2026 NCAA qualifier Carter Perkins will transfer to Florida State for the upcoming 2026-2027 season. Perkins just finished his junior season at La Salle.
“New home —> Go Noles! Thank you to @fsuswimdive for giving me this opportunity and to @lasalleuswim for the past 3 years!“
Perkins arrived at La Salle in fall 2023 and is originally from Richmond, Virginia. He has seen major progression over the last three seasons and had a breakout junior year. He won the Atlantic-10 title in the 100 free swimming a lifetime best 42.37. That swim punched his ticket to the 2026 NCAA Championships where he went on to finish 38th in a 42.68. It took a 41.56 to score.
Perkins has dropped over four seconds in the 100 free since arriving at La Salle, including going from a 44.40 as a sophomore to a 42.37 as a junior. He also has dropped over nine seconds in the 200 free.
Perkins’ Time Progression:
| High School | Freshman | Sophomore | Junior | |
| 50 free | 21.05 | 20.89 | 20.4 | 19.67 |
| 100 free | 46.59 | 45.43 | 44.4 | 42.37 |
| 200 free | 1:43.95 | 1:39.64 | 1:36.88 | 1:34.55 |
The Florida State men finished 6th at the 2026 ACC Championships and went on to finish 25th at the 2026 NCAA Championships.
Based on his best times, Perkins would already be on the border of the B and C final of the 100 free while his 200 free would have made the C final. It took a 19.49 50 free to final at ACCs. Max Wilson led the Florida State men in the 100 free at ACCs with a 41.81 for 9th. Wilson just finished his senior year so the Seminoles will be in search of a new top 100 freestyler. Wilson teammed up with Sam Bork, Michel Arkhangelskiy, and Gustav Olsson on the team’s 400 free relay at ACCs. Olsson is the only returner for this upcoming season at Bork also graduated and Arkhangelskiy has announced his transfer to Cal.
Perkins made NCAAs as an automatic qualifier out of the A-10 but will now be in the ACC and look to make the cutline. That mark stood at a 18.76 50 free, 41.80 100 free, and a 1:32.13 200 free.
Stay at LaSalle. No need to transfer. The system is broke.
With a trajectory like that, why not just stay at LaSalle?
People want training partners
He wasn’t even the fastest guy on his team.
The fastest swimmer (and their other NCAA qualifier) graduated. FSU lost a lot of their relay swimmers to graduation (plus a transfer). Maybe Carter received an offer that was hard to turn down? My question is how much does transfers affect people on time to graduation, used to be that most bigger schools want you to do a certain % of your main courses at their school?
An even better reason not to transfer. Loyalty to the coach and team is no longer part of the collegiate scene.
Looks like Carter was coached up by Kerry Smith and staff. Those are very impressive drops over 3 collegiate seasons. Maybe Kerry should hold a clinic on elevating futures/sectional swimmers to conference champions/NCAA qualifiers. Impressive growth.
All the best to you Carter and to FSU this next year. I hope you acknowledge coaches and teammates that supported you along the way to this opportunity.
It would be an interesting article, that could create opportunity for follow up and maybe annual updates, about swimmers that earned Auto bids to NCAA’s in a non P4 conference and then transferred to a P4 school.
I’m curious how many cases there were this year, as well as how these swimmers will continue to progress at their new schools.
This is something I am curious about once NCAAs roll around this year. There’s a few auto-bids who have now gone P4 and they wouldn’t have made the cutline. Thinking about Joey Stauss (Maine to Alabama, he didn’t make NCAAs but was less than half a second off in 1 fly) and Will Huggins (SIU to Florida State, same thing, didn’t make it but was close). I probably wrote more but I have more transfers to be writing now rather than in depth replying to comments lol. There’s also more guys that are being cut but would be making the AQ cutline at a mid major
Will Huggins’ older sister Maddy was an NCAA finalist at FL state – the pedigree and proof of work, improvement and relationship were there for Will – it was just a matter of time – very hard earned and well deserved!