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)
- Championship Central
- Preview Index
- Psych Sheet
- Live Stream
- Live Results
- Live Recaps
The 2026 Women’s NCAA Championships kicked off tonight, featuring a new schedule, top 10 performances in history, and clear signs of swimflation. Day 1’s races included the 1650 free along with the 200 medley relay and 800 free relay. While numerous stars, such as Claire Curzan, Anna Moesch, Jillian Cox, Claire Weinstein and Liberty Clark shone as usual, SwimSwam has compiled a list of swims may have flown under the radar amidst the craze.
In the 1650 free, Indiana State’s Grace Cummings dropped 9 seconds from her seed to score, a story that SwimSwam wrote about here. Another standout miler was Rice’s Ava Portello, whose time of 16:14.80 moved her up to the #3 performer in school history. She shaved 8.04 seconds off of her previous best, which was set at the Texas A&M last chance meet back in 2025.
The 200 medley relay saw a couple entries into top 20 breaststroke splits list, as Louisville’s Anastasia Gorbenko, Tennessee’s McKenzie Siorky, and Florida’s Anita Bottazzo all posted 25 mid splits in the 50 breast. Gorbenko’s time of 25.44 is now the #3 fastest in history, behind only Lilly King‘s 25.36 and 25.38. Siorky, whose 25.68 was tied for 10th prior to her swim tonight, moves up to the 8th fastest performer ever with a 25.59 swim. While Bottazzo’s 25.69 doesn’t quite crack the top 10, it slots in at #15.
Torri Huske, who is known for her butterfly prowess, switched things up by leading off Stanford’s 200 medley relay tonight—and she made it count. Huske swam a 22.98 to become the 5th fastest performer in history and also only the 5th swimmer to break the 23 barrier. She ties Gretchen Walsh for the 15th fastest time ever in the event.
The 800 free relay was arguably the most hectic race of the night, seeing numerous lead changes and a meet record. However, it was known breaststrokers who made the race interesting: Lucy Bell, the ACC Champion in the 200 breast, split a 1:42.43 on Stanford’s 3rd leg—a full 2 seconds quicker than her individual best. Meanwhile, Anastasia Gorbenko had herself a night and returned to the pool in the 800 free relay, swimming Louisville’s fastest leg by over a second. Her split of 1:42.18 helped the Cardinals place 10th.
USC’s Minna Abraham anchored the Trojans to 7th place in 1:40.25, a split that indicates that she’s in good form for these championships. She didn’t swim at Big Tens due to personal reasons, but posted a 1:40.47 during midseasons which makes her one of the fastest performers in history.
Day 2 is set to feature the 100 fly, 400 IM, 200 free, 100 breast, and 200 free relay.
i have eyes on grace hoeper’s 143 low split. she was 148 out of hs. sorry to the indiana haters but not many programs are able to pull these types of drops out of random recruits
Ummmm UVA
Her entire progression this season has been insane. So cool to watch how she has gotten so much better in everything she has swam! This freshman class has been so fun to watch
I think it’s obvious that Indiana produces good swimmers. I think the criticism is that ray looze generally is not a nice dude if you don’t swim well
Not many programs have Indiana’s history of developing athletes, they really are amazing. Bringing already developed athletes in and maintaining them is one thing, but Indiana is on a different level with helping athletes reach their potential.