Five Fewer For Texas, Three More For Wyoming: Shake Up For The Men’s NCAA Qualifiers This Year

In contrast to the women’s side, the men’s NCAA meet sees a relatively abrupt change in the first year of the new qualification system. There will be 34 swimmers at the meet who qualify only due to the auto-qualification avenue – 14.5% of qualified swimmers and more than double the 16 on the women’s side.

That means that more swimmers who would have qualified in previous years will not make the meet – especially so given that there are no schools which appear to need to cut a swimmer.

There is one school that would have had a qualifier under last year’s qualification system that does not get one this year: Columbia, who had Joshua Corn finish 3rd at the Ivy League Championships in the 200 breast. He clocked 1:52.34, a new best time, but missed out by 0.05 seconds, with the final qualifier in the 200 breast sitting at 1:52.29.

While Columbia miss out, there are 20 schools who only have swimmers at the meet this year thanks to auto-qualifiers, led by Wyoming with three.

• Wyoming (3)
• South Dakota (2)
• UNLV (2)
• Hawai’i (2)
• Drexel (2)
• Air Force (2)
• Towson (1)
• FAU (1)
• CSUB (1)
• Georgetown (1)
• UW-Milwaukee (1)
• Cornell (1)
• BYU (1)
• Oakland (1)
• George Washington (1)
• Davidson (1)
• GCU (1)
• Miami (Ohio) (1)
• Missouri State (1)

There are 34 conference champions who would not have made the meet under the old qualification system.

*Tanner Nelson sits on line 55 in the 1650 free in 15:05.30, one spot higher than in the 400 IM, but did not win the event at Big 12s.

** Carter Dooling sits on line 67 in the 100 breast in 52.37, six spots higher than in the 200 breast, but swam this time at the GCU Last Chance Meet.

This is a first NCAA Championships for all of these swimmers bar three- Hawai’i’s Karol Ostrowski, who qualified in the 50 free last year in 18.99; Navy’s Ben Irwin, who placed 20th in the 200 back in 1:39.79 last year; and Towson’s Jed Garner, who was 18th in the 200 breast in 2025.

There were a total of 120 auto-qualification spots taken by the men, although several of those are from swimmers doubling up – those are swims qualified, not swimmers. A total of 84 swimmers locked up their spots by winning their conferences in a time under the auto-qualification mark, 35.7% of the total qualifiers.

Of those 120 conference-winning swims, 72 were faster than the cutline under the old qualification system, bang on 60%.

As expected given there are 34 swimmers who only made it in thanks to the auto-qualification, there are 34 men who would have qualified under the old system but instead miss the meet. That includes some big names, including one world finalist and an 18.83 swimmer in the 50 free.

*Priority is for this list, not for the list of alternates, which is due to the differences between the two systems

With no teams having more than the maximum 18 swimmers qualified, we are unlikely to see much movement due to swimmers being cut. The only team with a real possibility of that are Indiana, who have 16 swimmers qualified but also have a strong diving program. If they have more than four divers qualify at Zones, there will be a decision to make.

No other school has more than 13 swimmers qualified, and only five in total have ten or more – Indiana, Texas, Cal, ASU, and Florida.

Texas are the team to miss out most this year, as they have five fewer qualifiers under the new system. They have just 13 men who made the meet this year, down from 18 last year, and have five swimmers who would have made it under the old system. They are not alone – among the top ten teams by swimmers qualified, all bar Cal have at least one swimmer fewer under the current system.

Michigan had three big international commits last season, and two of those just missed out – although one of those swimmers is now at Texas. Alexey Glivinskiy is the first alternate with his 1:32.23 in the 200 free, while Antoine Sauve is one spot behind him in 1:32.26. Michigan is likely to take Sauve as a relay-only swimmer, but Glivinskiy only swam individually at SECs and could be left at home for Texas.

Other big names to miss out are Texas’ Ksawery Masiuk, who was 45.02 in the 100 fly to rank 28th nationally but was a tenth outside of qualifying, his teammate Garrett Gould who has been 18.89/41.86 in the sprint freestyles this year, and Indiana’s Andrew Shackell who was 1:41.26 in the 200 fly.

The only returning ‘A’ finalist who missed the meet is LSU’s Jovan Lekic, who was 4:08.55 in prelims of the 500 free at NCAAs last season but has only been 4:14.50 this year. He is not a casualty of the new system though – he would have been the second alternate for the meet based on the old qualification system, 0.17 seconds behind the final qualifier in the event.

NC State’s Kyle Ponsler, the 400 IM ‘B’ final winner last year, is in the same boat. His highest ranking comes in at 33rd in the 400 IM, from the 3:41.88 he swam to win the ‘C’ final at ACCs, nine spots behind the final non-conference champion qualifier this year and four behind the final qualifier under the old system.

His teammate Drew Salls also misses out after scoring last year. He was 16th in the 50 free after placing 13th in prelims, and misses out despite setting a new best time of 18.89 this season. Alecksas Savickas, a ‘B’ finalists in both breaststroke events, would not have made the meet under either qualification format.

There are several events where the cutline is much faster this season, and the presence of auto-qualifiers is not the sole reason. There are 35 men who have broken 1:40 in the 200 back this season, so that even under the old system Filip Kosinski‘s 1:39.72 wouldn’t make the cut.

There are four events in which scoring times at 2025 NCAAs were not fast enough to even qualify for the meet in 2026: the 50 free, 100 fly, 200 fly, and 100 back. Notably, scoring times in the 50 free and 100 back would still have been left at home under the old system.

Swimmers Who Would Have Scored In 2025, But Do Not Make The Meet In 2026

Name, [time] (prelims place, finals place)

50 free:

• Ethan Harrington, 18.83 (10th in prelims, 12th in finals)
• Garrett Gould, 18.89 (12th in prelims, 12th in finals)
• Shane Eckler, 18.89 (12th in prelims, 12th in finals)
• Drew Salls, 18.89 (12th in prelims, 12th in finals)
• Charlie Crush, 18.92 (16th in prelims, 15th in finals) – WOULD NOT HAVE QUALIFIED UNDER OLD SYSTEM

100 Fly:

• Rian Graham,  44.93 (16th in prelims, 16th in finals)

200 Fly:

• Charlie Jones, 1:40.84 (15th in prelims, 15th in finals)
• David Schmitt, 1:40.87 (16th in prelims, 15th in finals)

100 Back:

• Matthew Bittner, 44.98 (15th in prelims, 13th in finals)
• Kalle Makinen 45.22 (16th in prelims, 16th in finals) – WOULD NOT HAVE QUALIFIED UNDER OLD SYSTEM