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
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The 200 free relay was a great race tonight at the McAuley Aquatic Center. Virginia wound up dominating, which was unsurprising, but we had tons of great swims and splits behind them. Here is the split breakdown for the top 8 teams:
| Split | 1st – Virginia | 2nd – Stanford | 3rd – Indiana | 4th – Michigan | 5th – Cal | 6th – Tennessee | 7th – Texas | 8th – NC State |
| 1st Swimmer | Curzan – 20.85 | Olasewere – 21.56 | Clark – 21.27 | Greenhawt – 21.79 | Moluh – 21.53 | Spink – 21.00 | Okaro – 21.66 | Christianson – 21.68 |
| 2nd Swimmer | Greenwaldt – 21.75 | Huske – 20.58 | Paegle – 21.00 | Kendall – 20.74 | West – 21.15 | Bocska – 21.65 | Nesty – 21.60 | Nel – 21.30 |
| 3rd Swimmer | Moesch – 20.96 | Johnson – 21.44 | Hoeper – 22.05 | Balduccini – 21.67 | O’Dell – 21.72 | Crooks – 21.90 | Mehraban – 21.40 | Pelaez – 21.45 |
| 4th Swimmer | Curtis – 20.55 | Thomas – 21.99 | Shackell – 21.35 | Fack – 21.72 | Griscavage – 21.70 | Armen – 21.70 | Gemmell – 21.76 | Moses – 22.02 |
| Final Time | 1:24.11 | 1:25.57 | 1:25.67 | 1:25.92 | 1:26.10 | 1:26.25 | 1:26.42 | 1:26.45 |
Starting with the champs, Virginia was amazing. They were helped greatly by Claire Curzan‘s blistering 20.85 lead-off leg. Sara Curtis with a 20.55 anchor put a stamp on what turned out to be a very strong day for the 5-time defending champions.
Stanford capped what was a great day for them with a very strong 2nd place finish in this relay. Torri Huske was the leading Cardinal swimmer, posting a 20.58 on the 2nd leg, which was the 2nd fastest split in the field tonight. That was a terrific split, and it means that Huske will either be sitting out of the 400 medley relay or 400 free relay, as she’s already swum on 3.
Indiana had a 3rd place finish, which was great for the Hoosiers. Impressively, they managed the 3rd place finish with a 22-split on the 3rd leg from freshman Grace Hoeper. That speaks to the depth the Indiana sprint group has.
Here are the top 10 splits from tonight’s relay. The * signifies a lead-off leg.
| Time | Swimmer | Team |
| 20.55 | Sara Curtiss | Virginia |
| 20.58 | Torri Huske | Stanford |
| 20.74 | Brady Kendall | Michigan |
| 20.79 | Julia Dennis | Louisville |
| 20.85* | Claire Curzan | Virginia |
| 20.96 | Anna Moesch | Virginia |
| 21.00 | Kristina Paegle | Indiana |
| 21.00* | Camille Spink | Tennessee |
| 21.15 | Mia West | Cal |
| 21.30 | Olivia Nel | NC State |
Probably the most noteworthy thing on this list is that Virginia had 3 of the 10 fastest splits in the field tonight, which explains why they won the race by nearly 1.5 seconds. Really, UVA had 3 of the 6 fastest times in the field, as Sara Curtiss was the fastest, Claire Curzan was 5th, and Anna Moesch was 6th. Most impressive of all, Curzan’s 20.85 was on the lead-off leg, meaning she managed to post the 5th fastest time in the entire field off a flat-start.
Another notable element of the fastest splits list is that each of the teams that finished in the top 6 had at least 1 swimmer post a top 10 split tonight. On its face, that makes sense, as the easiest path to posting a top finish is to have one of the top splits in the field.
Also of note, Julia Dennis split 20.79 on the Louisville relay, which was DQ’d. While the relay was DQ’d, Dennis went on the 2nd leg of the relay, and the DQ came on the 4th leg, so it had nothing to do with her swim.
Not a good anchor leg for the Pack
Hey Rowdy, you have become the worst commentator. You are beyond blinded in events so that you never even comment when an upset is happening because you are too focused on one team — Virginia! When a swimmer or relay from another team is closing in, you don’t bother to mention it. As the race is going on, it would be remarkable if you could stop salivating and actually comment on the race AS IT IS HAPPENING. Your cohost manages to do that.
S. Curtis, C. Curzan, A. Moesch (W 4 x 50/100 FR-R) should be back next season.
With Jazy or Nwakalor, depending on the development of Pavalic, Martin, and Workman.