I’ll be honest, college swimming fans, heading into this weekend, my main concern wasn’t the pool–it was water in a much colder form as a massive storm moved through much of the U.S. this weekend, dropping over a foot-and-a-half of snow where I live. But between wondering “is it ever going to stop snowing” and re-aggravating an old shoulder injury excavating my car, college swimmers kept demanding my attention. Plenty of meets were cancelled due to the weather but there was also plenty of action on one of the final weekends of the 2025-26 regular season.
Let’s get into it.
DII National Record Goes Down
Kristina Orban (49.64), Zsofia Kurdi (49.41), Maxine Egner (49.74), and Maya Esparza (49.13) made it a Senior Day to remember for the Nova Southeastern women at their Friday quad meet against Miami, Barry, and Florida Southern. The quartet combined for a 3:17.92 in the 400 freestyle relay, taking over the former Division II record (3:18.04) that Queens (NC) swam in 2018 and 2019 before the school transitioned to Division I.
The Nova Southeastern women are three-time defending NCAA champions but it was a close meet last year. The Sharks needed to win the final relay–the 400 freestyle relay–against Drury to claim their third-straight title. They pulled off the win and now will likely head into the 2026 Championships in a couple of months time as the national record holders, giving them a huge confidence boost should the meet come down to the final relay again. The Sharks ranked second in the latest CSCAA DII Dual Meet Polls behind the Tampa women.
Notably, none of the swimmers on Nova Southeastern’s record breaking relay split sub-49 seconds, making this swim stand out from the former Queens (NC) marks, as both of those relays had at least one swimmer under that threshold. But they still have some room to lower the record again this season; the sophomore Orban led off in 49.64 on Friday, about a second off her lifetime best of 48.63.
Notes From The Weekend’s Top-Ranked DI Meets
Next, we need to take some time to discuss the major Division I dual meets that saw some of the nation’s top ranked programs go head-to-head–some of them for the last time during the 2025-26 regular season.
Eddie Reese Showdown
Let’s kick things off in Austin, where Louisville and Ohio State travelled to face off against Texas. Last week, we discussed the impact of mid-season additions and that was on display here, as Hubert Kos and Ksawery Masiuk made their Longhorn debuts this season. As expected Kos, an Olympic gold medallist and three-time 2025 NCAA champion, wasted no time making an impression. Kos took the fall semester off from college swimming to clean up on the World Cup circuit. Back in yards, he immediately shot to the top of the NCAA’s season rankings, taking over the top spot in the 200 backstroke (1:38.14), third in the 200 IM (1:40.69), and sixth in the 100 backstroke (44.48).
For Masiuk, this was his first time racing in a Longhorn cap. He swam 1:43.83 in the 200 backstroke and 20.91 in the 50 butterfly, along with contributing on multiple relays. This was Masiuk’s first SCY meet; after he committed to Texas, he was originally supposed to join the team in January 2025 but deferred his enrollment because of “formalities” before arriving on campus earlier this month.
Ohio State had to fly home a day early due to the snowstorm but got plenty out of one day of racing, including a program record in the 1000 freestyle from Mila Nikanorov, whos 9:22.37 also ranks as the ninth-fastest all-time. That left Texas and Louisville in head-to-head matchups for the overall meet victory. On the women’s side, it came down to just one point as the Cardinals upset the Longhorns 488 to 487. This is the Texas women’s first loss of the season. Louisville’s sprinters, including Julia Dennis and Caroline Larsen, were key to the victory. It will be interesting to see this sprint-heavy crew face off against Indiana this weekend, a team that has quietly assembled a strong sprint group of its own.
Tennessee vs. Georgia
We need to talk about the men’s and women’s 200 butterfly events from the Tennessee vs. Georgia dual meet. We’ll begin with the men, as defending NCAA champion and NCAA record holder Luca Urlando dropped a 1:38.65. Yes, it’s still only January. Urlando spoke with SwimSwam after the meet and while he wasn’t too fixated on the overall time, he did share that his 25.95 closing split was the fastest last 50 he’s ever had in a 200 butterfly. Urlando’s time is the eighth-fastest in Georgia history (and his career).
