Ranking the 2025 Women’s NCAA Recruiting Classes: #5-8

We have already looked at the schools with 2025 women’s recruiting classes ranked #9-#16, which means we are in the top half of our list for the 2025 Division I season.

See Also:

• Women’s 2025 Recruiting Class Rankings: #9-12
• Women’s 2025 Recruiting Class Rankings: #13-16
• Women’s 2025 Recruiting Class Rankings: Honorable Mentions
• Individual Recruit Rankings: Girls Final Standings

A few important notes on our rankings:

• The rankings listed are based on our Class of 2025 Re-Rank. “HM” refers to our honorable mentions and “BOTR” refers to our Best of the Rest section for top-tier recruits.
• Like most of our rankings, these placements are subjective. We base our team ranks on a number of factors: prospects’ incoming times are by far the main factor, but we also consider potential upside in the class, class size, relay impact, and team needs. Greater weight is placed on known success in short course yards, so foreign swimmers are slightly devalued based on the difficulty in converting long course times to short course production.
• Transfers are included, though they are weighed less than recruits who arrive with four seasons of eligibility.
• For the full list of all verbally committed athletes, click here. A big thank you to SwimSwam’s own Anne Lepesant for compiling that index – without it, rankings like these would be far less comprehensive.
• Some teams had not released a finalized 2025-26 team roster at the time these articles were published, meaning it’s possible we missed some names. Let us know in the comments below.

Honorable Mentions

• UCLA, Wisconsin, South Carolina

Previously Ranked

• #16 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
• #15 Duke Blue Devils
• #14 Ohio State Buckeyes
• #13 Louisville Cardinals
• #12 Michigan Wolverines
• #11 USC Trojans
• #10 Princeton Tigers
• #9 Tennessee Volunteers

#8 Georgia Bulldogs

• SwimSwam Ranked Recruits: #10 Kennedi Dobson (PA – free), BOTR Marin Clem (TX – free), BOTR Clarke Neace (NC – free/back), BOTR Elizabeth Nawrocki (IL – breast/IM), BOTR Izzy Beau (IL – fly/IM)
• The “Rest”: Maeve Eckerman (FL– free/back/IM), Leah McCarthy (GA – diving), Hailey Dopson (GA – free/back), Kylie McMurray (NJ – free/IM), Hayden Hollingsworth (OH – free/fly), Mia Jeltema (NC – breast/IM)

Georgia has an absolutely massive recruiting class coming in with 11 swimmers, five of whom found their way onto our class of 2025 rankings. They needed a big class this year after graduating 10 women.

The biggest name in their recruiting class is #10-ranked Kennedi Dobson. She had an absolutely massive year, dropping massive time in many of her events and winning four events at the 2024 U.S. Open Championships in December. Her 200, 500, and 1650 freestyles are all well under the NCAA cutlines and her 500 free puts her in ‘A’ final scoring position while her 200 free would have been in the ‘B’ final. This is huge for the Georgia team that graduated its distance superstar trio of Rachel Stege, Abby McCulloh, and Dune Coetzee at the end of last season. Her sprint freestyle times of 22.6 and 48.9 are also strong swims that could end up contributing to the Georgia relays.

Marin Clem was one of our BOTR recruits in the sprint free category, and her 22.6 in the 50 and 49.0 in the 100 are both strong additions to the Georgia program, and they will help add depth in the sprint events.

Breaststroker Elizabeth Nawrocki will immediately step into relay duties for the Bulldogs, with her time of 1:00.40 from March. This will fill a huge hole for the Georgia team whose fastest breaststroker last season was 1:01.34. Her 50 time is also faster than anyone on the Georgia team last season, coming in at 28.35 to Charlotte Headland’s 28.78.

Izzy Beau and Clarke Neace will both add depth in their respective events for the Bulldogs, with their times in the IM and Fly events for Beau and distance freestyle events for Neace coming in within the top 4 on the team this year.

#7 Indiana Hoosiers

• SwimSwam Ranked Recruits: #1 Alex Shackell (IN – free/fly), HM Liberty Clark (CA – free)
• The “Rest”: Luci Gutierrez (NY – free), Grace Hoeper (IA – free), Kamile Zinis (free/breast), Colleen Bull (NJ – free), Skylar Knowlton (NH – fly/free), Alessandra Gusperti (Italy – sprint free), Jonette Laegreid (Drury transfer – breast), Kaylee Bishop (diving), Laila Oravsky (Canada — free), Ursula Ott (MI — breast/free), Macky Hodges (USC transfer — free/back/IM), Amelia Bray (New Zealand — free/fly)

Indiana graduated a huge senior class after last season and 458 of their 1255.5 points will not be returning.  Among their seniors was Anna Peplowski, who was their 2nd highest point scorer with 86 individual points.

They brought in a strong class of recruits, namely the number 1 recruit in the class of 2025, Alex Shackell. A Paris Olympian, Shackell is the fastest butterflyer in the class, and will come into the NCAA as the favorite to win the 200 fly in March. Her 100 fly comes in as 2nd only to Torri Huske, and she is a potential ‘A’ finals qualifier in the 50 free or 200 IM, whichever she chooses to swim.

Shackell will also be a significant relay swimmer for the Hoosiers, wherever they choose to use her. She would have been 2nd in the 50 free with her 21.71, 3rd in the 100 free (with Peplowski as one of the athletes ahead of her), and 2nd in the 200 free (with only Peplowski ahead of her). She has the fastest 50 and 100 fly times, and she will pair very well with rising junior Miranda Grana when it comes to allocating fly/back relay spots.

She will not be joining the program until the spring, though, and when she does join, she will be swimming a hybrid program where she trains at both Carmel and Indiana.

