Florida All-American Katie Mack Enters NCAA Transfer Portal; Pitt Has 9 Women In

Another member of Florida’s NCAA Championship qualifying roster has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal. Senior Katie Mack has entered the portal labeled as a graduate transfer, joining 6 Florida women who have entered the portal in the last 5 weeks.

Mack, who started her NCAA swimming career at NC State in the 2019-2020 season, is a three-time NCAA Championship qualifier for Florida.

In 2021, as a sophomore, she finished 15th in the 50 free and 39th in the 100 free. She also swam on the team’s 9th place 800 free relay, 13th place 200 free relay, and 16th place 400 medley relay.

In 2022, as a junior, she returned to the NCAA Championships, but this time only as a relay swimmer. She split 21.65 on Florida 9th-place 200 free relay and 47.79 on Florida’s 7th-place 400 free relay.

In 2023, as a junior, she returned to NCAAs in both individual and relay capacities. In the 50 free, she finished 27th in prelims (22.24);  in the 100 free, she finished 51st (49.19); and in the 200 free she finished 47th. All three swims were well-shy of her season bests.

She was better in relays for the Gators – she split 21.65 on the team’s 7th-place 200 free relay and 48.60 on their 8th-place 400 free relay.

In total, she earned 8 All-America honors for Florida in 3 seasons, including two First Team honors as a relay swimmer.

Mack came out of high school as a 1:54 backstroker, but by the time she arrived at NC State had mostly gone away from that race to focus on the sprint freestyles instead.

Entering the NCAA Transfer Portal does not require an athlete to transfer; rather it gives them the flexibility to discuss the options to transfer with coaches from other programs. New rules this year require swimmers to enter the portal within 60 days of the announcement of NCAA Championship invites, though graduate transfers like Mack are excluded from that.

Because Mack is a graduate transfer, she is also excluded from most of the special restrictions placed on second-time transfers.

Other Gators in the Portal

• Senior Talia Bates entered the portal on March 20. She is not labeled as a graduate transfer, but will transfer to work on her graduate degree. (PBs: 22.0/47.7/1:43.2 frees, 52.4/1:55.7 backs, 52.7 fly)
• Freshman Georgia Bates, younger sister of Talia, is in the portal. She was not on the Gators’ SEC Campionship roster as a freshman. (PBs: 23.2/51.1 frees, 54.2 fly)
• Freshman Hayden Miller is in the portal after finishing 23rd at the NCAA Championships as a freshman. She was one of the top distance recruits in the class of 2022. (PBs: 4:39.8/15:59.2 freestyler)
• Freshman Jessica Strong is in the Transfer Portal after wrapping her college season at the Auburn Invitational, not making the SEC Championship roster. (PBs: 1:02.09/2:16.82 breaststrokes)
• Sophomore Mary Kelley is in the portal after missing the SEC roster and concluding her season at the Auburn Invitational. She and Strong where teammates with the Bolles School Sharks in high school. (54.2/1:56.7 backstrokers)
• Freshman Mallory Schleicher is in the portal. Her last meet for the Gators was a dual meet against Tennessee on November 5. That was her 2nd meet for Florida. (4:20.8 IMer, 4:52.6/16:52 freestyler)

Other Transfer Portal Movements

A few other recent observations from the portal:

• 9 female swimmers from Pitt have entered the NCAA Transfer Portal, including 8 since March 15. That includes Turkish swimmer Ece Tanriverdi, who represented Turkey at the 2021 European Junior Championships, but who struggled in her first season of NCAA swimming (5:01 in the 500, 16:54 in the mile). Pitt just completed their first season under head coach Chase Kreitler.
• Update after publishing, comment from Chase Kreitler: “Any of our student-athletes who enter the transfer portal this spring can certainly count on our full assistance to help them find the best program fit, both academically and athletically. I’m appreciative of the opportunity we had this past year to work together and we wish them only the best moving forward. Reflecting on the last year, we have a lot to celebrate at Pitt. Our women’s team GPA was 3.54 last Fall, second highest among all women’s athletic teams at Pitt. OUr men’s team GPA was 3.33, the highest of all the men’s athletic teams at Pitt. Both team GPAs were the team’s highest over the last nine years (not including the COVID year where classes were pass/no pass). We broke 31 school records between the women’s and men’s teams this year (including 7 of 10 relay records), we had our first women’s swimmers at NCAAs in five years, first freshmen women’s swimmer to qualify since 2006, highest men’s team finish at ACCs ever, biggest men’s NCAA Team ever and first relay to score at NCAAs since 2002. The future is bright and we are looking forward to continuing to build a Championship caliber program at the University of Pittsburgh.”
• 5 men from the NCAA D3 runners-up Kenyon have entered the Transfer Portal as Graduate Transfers, including 100 fly champion Marko Krtinic (46.51), All-American diver Mason Fishell, and NCAA relay champions Daniel Brooks and Yurii Kosian.
• South Carolina commit Claire Dafoe, scheduled to join the Gamecocks in fall 2023, has entered the Transfer Portal after one year at South Carolina (though she hasn’t raced any meets). Dafoe, who was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, was originally verbally committed to Pitt.
• University of Texas swimmer Morgan Brophy is in the portal after two seasons with Texas. She has bests of 22.9 in the 50 free (from this season), 50.24 in the 100 free (from last season), and 53.84 in the 100 fly (from high school).
• Texas A&M freshman and Bulgarian international Kaloyan Levterov has entered the portal. He represented Bulgaria at the World Short Course Championships mid-season, finishing a best of 21st in the 200 back (1:55.98), but didn’t make the Aggie roster for SECs. He finished his season at a Last Chance Meet with times of 48.04 in the 100 yard back and 1:43.01 in the 200 yard back. He has many caps for Bulgaria, including last summer’s European Championships, where he was 20th in the 200 back (2:01.16 in LCM).