NCAA qualifier Berit Berglund has announced she will transfer to Virginia for her senior season. Berglund spent the last three seasons at Texas and entered her name into the transfer portal just before the start of the 2026 Women’s NCAA Championships. She is expected to have two years of eligibility remaining.
Berglund qualified for the 2024 NCAA Championships as a freshman and helped the Longhorn women to a 2nd place finish in the 400 medley relay with a lead off split of a 51.51. She also won the ‘B’ final of the 100 backstroke in a lifetime best 50.70. That time still stands as her personal best.
She returned to NCAAs as a sophomore, finishing 40th in the 200 back (1:55.22) and 43rd in the 100 back (52.41). Her season best times in the event came at SECs when she swam a 51.02 100 back for 4th as well as a 1:52.97 200 back for 12th.
This past season, Berglund only swam in four meets for the Longhorns. Back in October, she swam in the team’s dual meet against Alabama as well as at midseason in the fall semester. In the spring, she only swam at the team’s dual meet against Texas A&M as well as at the SMU Last Chance Invite. She did not compete at the 2026 SEC Championships.
Despite not swimming at SECs, Berglund earned an individual invite to the 2026 NCAA Championships with her season best 51.48 in the 100 backstroke that she swam at midseason. She also swam a 1:56.91 in the 200 back at midseason. After originally appearing on the psych sheets, Berglund scratched the 2026 NCAA Championships.
The Virginia women captured their 6th straight NCAA title this past season. Claire Curzan led the way with NCAA titles in the 100 back (48.24), 200 back (1:46.10), and a 2nd place finish in the 100 fly (48.55). Curzan leads the team’s backstroke group that also featured Tess Howley who was 10th in both backstroke events at 2026 NCAAs with a 51.01 in the 100 and a 1:50.82 in the 200. Berglund’s best time in the 100 back of a 50.70 would have been 8th at 2026 NCAAs while her best time of a 1:52.80 in the 200 back would have been 10th at NCAAs.
In addition to being home to backstrokers such as Curzan and Howley, former Cal backstroke All-American Isabelle Stadden recently made the move to Charlottesville and joined the pro group. Stadden had a huge meet at the start of March at the Westmont Pro Series as she swam to lifetime bests in the long course 50, 100, and 200 backstrokes.
Hot off the press: TOD liked today’s “Virginia STRIKES” post with the caption “See you in the fall!”
Did you see her latest story? Is that somewhere on UVA’s campus?
Yep, she posted yesterday on the lawn. Would be a quick turnaround but it’s possible.
No there was a photo of a place today, I thought
That pic is in Bloomington. IU
That would be the Sample Gates at IU. Interesting choice given IU doesn’t really have IMers
Gotcha, thanks.
I think this whole thing is interesting. It’s like dang, you’re at Cal training under a storied program for backstroke, you make 3 A finals at NCAAs after being injured early season and you’re like “hmm time to hit the road!”
To put it nicely, the Cal fanbase is not happy. It’s def sounding like there’s more to the story, because she has great training partners and the coaches know how to develop athletes in her events.
I don’t know if anyone else has mentioned, but Dave Marsh left Cal, and he was her coach. Just speculating that it might have been a factor. He was coaching the women’s team there in recent years.
Hearing that she’s going on visits to Virginia, Indiana, and Texas. First two got the lawn pictures, I assume Texas will get the same.
Haley’s McDonald’s mom liked it. Is it possible it’s her?
The big yahu is continuing the UVA dynasty
TOD posting IG stories from the Lawn at UVA today. And no, that’s not short for Todd.
WE AIN’T COME HERE TO PLAY SCHOOL
And Todd probably paid OOP to fly her first class
Let’s just be thankful she isn’t training hybrid at Carmel atp
Everybody wants to get their pic with the trophy.
UVA just big and greedy smh. This isn’t fun anymore.
Yeah, because when those guys left ASU for Texas, that was no big deal.
Hubert and his imaginary friends?
Also BIG difference between the 7th place team getting some transfers in and the 6 time defending champions stocking up like nobody’s business
👀
Dont hate the Player…. hate the Game…
Level up… or just shhhhh 🤐 🤫
who’s hating, big fella?
Every single positive comment about uva gets like 40 downvotes in this comment section lol
Yeah not like they had won 13 of the last 16 or something
I feel like people are losing track of the forest while looking at the trees. The point of choosing a program as an athlete is to find a good fit to help them inprove. For a female swimmer it would be hard to argue there is a better program for that purpose. There are definitely other good programs, but UVA is on another level.
Are you referring to Berit or Teagan? I’d argue one has way more of a reason to transfer if we’re talking about improvement.
I mean most people can agree its a mystery as to why Tegan entered the portal but I guarantee if she commits to UVA there will be way more complaints than any other school lmao
oh without a doubt. Personally, I’m not a fan of her entering the portal but Berit makes sense. I don’t think being at Texas has helped her out much.
Bruh acting like Texas men’s team had not dominated the past decade of college swimming.
I’ve got a goldfish memory. Also, 2022-2024 killed me
Chasing the rings smh.
This doesn’t feel like a “we’re choosing YOU”. More like a “Sure, why not? Come here.”
maybe Berglund is redshirting 26-27 and then using her 4th year of eligibility 27-28?
can’t expect that much improvement this coming season with where her times are now
and Curzan and Howley will graduate after this coming season
She only swam a few meets for Texas this season. I read her hope/plan is to get awarded a redshirt for this past season (25-26) and then have 2 yrs at UVA