Pre-Selection Psych Sheets Released For 2026 Men’s NCAA Championships

2026 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships

• Dates: Wednesday, March 25–Saturday, March 28
• Location: McAuley Aquatic Center, Atlanta, GA
• Defending Champions: Texas (1x)
• Championship Central
• Pre-Cut Psych Sheets
• Live Results
• Live Video

The pre-selection psych sheets for the 2026 Men’s NCAA Division I Swimming & Diving Championships dropped on Tuesday morning, one day before the official list of qualifiers will be revealed.

This initial release of the psych sheets tells us which events swimmers have opted to enter for the competition, and allows us to run the numbers and project where the cutline will fall and how the meet will score.

The competition is scheduled for March 25-28 at Georgia Tech’s McAuley Aquatic Center—the same site as the women’s meet one week prior.

• See the pre-selection entry sheets here.

Note that swimmers with a “W” beside their entry times on the psych sheets are the automatic qualifiers.

We’ll be breaking down some of the notable entries throughout the day, and with the new schedule, several top names have taken on new lineups.

Notable Entries:

• Hubert Kos (Texas) – 100 fly, 100 back, 200 back
• Josh Liendo (Florida) – 100 fly, 50 free, 100 free
• Ilya Kharun (ASU) – 100 fly, 50 free, 200 fly
• Rex Maurer (Texas) – 400 IM, 500 free, 200 back
• Luca Urlando (Georgia) – 100 fly, 100 back, 200 fly
• Thomas Heilman (Virginia) – 100 fly, 50 free, 200 fly
• Maximus Williamson (Virginia) – 200 free, 50 free, 200 IM
• Will Modglin (Texas) – 100 breast, 100 back, 200 IM
• Nate Germonprez (Texas) – 100 breast, 200 breast, 200 IM
• Baylor Nelson (Texas) – 400 IM, 200 breast, 200 IM
• Campbell McKean (Texas) – 100 breast, 200 breast, 200 IM
• Owen McDonald (Indiana) – 200 free, 100 back, 200 IM
• Ahmed Jaouadi (Florida) – 1650 free, 200 free, 500 free
• Ahmed Hafnaoui (Florida) – 1650 free, 500 free
• Zalan Sarkany (Indiana) – 1650 free, 400 IM, 500 free
• Krzysztof Chmielewski (USC) – 100 fly, 200 free, 500 free

Texas senior Hubert Kos scored the maximum 60 points last season after sweeping the 100 back, 200 back and 200 IM, but this season, the Hungarian native will only be defending his titles in the two backstroke events. Due to the proximity of the 200 back and 200 IM on the schedule, Kos has opted not to race the medley event and instead will race the 100 fly, where he’s the 68th seed with his season-best time of 45.82—though he’s been as fast as 44.05, which would rank him 6th on the psych sheets.

Kos’ Longhorn teammate Will Modglin has gone the other way, dropping the 200 back from his lineup and opting to race the 200 IM on Day 4 of the competition. Modglin was 8th last year in the 200 back, but was disqualified in the ‘A’ final of the 200 IM, so he’ll be out for a redemption swim of sorts in the medley event, which has been blown wide open with Kos out of the field.

The American Record holder in the 100 back, Modglin keeps that event on his schedule while adding the 100 breast, where he’s the 8th seed after hitting a best time of 50.91 in November at the Texas Hall of Fame Invite.

Another swimmer who had to make the choice between the 200 back and 200 IM was Indiana senior Owen McDonald, who has opted for the medley event, where he comes in as the top seed after placing 3rd last season. Along with the 100 back, McDonald has added the 200 free to his schedule this season.

Florida senior Josh Liendo has never deviated from his event lineup throughout his college career, coming in seeking a fourth straight NCAA title in the 100 free along with a third consecutive victory in the 100 fly. The Canadian native also won the 50 free as a sophomore in 2024, when he went three-for-three and scored 60 points.