On the women’s side, Emily Brown took down the Tennessee program record, firing off a 1:52.39 in the first sub-1:53 effort of her career. That overtook the 1:52.39 that Sara Stotler swam to own the former mark last season.
The Tennessee women came out on top on their side of the dual meet, winning 187-110. Led by Kennedi Dobson, the Georgia women shone in the distance freestyle events but couldn’t hang with the Lady Volunteers. Tennessee’s sprint speed was the backbone of the team’s victory, and they got a boost with the NCAA debut of Japanese Olympian Mizuki Hirai. Hirai won the 100 butterfly in 51.49, jumping into Tennessee’s record books as the seventh-fastest in program history and the eighth-fastest freshman in the country this season.
The men’s meet was a much closer affair with the Georgia men taking the win 155-142. The Georgia men’s distance freestylers also came up huge for them, with Sean Green winning the 500/1000 freestyle (4:16.69/8:56.94) and leading a 1-2-3 sweep in the latter. Tomas Koski, Hayden Meyers, and Drew Hitchcock added individual event wins for the Dawgs. Meanwhile, Tennessee’s meet was highlighted by senior Gui Caribe’s antics in his last regular season dual meet. Caribe dominated the 50 freestyle, swimming an 18.93, while Gabe Nunziata swept the breaststroke events (52.98/1:55.11).
Virginia vs. NC State
This meet was originally supposed to be a two-day affair but was shortened to just a single day due to the inclement weather. Still, the swimmers wreaked havoc on the pool record board in Raleigh with the Cavalier women breaking ten pool records and the Wolfpack’s own Max Carlsen contributing two, including lowering the 1000 freestyle school record he swam last month.
The pool records got underway from the very first event as Virginia’s 200 medley ‘A’ relay of Sara Curtis (23.32), Emma Weber (26.43), Claire Curzan (22.10), and Anna Moesch (20.82) swam 1:32.67. Moesch’s 20.82 is a lifetime best 50 freestyle split for her, continuing the excellent season that she’s been having. Curzan, Katie Grimes, and Aimee Canny all set multiple individual pool records.
We talked about the freshman Carlsen contributing to the Wolfpack’s distance freestyle legacy just last week. He’s already pushing it forward again this week, dropping from the 8:42.38 he swam on January 19th to an 8:41.12. This swim also lowers his ACC record and is the third fastest in the country this season behind long-course world champion Ahmed Jaouadi and two-time defending NCAA champion Zalan Sarkany. Carlsen also lowered his 500 freestyle best, winning in 4:11.89.
Overall, the two duels were rather lopsided affairs as the Virginia women and NC State men crushed their opponents in team scoring.
Quick Hits
- Liberty Clark split 20.79 as Indiana’s 200 medley relay anchor last weekend as the Hoosiers swept Purdue. It was Clark’s first time splitting sub-21 seconds in the 50 freestyle and marks Indiana’s fastest 50 freestyle split in program history. Clark already holds the school record in the event (21.54); the Hoosier women are best known for their strength in other disciplines, but have assembled a sneakily strong sprint crew headed up by the freshman Clark and senior Kristina Paegle. The Hoosiers had a historic finish at the 2025 NCAA Championships and a strong sprint crew bolstering their relays will be crucial as they aim to challenge the storied programs ahead of them in the rankings.
- For the second time in as many weeks, Vivian Rothwell has broken the Georgia Tech women’s 100 backstroke school record. Rothwell was the highlight of the team’s loss to Alabama the other week, breaking her own record with a 52.72. She clipped that mark last weekend as the Yellowjackets split their dual with the South Carolina Gamecocks, dropping a 52.53. The South Carolina women won the meet 197-102 while the Georgia Tech men beat the Gamecock men 151-137.
- UMBC’s Ashley Gutshall and Alice Marini swam their way into the record books on Friday as they helped their team win every event on their way to besting Frostburg State. Gutshall broke Olympian Katie Hoff’s 20-year-old pool record in the 50 freestyle with a 22.83 while Marini swam 57.32 in the 100 IM for a new school record.
- Maine swept Providence on its Senior Day, with the women’s team winning 180.5-119.5 and the men’s team 174-122. While the lopsided victories may not look noteworthy, this is the first time the men’s team has beaten Providence since 2017.
