Reviewing SwimSwam’s 2026 NCAA Event Predictions – Women’s Edition

2026 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships

• Wednesday, March 18 – Saturday, March 21, 2026
• McAuley Aquatic Center, Atlanta, GA
• Championship Central
• Preview Index
• Psych Sheet
• Live Results

The Women’s and Men’s NCAA Division I Championships are arguably the most unpredictable meets of the year, but we do our best to forecast what’s to come in each event before chaos takes over on two Wednesday nights every March.

• 2026 Women’s NCAA Preview Index

In the women’s meet, which wrapped up just over a week ago, we correctly picked seven of the eight finalists (or top eight finishers) in 10 of the 18 events, while we were a perfect eight-for-eight in one race.

The relays were a strong point in our previews, as we picked the top eight correctly in the 400 free relay and went seven-for-eight in three of the four other team events.

In two cases, Louisville in the 200 free relay and Cal in the 200 medley relay, one of our top-eight picks was disqualified after initially posting a time that would’ve made the top eight.

We picked six of the eight finalists in six events—interestingly enough, all four 100s and the 400 IM, plus the 200 free relay. The event we did the worst in was the 200 breast, where we only got five of the eight finalists correct.

Overall, in our previews, we picked 120 of the 144 finalists or top eight finishers correctly (83.3%), a significant improvement from last year, where we went 107/144 (74.31%).

Below, find our top eight picks in each event, along with where the swimmer/relay team finished. We’ve also included who finished in the top eight we didn’t predict under “Moving In,” and the number in the bottom right of each event indicates how well we did in picking the top eight.

1650 Freestyle

200 Medley Relay

800 Freestyle Relay

100 Butterfly

400 IM

200 Freestyle

100 Breaststroke

200 Freestyle Relay

100 Backstroke

200 Breaststroke

500 Freestyle

50 Freestyle

400 Medley Relay

200 IM

100 Freestyle

200 Butterfly

200 Backstroke

400 Freestyle Relay

TAKEAWAYS

• Texas led all teams with five top-eight finishes that we didn’t predict at Women’s NCAAs, three of which came in relays. Seeded outside of the top eight in all three, the Longhorns posted the fastest time out of the early heats in the 200 medley (1:33.38), 200 free (1:26.42) and 400 medley (3:24.64) relays, ultimately placing 5th overall in the 400 medley while setting a new program record and adding a pair of 7th-place finishes in the two 200 relays. Texas also placed 2nd in the 800 free relay (6:46.91) and 3rd in the 400 free relay (3:07.02), both in school record fashion, giving them 142 relay points after they were seeded for 107.
• Texas also had Piper Enge place 5th in the 100 breast after not being selected in the top eight, while Campbell Stoll cracked the ‘A’ final of the 100 fly (7th) after not being picked. Perhaps even more notably, Stoll won the title in the 200 fly after she was picked to finish 4th.
• Texas freestyle was on fire throughout the meet, with freshman Nikolett Padar notably moving up to finish 3rd in the 200 free after we picked her 7th. She was also the top seed out of the prelims, and led off the Texas 800 free relay (that finished 2nd after they were picked 5th) with a time of 1:40.30 to rank her #6 all-time in the 200 free. The Longhorns’ 400 free relay that finished 3rd was also a big jump up after they were picked 7th. That performance saw them finish just four points back of Stanford for 2nd in the team race.
• The Cal women had four swimmers make ‘A’ finals we didn’t predict, including freshmen Teagan O’Dell (400 IM) and Annie Jia (100 fly), who placed 3rd and 5th, respectively. Sophomore Mary-Ambre Moluh claimed 6th in the 100 free after not being picked in the top eight, while fellow French Golden Bear Lilou Ressencourt took 8th in the 200 fly.
• The two swimmers who landed multiple top-eight finishes after being predicted for none were a pair of seniors, UCLA’s Rosie Murphy and Pitt’s Claire Jansen.
• Murphy, fresh off setting best times and earning top-three finishes across the board at the Big Ten Championships, set a big PB of 4:02.22 in the prelims of the 400 IM to make the final, ultimately placing 7th in 4:03.55. She also cracked the 200 IM final, going on to finish 8th, while during the Saturday prelim session she took on a daunting double, hitting a new PB in the 200 back shortly after the 200 IM to finish 12th and score in all three of her events.
• Jansen, who, like Murphy, set new best times in all three of her individual events at her conference championship meet, made the 100 back final, finishing 7th after we didn’t pick her in the top eight. On the last day of the meet, she followed up by sneaking into the 200 back final in 8th (1:50.31), and then dropped a new best time of 1:49.10 in the final to take 4th.
• In terms of winners, we went 15/18 (improving on 13/18 last year), with the misses coming in the 500 free, 200 IM and 200 fly.
• Cal freshman Claire Weinstein claimed the 500 free title over defending champion Jillian Cox, two nights after Cox ran down Weinstein in the 1650 free.
• Stanford senior Lucy Bell won the 200 IM, while our pre-race pick Anastasia Gorbenko was 4th, and the Cal duo of O’Dell and Mia West finished 2nd and 3rd.
• And as previously mentioned, Texas’ Stoll snapped the 200 fly title away from Indiana freshman Alex Shackell on the last 50, while our winner pick, Michigan junior Hannah Bellard, was 3rd.
• There were five swimmers we picked to finish in the top eight who didn’t end up scoring at all. Leah Shackley and Brady Kendall in the 100 fly, Jillian Crooks in the 100 back, and both Eneli Jefimova and Mackenzie Lung in the 200 breast. Jefimova was just one session removed from winning the 100 breast title when she had an off swim in the 200 breast heats, while Lung was the 2025 runner-up in the event. Another notable miss was Miranda Grana, who we picked to finish 4th in the 100 back, and although she still scored, she ended up back in 14th.

See how our final selections in the team standings turned out here.