The Louisville women’s team will be returning 279 out of the 288 points that they scored at the 2023 NCAA Championships for the 2023-2024 season.
The 2023 NCAA team had a total of 11 individual swimmers and two individual diving qualifiers. That made them the smallest roster out of the top six finishing teams.
Ten out of the 11 NCAA individual swimmers will be returning for this upcoming season as Liberty Williams (who scored nine individual points) entered the transfer portal and is headed to Alabama.
Seniors Christiana Regenauer and Abby Hay have both already announced their returns as they will be using their COVID-19 fifth years of eligibility. Hay and Regenauer combined to score a total of 58 individual points.
The Louisville women also scored in all five NCAA relays, finishing in the top eight in all but the 800 free relay. All 20 of their relay legs will be returning as Hay was a member of two relays and Regenauer was a member of four.
The Louisville women tied a program best fourth-place finish, but their 288 total points were the most in school history. The program has finished in the top 10 seven of the last eight NCAA Championships (they were 13th in 2021). The team also had another “first” as they had two swimmers in the 50 free A final at NCAAs with Regenauer and rising senior Gabi Albiero.
The program will bring in five new women this fall including Lucy Mehraban (sprint free), Zoe Vogelman (IM), Bianca Costea (sprint free), Summer Cardwell (mid-distance free), and Samm Helmboldt (diver). Cardwell was a member of the “Best-of-the-rest” when the class of 2023 was ranked back in May 2022. Both Vogelman and Costea are international swimmers.
This is the second year in a row in which the fourth place team returns most of their NCAA points as the Alabama women returned all 288 of their points (and relay legs) for this past season.
Based on SwimSwam’s fifth year tracker, at least 36 women have announced they will be using their COVID-19 fifth year of eligibility. This past season, our tracker had a total of 48 women by the end of the summer.
Is this why Gabi isn’t moving to Brazil to try to make their Olympic Team? Maybe the family is hoping for a program best performance at the upcoming NCAA Women’s Championships.
She was just named to the US’s PamAm team, so it doesn’t look like she’s going to compete for Brazil.
Where’s @FreezingColdTakes when you need them
Anya – Any chance you might provide us a link to your Covid-19 Tracker with the names/schools of the 5th Year/Grad Students? TIA
Going to run by Stanford for 3rd?
Certainly looks like a major possibility. No doubt that is going to be a goal of theirs (top 3)
Looks like it, but Stanford and Tennessee could also be fighting for 3rd. Both have good recruiting classes coming in plus an X factor. For Tennessee it’s will Ellen Walshe be back? For Stanford it’s what role does Katie Robinson play and can she rejuvenate some of the talent that’s underperformed so far?
I would bet money Walshe doesn’t swim in the NCAA again.
Neither Stanford nor Tenn will be in the top 5
Arthur is tremendous leader of team culture. He brings in high quality, high character coaches, and leads the entire unit mightily. Congrats to UofL! More head coaches should follow his lead.
They have two open positions right? Any ideas who will be hired? It’s awfully late in the summer for coaches to still be changing programs
They have always been a force, and the team camaraderie that this team has is amazing. They are a true family.