2026 NCAA ‘A’ finalist Teagan O’Dell has announced she will transfer to Virginia. O’Dell just finished her freshman season at Cal and has three years of eligibility remaining.
“After much thought, I am extremely grateful and excited to announce that I will be continuing my academic and athletic career at the University of Virginia! I am so grateful that the impeccable team and coaching staff at UVA has granted me this opportunity. I can’t wait to start this journey with the Cavalier family!
I am eternally grateful to my parents, family, and friends for supporting me throughout this process. And I am especially thankful to everyone in Charlottesville for welcoming me with open arms. This past year in Berkeley will always be cherished, along with the countless friendships I have developed. I am forever indebted to the staff and team at CAL for the love and support I have received all season.”
The California native came out of high school as the #2 ranked recruit in the girls high school class of 2025. She instantly made an impact for Cal, swimming to 70 individual points at the 2026 ACC Championships including a 4th place finish in the 400 IM. The Cal women were 3rd at ACCs, finishing behind Virginia who captured their 7th straight ACC team title.
O’Dell went on to be the 2nd highest scoring freshman at the 2026 NCAA Championships with 46 individual points. Only Cal’s Claire Weinstein scored more individual points as a freshman with 48.
O’Dell made the NCAA ‘A’ final in all three of her individual swims, finishing 2nd in the 200 IM (1:52.76), 3rd in the 400 IM (3:59.43), and 6th in the 200 back (1:49.70). She also swam on four relays for Cal. O’Dell’s performance earned her Freshman of the Year Honorable Mention Swammy honors for her performance, an award in which future teammate Sara Curtis of Virginia also won.
O’Dell’s Best SCY Times:
| High School | Freshman Year | |
| 200 IM | 1:52.61 | 1:52.76 |
| 400 IM | 4:05.22 | 3:59.43 |
| 200 back | 1:49.16 | 1:49.51 |
The Virginia women are coming off of their 6th straight NCAA title with 589 points. The team swept all five relays at the 2026 NCAA Championships.
O’Dell is a strong addition as the team looks to win their 7th straight NCAA title this upcoming season. She most notably helps fill the loss of Aimee Canny who will graduate this spring. Canny swam on the team’s 800 free and 400 medley relay and was 2nd in the 200 breast, 6th in the 200 IM, and 8th in the 400 IM. Canny split a 1:41.68 lead off leg in the 800 free relay while O’Dell split a 1:41.27 flying start for Cal in the relay.
O’Dell will join former Texas NCAA Qualifier Berit Berglund as the two will arrive as transfers this fall. Berglund is primarily a backstroker.
Congratulations Teagan, you’ll do great at UVA.
At the end of the day, she still chose to transfer to UVA. But i think CAL degree is > than UVAs.
Both degrees are highly respected degrees around the country. Depending on your field, one may have an edge over the other.
But either degree + Olympic medal or NCAA title is worth more than the other degree without the swimming achievements, so if the only reason to choose a college swim team is “prestige of the degree vis-a-vis lifetime earnings” (it isn’t), she should absolutely choose the school that will get her the best swim results.
We’ll never know if she chose the right one. But, that’s what her decision making matrix should be if she’s only thinking about “lifetime earnings in a non swimming career.”
This is insane cope.
1) Cal, UVA, Michigan, UNC, UCLA are all considered to be the top public universities and are in the same degree of prestige.
2) For the first few years of your professional career, the school name on your degree only matters if you are looking to get into a very specific professional area or company. Past the first few years, no one cares where you got your Bachelor’s degree from.
It increasingly seems like elite swimmers across different school years on the international USA junior rosters remain close friends and ultimately steer to places where some of their friends are experiencing good things at those programs. Any connective tissue with current UVA swimmers that we know of? Seems like it’s more than just “I’ve seen their swimmers get fast”, “I like the coach / campus / cafeteria”, or “I want a team natty”.
Teagan swam last summers World University Games with 6 UVA women and 1 man
NIL rev share and endorsements
Such a bummer. I thought her and Weinstein wanted to build something together at Cal :/
Oh well – best of luck at UVA.
interesting that only 2 impact NCAA scoring Women are transferring, O’Dell and Bottazzo
but maybe as many as a dozen scoring Men transferring
is it because men have more money opportunities??
That’s a good guess.
It’s been a weirdly quiet offseason overall. The coaching carousel has been quiet as heck too.
Are there any rumors of which programs Bottazzo may be looking at? she’s following Texas and Cal on social media but I think it’s safe to say social media isn’t exactly a reliable indicator
The rumor, mostly driven by Coach Nesty’s tampering accusations, is Stanford.
That’s about all I’ve heard. It’s getting awfully late to expect teams to cut to make space, so feels like UVa is a tough sale at this point given that they’ve already made cuts.
What accusations? Also, can students transfer to Stanford? I thought they mainly accepted community college students and military veterans as transfers.
It’s been discussed in other comment threads and on social – I had heard the accusations from someone through the grapevine, then I alluded to it and heard about them from a lot of other people, so it’s pretty well known in coaching circles that Nesty is accusing Annie Lazor of talking Anita into the Transfer Portal.
Stanford takes about 30 transfers a year. So it’s not easy. But…a high-GPA biotech major who will be an Olympian and is one of the best college swimmers in the country feels like it has a shot. If they only get 1 athlete transfer spot a year, that feels like a viable resume.
Stanford sports will take you if you can make a difference. Also Stanford likes to stand by their tough academic entrance but that will continue to get harder as people offer NIL and what college you go too won’t make that much difference in future.
Disappointing for Cal, there’s a universe where they had O’Dell, Weinstein, Shackell, and Erisman all on the team at once.
Was she in the portal? I would have thought Swim Swam would have covered that! Did rules change?
Yes, she was in the portal. Swim Swam covered it, and it’s been a hot topic of discussion in multiple threads for weeks.
https://swimswam.com/2026-ncaa-a-finalist-teagan-odell-of-cal-enters-ncaa-transfer-portal/
💍💍💍 chaser
Been loving your comments! Keep it up!