Liberty Clark, an Honorable Mention on our 2025 list, will also head to Bloomington in the fall, adding depth to their sprint freestyle rosters. She continued to drop time last season, swimming 22.30 in the 50 free, 48.48 in the 100 free, and 1:45.76 in the 200 free. All three of these swims would put her on the Hoosiers’ relays next year, and will score at the Big Ten Championships.

Drury transfer Jonette Laegreid is another potential NCAA qualifier with her 2:08.59 that she swam to win the Division II NCAA Championships earlier this year. She would sit just outside of scoring position in the event, but if there is anything Indiana is known for, it’s developing breaststrokers.

Finally, they picked up our #2-ranked diving recruit for the class of 2025, Kaylee Bishop. Bishop finished 3rd in the synchronized 10-meter platform at the 2024 US Olympic Trials, and she represented team USA at the 2023 World Champs in the same event. Indiana is one of the schools that relies heavily on diving points, and Bishop will be a strong addition to that program.

#6 NC State Wolfpack

• SwimSwam Ranked Recruits: #8 Lily King (PA – free), BOTR Kathleen Turano (NJ – distance free), BOTR Jade Garstang (UT – back)
• The “Rest”: Riley McGrath (IL – diving ), Katie Lawrence (NJ – free), Keann Guthrie (TX – diving), Julie Krog Rose (Cincinnati Transfer – free/breast/IM), Teia Salvino (SMU Transfer), Katie Schroeder (Florida Transfer – back), Eneli Jefimova (Estonia – breast)

NC State is bringing in the top 100 freestyler from the class of 2025, and recent World Junior silver medalist, Lily King.

King was our #8-ranked recruit, and she will lead a 10-person recruiting class that consists of seven freshmen and three transfers. Her times in the 100 and 200 free times are already under the NCAA cutline and her 100 freestyle of 47.31 puts her in ‘A’ final scoring position. She is just over the cut in the 50 free at 22.07, but she has some incredible relay splits under her belt at 21.12 from the Pennsylvania State Championships. At the same meet, she split 46.40 on the 400 freestyle relay, which is a feat only three athletes at the 2025 NCAA Championships surpassed. While she is only coming in as a scorer in one event, she has huge potential over the next four years.

Along with King is Estonian swimmer Eneli Jefimova. She is a massive recruit for the Wolfpack who will fill one of the few gaps on the NC State team, sprint breaststroke. At the 2025 ACC Championships, NC State had just one swimmer who scored in the 100 breaststroke, finishing 14th to bring in 13 points.

Jefimova was 7th in the 100 breast at the Olympic Games last summer and 10th at this summer’s World Championships. Her lifetime best of 1:05.81 converts to 58.82, which would put her comfortably in the ‘A’ final at the ACC Championships and the ‘B’ final at NCAAs (she’s also been 1:03.21 in SCM). She will most likely swim breaststroke on the 200 and 400 medley relays, providing a big boost to the team.

They are the only two recruits coming in who are already in scoring position at ACCs or NCAAs, but their contributions are huge, especially on relays for the Wolfpack.

#5 Texas Longhorns

• SwimSwam Ranked Recruits: #7 Haley McDonald (KY – back/IM), #20 Sarah Rodrigues (NJ–back/free), BOTR Avery Collins (TX – breast)
• The “Rest”: Ella Mongenel (Texas – free), Lucy Mehraban (Louisville Transfer – free), Eva Okaro (Great Britain – free), Inez Miller (Singapore – free), Nikolett Padar (Hungary – free)

Texas was 3rd at last year’s NCAA Championships, and they had a large graduating class after the season. They retained a lot of their top point scorers, though, including diver Alejandra Estudillo Torres, and distance swimmer Jillian Cox.

They also set themselves up nicely with a very strong recruiting class that could put six freshmen on the NCAA roster, though they will likely run into roster limit issues.

The top recruit headed to Austin in the fall is #7 ranked Haley McDonald from Kentucky. McDonald has times in the 200 back and 200 IM that are well under the NCAA cutline and put her just outside of NCAA scoring range. She has been dealing with injury, but after taking 10 months off, she returned to racing and swam times in those events that would still be under the cutline. She has the door open for her when it comes to her 3rd individual event, and she could find herself in the 200 free, 100 back, or 400 IM. She is also a significant SEC scorer for a team that will be trying to hold onto their title despite losses and a strong recruiting class from runner-up Florida.

Sarah Rodrigues, the #20 recruit, will also be joining the Texas roster in the fall as a backstroker that is in NCAA scoring position in the 200 with her time of 1:51.14. Her 100 backstroke is just over two tenths away from the NCAA cutline at 51.89, and her 200 IM, 200 free, and 100 fly could all score at the SEC Championships.

Texas has a large international contingent coming in that is led by Great Britain’s Eva Okaro. The World Junior Record holder in the short course meters 50 freestyle, Okaro is an incredibly strong addition to a Texas roster that is lacking sprint freestylers. They did not put a single athlete in the 50 or 100 freestyle finals at the 2025 NCAA Championships and Okaro will be huge in remedying that situation. Her 100 free of 54.10 from the British Championships in April converts to 47.67, which puts her into ‘B’ final position. She is also a potential ‘A’ finalist in the 50 free with her best time converting to 21.33, which would have been 5th last year.

Inez Miller and Nikolett Padar are other international recruits with potential NCAA invites in their future with Miller focusing on the sprint events and Padar being more distance-oriented. All three of the international athletes will help bolster the Texas freestyle relays as well, which will be huge in helping them move up the rankings.

Lucy Mehraban, a transfer from Louisville, will be spending her final two years of eligibility at Texas after earning a ‘B’ final swim at NCAAs in the 100 freestyle last season, ultimately finishing 16th in the event.