5, 2
50 FR: 14
3 Meter Diving: 12
4 x 100 M-R: too tough to call
Curzan gonna be the first under 48 in the 100 back!
idk if we rlly can say this based on prelims bcs she was 48.83 to 48.38 at accs and she was 48.8 here too
what happened with McKenzie Siroky
My 2 cents on making this 4 day format better:
First, let’s humor the needed delusion: ESPN wants to make this more appealing for more new viewers. That’s a reach considering the 2 weeks on calendar for NCAA D1 women’s and men’s meets overlaps with same for college basketball March Madness. The likelihood of new adapters is low. But hey, let’s try here.
Keep B finals. If the powers that be want a clean A finals flight, fine. Start those at 7pm or 7:30pm. No material difference. Now run all the B finals in a row from 6pm to 7pm. Same intrigue for the team race is preserved. If people don’t want to watch it, fine. If ESPN wants to… Read more »
Yes to all of this. I’d also say move the 200 breast to Day 4 and the 200 IM to Day 3. The 200 IM should not be on the same day as the 200 back and fly. It’s a huge disservice to IMers to have them all on the same day
Yes the 1650 and 800 free relay is brutal. There is a ton of overlap with those and feels like it’s really making it tough for swimmers to contribute to the only relay the may have for a team.
Plus if you have a day tow event, it’s tough to recover. I think we saw that across the 4IM and 200 free
Good stuff.
I’m honestly surprised NCAA would budge this much for ESPN. Like, it’d be like asking college basketball could change the shot clock to 15 seconds so we can ‘get more action’ in the game for the viewers.
I like the idea of putting the B finals before the A finals….the A level swimmers might have a bit of a problem with it being there longer, cheering on teammates, but in theory, the B final before the A final would actually take the same amount of time as this person suggesting the B final before the A final…but, it gives ESPN what they want (a shorter A final meet) and gives the swimmers, schools, and swimming in general what… Read more »
Day 2
100 FL, 400 IM, 200 FR, 100 BR
Day 3
100 BK, 500 FR, 200 IM, 50 FR
Day 4
200 BK, 100 FR, 200 BR, 200 FL
With the revised schedule, same as the old schedule for Day 4, the dirty double is back in play.
I agree with this!
Also, they could’ve left everything as it was and worked around the B finals being exactly where they were (except maybe have B 500 and B 400IM run before the broadcast). I remember watching Nationals one year where the B heat was run before the A heat but not aired on the TV broadcast. You could watch them on a separate livestream. Watching whatever picture they put up as a time waster is infuriating because B finals could have been run during their dead air break.