2025 Men’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships
- March 26-29, 2025
- Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Center, Federal Way, Washington
- Short Course Yards (25 yards)
- Psych Sheets
The official psych sheets for the 2025 Men’s NCAA Championships have been published after the pre-selection entries were released on Tuesday.
The selection psych sheets give us the official cutline, eligible relays and a list of alternates after we made our projections yesterday.
The Men’s NCAA Championships will run from March 26-29 in Federal Way, Washington at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center.
YOU CAN SEE ALL THE RELEVANT DOCUMENTS HERE:
- Official Psych Sheets (with cutlines)
- Invited swimmers by team (not including relay swimmers)
- Alternates list
- Eligible Relays
SwimSwam’s projected cutline was six spots into row 29, and that proved to be the case, though one swimmer’s scratch changed things a bit.
Cal scratched Luca Gissendaner, who was originally seeded 26th in the 100 breast, to get down to the maximum roster size of 18 swimmers. With that scratch, UNLV’s Daniel Nicusan, who was projected to be second alternate for the meet, moves into the meet, ranked tied for 29th in the 100 breast.
A total of 235 male swimmers qualify for the NCAA Championships—see the full selection process here.
QUALIFIED SWIMMERS BY TEAM
Eight teams have qualified double-digit swimmers for the meet, with Cal and Texas leading the way with 18 apiece, the maximum roster size for teams including divers (divers count as half a roster spot).
UNC qualifying nine swimmers for NCAAs is the most in program history dating back to at least 1996.
Top 10 Schools – Qualified Swimmers
| Rank | Team |
Qualified Swimmers
|
| T-1 | Cal | 18 |
| T-1 | Texas | 18 |
| T-3 | Florida | 15 |
| T-3 | Indiana | 15 |
| 5 | NC State | 13 |
| 6 | Stanford | 12 |
| 7 | Arizona State | 11 |
| 8 | Tennessee | 10 |
| 9 | UNC | 9 |
| 10 | Ohio State | 8 |
ALTERNATES LIST
The official first alternate for the time being is LSU’s Stepan Goncharov, who lost the second tiebreaker with SIU’s Alex Santiago in the battle for the last spot into the championships.
However, with Texas having 18 qualified swimmers, they’ll scratch at least one of them, and possibly two, to make room for either two or four divers. The Longhorns have qualified four divers for NCAAs with one day of the Zone Diving Championships remaining (Cal had not qualified any divers heading into the last day).
If Texas scratches two swimmers in favor of their divers, Goncharov and Virginia Tech’s Luis Dominguez Calonge will get bumped up into the meet.
| Rank | Swimmer | Team | Event (Time) | Percent Rank |
| 1 | Stepan Goncharov | LSU | 100 free (41.95) | 0.985244 |
| 2 | Luis Dominguez Calonge | Virginia Tech | 200 free (1:32.37) | 0.987282 |
| 3 | Sam Campbell | Ohio State | 1650 free (14:49.25) | 0.98639 |
| 4 | Chase Mueller | NC State | 500 free (4:14.16) | 0.985956 |
| 5 | Gustavo Saldo | Louisville | 200 fly (1:41.65) | 0.984008 |
| 6 | Gavin Wight | Indiana | 100 back (45.30) | 0.981565 |
| 7 | Marton Nagy | Brown | 200 IM (1:42.69) | 0.980744 |
| 8 | Peter Bretzmann | Florida | 200 breast (1:53.08) | 0.978039 |
| 9 | Watson Nguyen | Penn | 100 breast (51.61) | 0.988436 |
| 10 | Chris Nagy | Kentucky | 1650 free (14:49.30) | 0.986333 |
CUTLINE PROGRESSION
The cutline time for each event was the fastest it’s ever been this year, including a staggering six-second drop in the 1650 free, half-second-plus drops in the 200 back and 200 fly, and a 1.32-second improvement in the 400 IM.
