The transfer portal has opened for men’s swimming and diving and a flood of athletes have already entered as of Wednesday morning.
With roster cuts already taking place, the transfer portal is expected to flood, and this morning’s rush already shows that.
Morning/Lunch Update:
109 Division I men have already entered the transfer portal this morning. Highlighting the list is Michael Cotter and Aaron Shackell, both of which transferred into Texas for this season. Shackell has already left Austin and is training with his club team in Carmel, Indiana while Cotter arrived from NC State but did not swim at SECs this season.
They are two out of the eight athletes from Texas to enter the portal so far for the Longhorns. Other names from Texas include Tanner Braunton, Max Hatcher, Jeremy Kelly, Lukas Stibrich, Landon D’Ariano, and Tyler Quarterman. Kelly was a BOTR ranked recruit in the boys high school class of 2024 while D’Ariano was an honorable mention in the class. Neither swam at SECs.
Auburn leads the way with 14 men already in the portal. The team also has the most women in the portal.
The 14 from Auburn include Avery Henke, David Hatt, Aidan Clements, James Allison, Jack Ailshire, Aidan Siers, Britton Spann, Isaac Lee, Alexander Just, Travis Keith, Tate Cutler, Andrew Commins, and Benjamin Chateigner. Travis Keith notably scored seven points as a diver for the team at SECs.
Indiana has nine men in the portal with Saadeddin Saadeddin, Leonardo Pelaez, Lucas Byrd, Harrison Herrera, Wilson Tuttle, William Raches, Ian Everett, Benson Wong, and Ryder Androsky. None of the men competed at Big Tens last month.
Early Afternoon Update:
Arizona State had seven men enter the portal since our last update. The list includes Leo Verschooten, Charles Gould, Cale Martter, Bryce Rohr, Finn Kemp, Isaac Fleig, and Leo Roden.
Martter is the biggest name on the list as he won the Big 12 title in the 200 IM swimming a 1:42.93. He also was 3rd in the 400 IM and 5th in the 200 breast. The 200 IM was a weaker event for ASU this season, partly due to the loss of Leon Marchand and Hubert Kos. Martter is not scheduled to compete at NCAAs next week for the Sun Devils as it took a 1:42.65 to make the cutline but helped the team to an NCAA Championship a year ago as he made the NCAA ‘B’ final of the 400 IM and 200 breast.
Gould also swam at Big 12s last month, scoring in the 100 and 200 backstrokes.
Late Afternoon Update:
Alabama has had men trickle into the portal all day and now bring their total up to six. Jake Kennedy, Sebastien Wenger, Paul Matthews, Leyton Row, Benjamin Kutufakis, and Jeremy Rosen are all in the portal for the Tide.
Roe, Wenger, and Kutufakis all swam at the 2025 Southeastern Championships (different from SECs), a club meet in Huntsville, Alabama, last month. Matthews, a diver, did not compete all season.
Is it possible to report what has happened to these students now, a year on? It would help to know if the system is actually working for the better or worse?
There will be quite a few enter after NCAA’s. Some teams may be decimated by the transfer portal which seems odd given the risk of entering the portal in the House transition year. It has become clear this year that some schools do not value swimming which is sad because they are just shifting money to football.
I don’t know why there isn’t more outrage at the number of international swimmers taking up spots at U.S. schools, particularly taxpayer funded schools. And why isn’t there an age limit for international swimmers?
I don’t understand why the NCAA and Olympic Committee do not work together. We offer the best training in the world for international athletes to go and compete for their home country.
I feel the outrage and with these new roster caps, I think it imperative that international recruiting get at least more limited or stopped outright. Especially at the state, tax-supported schools.
More IU transfers…? Weirdddddd
Where’s Josh Noll
Perhaps this slaughter of swimming careers by these colleges may induce USA swimming to finally do something. America was bad enough this past summer, surely USA swimming wouldn’t let us be embarrassed on our own turf (…yeah forget it they probably will)
What a bloody slaughter today of D1 athletics and swimming in particular.
A very sad day for “swimmers” who just loved swimming @ college, as I did.
That Benjamin Kutufakis kid would be a good pickup for any program. Hard worker, good student as well. Its truly a shame these roster cuts are forcing a bunch of good talent out of these big teams.
It was a wrong location for the post, swimswam admin, please disregard this post.