Are Morning Relays Causing More DFSs In Individual Events At NCAAs?

2026 NCAA DIVISION I MEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Dates: Wednesday, March 25–Saturday, March 28
• Location: McAuley Aquatic Center, Atlanta, GA
• Defending Champions: Texas (1x)
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  • Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2

On Friday morning, Virginia’s David King no-showed preliminary heats of the 100-yard backstroke, an event where he was seeded 34th overall with a time of 45.59.

Later on, Virginia coaches confirmed to SwimSwam that King didn’t swim his individual event to guarantee four fresh legs for his school’s 400 medley relay, which was slated to compete approximately an hour and 42 minutes after the 100 back takes place. The Cavaliers are seeded 11th in the medley relay, with greater scoring potential than King’s potential 100 back, and ended up finishing second overall in the early heats.

At previous NCAA championships, all relays took place during the evening session of the meet, leaving more time between prelims of individual events and relays. Now, with all relays besides the top eight seeds taking place in the morning, swimmers are faced with more possibilities of doubles — or in King’s case, dropping events to prevent them.

King isn’t alone. Stanford’s Andres Dupont Cabrera, the 39th seed in the 200 free (1:32.85), no-showed the 200 free on Thursday before racing on his team’s 200 free relay that same session. His 18.71 split on that relay was the fastest amongst the Cardinal. Princeton’s Patrick Dinu, the 30th seed of the 200 free (1:32.50), also no-showed before splitting 18.84 on his team’s 200 free relay. This contrasts with 2025, when there were no DFS’s in the 200 free.

There were also three no-shows in the 200 breast prelims Thursday morning from swimmers who raced morning heats of the 400 medley relay. Those swimmers were Stanford’s Zhier Fan (36th seed, 1:53.90), Army’s Kohen Rankin (30th seed, 1:52.85) and Kentucky’s Adomas Gatulis (42nd seed, 1:54.66).

In 2025, there were just two DFS’s in the 200 breast, though both swimmers did not race on the 400 free relay that following evening. In the 100 breast, which previously took place on the same day as the 400 medley relay, there was just one DFS.

Friday morning’s 50 free saw seven no-shows from swimmers racing in early heats of the 400 medley relay. They included Dupont Cabrera (51st seed, 19.41), Virginia’s Maximus Williamson (27th seed, 18.92), Virginia’s Thomas Heilman (43rd seed, 19.13), Wisconsin’s Ben Wiegand (41st seed, 19.21), Stanford’s Rafael Gu (32nd seed, 19.13), Army’s Johnny Crush (51st seed, 19.41) and Kentucky’s Lysander Osman (37th seed, 19.17).

By comparison, there were just two no-shows in the 50 free prelims at 2025 NCAAs, with just one of those swimmers racing on the 200 free relay happening later in the evenings.

The main takeaway here seems to be that swimmers who are further away from scoring in individual events may drop those events in favor of being fresh for morning relays, where there is are more opportunities to earn points.