| EVENT (SCY) | 2020 INVITE TIME | 2021 INVITE TIME | 2022 INVITE TIME | 2023 INVITE TIME | 2024 Invite Time | 2025 Invite Time |
| 50 free | 19.32 | 19.46 | 19.28 | 19.21 | 19.13 | 19.02 |
| 100 free | 42.57 | 42.88 | 42.34 | 42.32 | 42.19 | 41.95 |
| 200 free | 1:34.07 | 1:34.04 | 1:33.08 | 1:32.85 | 1:32.93 | 1:32.27 |
| 500 free | 4:16.49 | 4:16.75 | 4:14.96 | 4:14.36 | 4:14.90 | 4:14.13 |
| 1650 free | 14:57.07 | 15:01.33 | 14:55.21 | 14:53.54 | 14:54.92 | 14:48.80 |
| 100 back | 46.22 | 46.37 | 45.87 | 45.70 | 45.56 | 45.26 |
| 200 back | 1:41.49 | 1:41.81 | 1:40.92 | 1:40.62 | 1:40.62 | 1:40.13 |
| 100 breast | 52.46 | 52.40 | 52.20 | 51.90 | 51.89 | 51.58 |
| 200 breast | 1:54.03 | 1:54.28 | 1:53.23 | 1:52.94 | 1:53.12 | 1:52.89 |
| 100 fly | 45.97 | 46.29 | 45.57 | 45.57 | 45.37 | 45.12 |
| 200 fly | 1:43.18 | 1:43.47 | 1:42.42 | 1:42.57 | 1:42.10 | 1:41.45 |
| 200 IM | 1:43.79 | 1:44.15 | 1:43.36 | 1:43.14 | 1:43.05 | 1:42.65 |
| 400 IM | 3:44.36 | 3:45.67 | 3:43.50 | 3:42.99 | 3:42.93 | 3:41.61 |
PERCENTAGE IMPROVEMENT FROM 2024
| EVENT (SCY) | 2024 Invite Time | 2025 Invite Time |
% Improvement
|
| 50 free | 19.13 | 19.02 | 0.58% |
| 100 free | 42.19 | 41.95 | 0.57% |
| 200 free | 1:32.93 | 1:32.27 | 0.71% |
| 500 free | 4:14.90 | 4:14.13 | 0.30% |
| 1650 free | 14:54.92 | 14:48.80 | 0.68% |
| 100 back | 45.56 | 45.26 | 0.66% |
| 200 back | 1:40.62 | 1:40.13 | 0.49% |
| 100 breast | 51.89 | 51.58 | 0.60% |
| 200 breast | 1:53.12 | 1:52.89 | 0.20% |
| 100 fly | 45.37 | 45.12 | 0.55% |
| 200 fly | 1:42.10 | 1:41.45 | 0.64% |
| 200 IM | 1:43.05 | 1:42.65 | 0.39% |
| 400 IM | 3:42.93 | 3:41.61 | 0.59% |
TOP SEEDS IN EACH EVENT
- 200 Medley Relay – Tennessee, 1:20.22
- 800 Free Relay – Florida, 6:02.50
- 500 Free – Rex Maurer, Texas, 4:04.45
- 200 IM – Julian Smith, Florida, 1:39.38
- 50 Free – Jordan Crooks, Tennessee, 17.85
- 200 Free Relay – Tennessee, 1:12.80
- 400 IM – Rex Maurer, Texas, 3:34.19
- 100 Fly – Josh Liendo, Florida, 43.23
- 200 Free – Luke Hobson, Texas, 1:29.34
- 100 Breast – Julian Smith, Florida, 49.51
- 100 Back – Jonny Marshall, Florida, 43.73
- 400 Medley Relay – Florida, 2:55.66
- 1650 Free – David Johnston, Texas, 14:26.00
- 200 Back – Hubert Kos, Texas, 1:35.72
- 100 Free – Jordan Crooks, Tennessee, 40.26
- 200 Breast – Matt Fallon, Penn, 1:48.85
- 200 Fly – Luca Urlando, Georgia, 1:37.17
- 400 Free Relay – Tennessee, 2:42.41
FULL QUALIFYING PROCESS – INDIVIDUALS
The NCAA invites the same number of overall swimmers every year. 270 men and 322 women make the meet annually. Depending on how many of those 270/322 athletes qualify in multiple events, the numbers can range some as to how many entries in each event get invited.
The simple part: “A” qualifiers get in automatically. Hit an “A” cut, and you’re set. Then the NCAA fills in the remaining spots with the next-fastest “B” cuts.
Here’s a step-by-step process for how the NCAA selects the 270 men and 322 women for each year’s invite list:
1. 35 of the men’s spots and 41 of the women’s spots are set aside for divers, who qualify for the meet at zone competitions closer the NCAA Championships. That leaves 235 men’s spots and 281 for the women.
2. Every “A” cut put up this season is added.
3. The next fastest swimmers in each event are added until every event has the same number of entries. For example, if the 50 free were to have the most “A” cuts of any event with 10, then every other event would get swimmers with the top 10 fastest times in.
4. Finally, one entry is added to each event to keep the entries per event even. This process is repeated until all of the swimming spots (235 for men, 281 for women) are filled. Keep in mind that as more rows are added, swimmers will start to double and triple up. The #1 seed in the 200 back might be the #15 seed in the 100 back – as the 15th row of swimmers is added to each event, he’ll be added to the 100 back list, but won’t take up another one of the 281 invite spots, as he already has his official invite.
5. The final row of swimmers added won’t come out exactly even. In the final row, the swimmers with entry times closest to the NCAA “A” cut will get added first, and when the 235th man or 281st woman is added, the process stops. So the 100 fly could have 38 men and the 200 fly 39 men – that would mean the 39th 200 flyer was closer to the NCAA “A” than the 39th 100 flyer and therefore won the ‘tie-breaker’ for the final spot.
Let’s give the UNC men some major credit. I did not see this coming at all from them this year. They have more individual qualifiers than Georgia, USC, Michigan, A&M, Ohio State, UVA, Auburn, Alabama, etc. The program is definitely on the climb upwards. Congrats to the staff, and I wish them the best at the NCAAs—and this from a Buckeye fan.
Is this a USA swimming event? Why is there are USA Swimming watermark on all the pages?
Why is the list finalized before the diving ends?
Is this final, or is there another potential round of cuts after diver qualifications?
SS owes UNC men an apology article after the obnoxious UVA bias all season
Do y’all think UVA men are getting 12th as bad been predicated all season? 😂
These times are so fast!
Also I think they should have an extra day at the end where swimmers do timed finals 50s of each stroke and 100 IM. (Each swimmer gets 2 entries) to see how fast they would go at those events.
We are getting very, very close to a man going 18.99 in the 50 free and not even getting to swim it at NCAAs. And we’re already at the point where a man going 41.99 in the 100 free doesn’t.