Texas’ Rex Maurer matched Liendo with 57 individual points last season and unlike his Florida counterpart, Maurer will have a new event lineup this year, moving away from the 1650 free and adding the 200 back. He will try and defend his titles in the 500 free and 400 IM.

Another notable change made by a reigning national champion is Luca Urlando opting to contest the 100 back for the first time individually at NCAAs after breaking the U.S. Open, NCAA and American Records leading off Georgia’s 400 medley relay in 2022. Urlando’s mark of 43.35 has since been broken, but the addition of this event to his lineup is certainly an exciting prospect. The Georgia Bulldog will also race the 100 and 200 fly, coming as the defending champ and all-time record holder in the latter.

The University of Virginia freshman duo of Thomas Heilman and Maximus Williamson will go head-to-head in one event, the 50 free, but as expected, we’ll also see Heilman in the 100 and 200 fly and Williamson in the 200 free and 200 IM in their NCAA debuts.

Other swimmers set to compete in their first NCAA Championship meet include Florida’s Tunisian duo of Ahmed Jaouadi and Ahmed Hafnaoui, who combined have one Olympic gold medal, three LC World Championship title and one SC World Championship title in the men’s distance freestyle events. Jaouadi will take on a full program with entries in the 200 free, 500 free and 1650 free, while Hafnaoui will only race the 500 and 1650, giving him two full days of between races.

USC’s Krzysztof Chmielewski, who was 6th last year in the 200 fly, has dropped that event from his lineup, opting to prioritize the 500 free on the last day of competition. He’ll also race the 200 free and 100 fly.

TOP SEEDS IN EACH EVENT

• 1650 Free – Zalan Sarkany (Indiana), 14:23.85
• 200 Medley Relay – Florida, 1:20.03
• 800 Free Relay – Texas, 6:06.24
• 100 Fly – Josh Liendo (Florida), 43.06
• 400 IM – Baylor Nelson (Texas), 3:34.83
• 200 Free – Koby Bujak-Upton (Tennessee), 1:30.77
• 100 Breast – Nate Germonprez (Texas), 49.71
• 200 Free Relay – Arizona State, 1:12.98
• 100 Back – Will Modglin (Texas), 43.26
• 200 Breast – Yamato Okadome (Cal), 1:48.87
• 500 Free – Rex Maurer (Texas), 4:08.46
• 50 Free – Josh Liendo (Florida) / Ilya Kharun (Arizona State), 18.40
• 400 Medley Relay – Arizona State, 2:57.48
• 200 IM – Owen McDonald (Indiana), 1:40.11
• 100 Free – Jere Hribar (LSU), 40.42
• 200 Fly – Luca Urlando (Georgia), 1:36.
• 200 Back – Jonny Marshall (Florida), 1:36.38
• 400 Free Relay – Arizona State, 2:42.15

SELECTION PROCESS

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 for how many entries get invited in each event

Things look a bit different this year than we’ve seen in the past after the NCAA implemented a new qualifying window for individual conference championships that meet the standard.

Our math told us that 75 women and 86 men earned automatic berths into the NCAA Championships (including Power conference swimmers).

The new qualifying procedure, in its simplest terms:

• Step 1: Divers go in (35 men, 41 women)
• Step 2: All individual swimmers who won a conference championship AND hit the Qualifying Standard in that event get the auto-bid.
• Step 3: (Steps 3 & 4 are similar to years past) Swimmers are added one at a time in each event, keeping the number of qualifiers in each event the same* until the entry cap is reached (235 swimmers for men, 281 swimmers for women).
• Step 4: When the entry cap is reached, you wind up with a ‘final row’ in each event. For women, that’s usually around #40, for men, that’s usually around #30 in each event. Swimmers already qualified in step two are now guaranteed their spot, while the rest are ranked by their time as a percentage of the qualifying standard, with the fastest times added one at a time until the cap is met.

The 2026 Men’s NCAA Championships will kick off Wednesday, March 25 and run through Saturday, March 28, at Georgia Tech’s McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta.