Revisiting NCAA Recruit Rankings: Women’s High School Class of 2022

Each summer, college swimming fans look forward to recruiting – the lifeblood of any NCAA swim program. Since 2012, we’ve been ranking down the top NCAA prospects in the nation from each recruiting class. But sports are inherently unpredictable, and even the most sure-fire prospect can go awry or completely change their role over four years.

As we do each year, we’ll look back at the high school class of 2022, which just finished four years of college eligibility this spring.

First, a few notes:

• Most of the data we’re tracking here deals with NCAA scoring. Obviously, some swimmers are great assets for their teams in dual meets and conference competition without ever being national factors. While we don’t discount the impact of those types of swimmers, the difference in competition between various teams’ dual meet schedules and conference meets makes NCAA scoring the best “apples to apples” comparisons between swimmers.
• Relays are another point of contention, as a swimmer in a strong program has more opportunities for NCAA relays, though they also have more competition for those relay spots. We’ve left relay results out of the data below, except where specifically indicated. That, too, gives us a fairer comparison between athletes.
• We don’t rank diving recruits, but we have started to track individual diving scoring, which is helpful in determining how much of an impact a diver is likely to have on NCAA finish.
• We did our best to scour NCAA results over the past four-plus years, but it’s certainly possible we made a mistake in compiling our data. If you spot an error, please respectfully let us know in the comment section so we can update our work!

We only include domestic recruits in our recruit rankings, as it’s often harder to predict if and when an international recruit will join the NCAA, and which class they should be ranked with. However, we’ve gone back through and tallied up all individual scorers that roughly fit into this class – international and domestic.

REVISITING OUR TOP 20

Check out this post for our analysis of the top 20 recruits in the high school class of 2022. For the sake of being the most accurate in terms of gauging a swimmer’s pre-college ability, we’re using the re-ank of the class after their senior year of high school rather than the original ranks from their junior seasons.

Here’s a look at our top 20 recruits, plus how many individual points they scored at NCAAs in each of their four years:

Note: we’ve made an effort to put a dash (–) in a season in which an athlete didn’t compete (or was cut short due to injury) rather than “no invite”. If you see an error please let us know in the comments.

The Hits: 

• Despite redshirting the 2023-24 season after transferring to Virginia, Claire Curzan is still the top point scorer from this high school class, with just three NCAA Championship appearances, having scored 165 out of a possible 180 points. She has never lost the 200 back at NCAAs, winning it with Stanford as a freshman in 2023, and then in back-to-back seasons with Virginia, she’s swept both backstroke events while recording runner-up finishes in the 50 free (2025) and 100 fly (2026) to score 57 points.
• Steadily building throughout her four years at Stanford and evolving into one of the best swimmers in the nation was Lucy Bell, who was ranked 10th coming out of high school but sits 2nd in terms of NCAA points after four seasons. Bell scored 14 points as a freshman, then earned 40 as a sophomore, when she placed 3rd in the 400 IM, 4th in the 200 IM and won the consolation final of the 200 fly. Incredibly, after having never swum the 200 breast through her first two years of college, she won the national title in the event as a junior in 2025, and then in her senior year, she repeated in the event while adding another win in the 200 IM. Also earning a runner-up finish in the 400 IM, Bell scored 57 points, tying Curzan for second-most in the entire meet.
• Among the other top-10 recruits, the only one who scored at NCAAs all four seasons was NC State’s Kennedy Noble, who finishes her career with 81. Noble peaked as a sophomore, scoring 42 points in 2024, and then finished things off this season with 11, placing 9th in the 200 back.
• Lydia Jacoby, the #3 recruit in the class, won an Olympic gold medal one year before she entered college, meaning it wasn’t a huge surprise when she opted to turn pro after just two seasons at Texas. The Alaska native won the 100 breast NCAA title as a freshman, scoring a total of 26 points, and then produced 23 more in her sophomore year to score 49 for her abbreviated career.
• Fourth-ranked Kayla Wilson was a consistent scorer for Stanford through her junior year, hitting double-digit points all three years, and despite not scoring as a senior, she still qualified for NCAAs and contributed on the team’s 6th-place finishing 800 free relay.
• Stanford’s Charlotte Hook, ranked #2 in the class, battled injuries throughout her career and, despite sitting out of the 2024-25 season, still scored 26 points over three years. She made the ‘A’ final of the 200 fly as a freshman, placing 6th, and then came back with a solid 9th-place showing in the event this past season as a senior.
• The top scorer among ranked recruits who weren’t in the top 10 was Duke’s Kaelyn Gridley, who scored double-digit points all four years and hit 20-plus in three of them. She finished no lower than 6th in the 200 breast throughout her NCAA career, culminating with a 3rd-place finish this past season. Gridley also finished 8th in the 100 breast in 2025 and then narrowly missed a second swim this season, placing 9th.
• Fellow breaststroker Emma Weber was a surprise qualifier for the 2024 U.S. Olympic team, but it wasn’t until this season that she scored top-eight points in both breast events at NCAAs. After placing 8th in the 100 breast as a freshman, Weber was in the consolation final of the 100 and 200 at the 2024 and 2025 NCAAs, but stepped up and took 7th in the 100 and 8th in the 200 breast in 2026 for a career-high 26 points with Virginia.
• Indiana’s Kristina Paegle put points on the board in all four seasons and was a key relay contributor for the Hoosiers. She scored in the 50 free every year of her career, and did so in the 100 free three straight times, only missing out as a senior, when she placed 27th. However, she more than made up for it, contributing 20.9/46.9 relay splits for IU a few weeks ago.
• The only Honorable Mention recruit who scored individual points was Virginia’s Zoe Skirboll, who cracked the top 16 for the first time as a senior, placing 11th in the 200 breast and 13th in the 100 breast. Unfortunately, due to the removal of ‘B’ finals this season, that meant she didn’t get to swim any NCAA finals during her career.

The Misses: 

• USC’s Justina Kozan and Virginia’s Carly Novelline, both ranked in the top 10, only managed five points throughout their careers, though both managed to hit the board as seniors. Kozan largely struggled to have her fastest swims come at NCAAs each season, though she picked up a top-16 finish in the 500 free last year and the 200 fly and 400 IM this past season. Novelline had her first scoring swim come this season in the 100 fly, setting a new best time of 51.03 to place 12th.
• Wisconsin’s Blair Stoneburg competed at NCAAs all four years, qualifying individually in three of them, but never managed to crack the points as the #7 recruit.
• Our 17th through 19th-ranked recruits failed to score any NCAA points throughout their careers, as did all of our Honorable Mentions outside of Skirboll.

OTHER IMPACTFUL RECRUITS IN THE HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 2022

Of course, not every contributor comes from our top 20 list. Some swimmers develop extremely well in college. Some swimmers slip under our radar, or don’t prove to be late bloomers once they hit the NCAA.

We dug through NCAA results to find the best American swimmers from this class to not appear on our top 20 list. Again, it’s not always easy to account for redshirt years, gap years or mistakes in an athlete’s listed class each season. So if we forgot anyone, please let us know in the comments.

Standouts: 

• Louisville sprinter Julia Dennis was the top domestic recruit who went unranked coming out of high school, building through her freshman and sophomore years before taking the next step the last two seasons. She made the ‘A’ final of the 50 free (3rd) and 100 free (8th) as a junior in 2025, and then this past season, made the top eight in both events again, placing 5th in the 50 free and 8th in the 100 free. That gave Dennis 52 combined points in her junior and senior seasons for 71 total.
• Nebraska’s Gena Jorgensen has scored in the 1650 three straight seasons after placing 28th as a freshman, steadily climbing from 8th in 2024, to 6th in 2025, up to 4th this past season in a new best time of 15:42.94. She also cracked the top 16 in the 500 free in her senior year, setting a PB of 4:38.77 to place 14th and score a total of 18 points.
• Stanford’s Gigi Johnson and UCLA’s Rosie Murphy both exceeded 20 points in their senior seasons after neither earned an invite as a freshman. Johnson was 4th in the 100 fly, 13th in the 100 free and 14th in the 200 free this past season to score a career-high 22 points and bring her total to 40 over her career. Murphy, who only scored seven points combined through her first three seasons, was on fire this season, setting a new best time of 4:02.22 in the prelims of the 400 IM at NCAAs, making the final before ultimately placing 7th (4:03.55). She also placed 8th in the 200 IM and set a PB in the 200 back to take 12th, scoring a total of 28 points for the Bruins.
• Michigan’s Brady Kendall is another senior who had a very strong season, setting best times across the board at Big Tens en route to winning the conference title in the 50 free, placing 2nd in the 100 fly and contributing to three relay victories. At NCAAs, she scored 12 points with a 7th-place finish in the 50 free, a similar output to her sophomore (11.5) and junior (9) years, to give her 32.5 for her career.
• Breaststrokers Mackenzie Miller Lung (31) and Joleigh Crye (30) finished their careers with impressive overall point totals as mid-major recruits (though the schools they committed to, BYU and Cincinnati, are now both in the Big 12). Miller Lung exploded for a 29-point junior year, placing 2nd in the 200 breast, but only mustered two this season after transferring to Fresno State. Crye placed 4th in the 100 breast last season and followed up by placing 8th this season (after setting a best time of 57.90 in the prelims) for back-to-back seasons of double-digit points.
• Pitt’s Claire Jansen had a phenomenal senior year, scoring 27 points at the NCAA Championships after having only put one on the board through her first three seasons. Jansen had breakthrough swims in the 100 back (50.32) and 200 back (1:49.99) at the ACC Championships, placing 4th and 3rd, respectively, and then followed up by taking 7th in the 100 back (50.67) and 4th in the 200 back (1:49.10) at NCAAs. Previously, her only scoring swim came last year when she placed 16th in the 100 back.
• Scoring for the first time in their senior year were Louisville’s Mia Cheatwood, Penn’s Sydney Bergstrom and Anna Moehn, Arizona’s Eleni Gewalt and Duke’s Tatum Wall, while Virginia’s Bryn Greenwaldt put nine points on the board and won a relay title in her first year in Division I after transferring from D2 Augustana.

INTERNATIONAL RECRUITS

Standouts: 

• South African native Aimee Canny was one of just three swimmers to eclipse 100 points from this class, as the Virginia Cavalier averaged just over 20 points per year in her first three seasons before doubling that number as a senior. Canny placed 2nd in the 200 breast, 6th in the 200 IM and 8th in the 400 IM to score 41 points, not to mention she led off Virginia’s winning 800 free relay in a 200 free PB of 1:41.68 and split 56.63 on their victorious 400 medley relay. That gave Canny 103 points for her career, trailing only Claire Curzan and Lucy Bell in this class.
• Virginia Tech’s Carmen Weiler Sastre had a breakthrough 25-point outing last season as a junior, and though she wasn’t quite on the same form this year, the Spanish native still managed to score six points after placing 11th in the 200 free to bring her career tally to 31.
• Alabama’s Emily Jones, an Australian native, scored the first two points of her career last season as a junior, placing 15th in the 100 back, and she followed up by cracking the final this season in the event. Jones set a new best time of 50.47 in the prelims to qualify for the final in 7th, ultimately placing 8th (50.97). She was also a key relay contributor for the Crimson Tide’s top 10 finishing 200 free, 400 free, 200 medley and 400 medley relays.
• Breaking through and scoring for the first time as seniors were LSU’s Sofia Sartori (ITA), Georgia’s Ieva Maluka (LTU) and UC San Diego’s Chloe Braun (FRA).

DIVING RECRUITS

Standouts: 

• Minnesota’s Viviana Del Angel has been a consistent scorer for the Golden Gophers throughout her career, having finished no worse than 4th on platform, including winning the title in 2024. She also scored on 1-meter (13th) and 3-meter (15th) this season for a career-high 21 points, bringing her total to 76 to lead all divers.
• Purdue’s Daryn Wright was the top-scoring diver in the class over the last two seasons, following up an 18-point sophomore campaign with back-to-back 26-point showings to bring her total to 70, nearly catching Del Angel’s despite not scoring in her freshman year. Wright was 4th on platform and 8th in the 3-meter event last year, and then snagged a 2nd-place finish on platform this past season and also took 9th on 3-meter.
• Also scoring double-digit points this season were Ohio State’s Lena Hentschel, Michigan’s Kiarra Milligan and Stanford’s Emilie Moore. Hentschel’s 13 points, which included a 7th-place finish on 3-meter, gave her 20 for her career, while Milligan had a pair of top-12 finish to score 11 points and bring her total to 24. Moore scored for the first time in her senior year, placing 11th on platform and 13th on 3-meter to score 10 points.
• Outside of Del Angel, UCLA’s Eden Cheng is the only other diver who has scored in each of her four seasons of eligibility, finishing 15th, 9th, 10th and 10th on platform for 25 career points.

Other ‘Seniors’ This Season

There were six competitors at the 2026 Women’s NCAA Championships who were classified as seniors but weren’t members of this high school class, primarily due to redshirt seasons.

• Stanford’s Torri Huske redshirted the 2023-24 Olympic year, and after scoring 54 points last year as a junior, went a perfect three-for-three individually this season, winning the 50 free, 100 free and 100 fly. With 60 points this year, she scored a total of 207 through four NCAA appearances.
• South Carolina’s Sophie Verzyl was a member of the high school class of 2021, but redshirted the 2023-24 campaign. The diver scored 37 points this season after winning the 3-meter title and placing 2nd on 1-meter.
• Miami (FL)’s Chiara Pellacani, another diver who redshirted in 2023-24, scored 35 points this season, highlighted by a win in the 1-meter event, to bring her career total to a massive 86 points.
• Letitia Sim, also a member of the high school class of 2021 who redshirted in 2023-24 for the Olympics, scored 27 points this season for Michigan, nearly doubling her career total (29) to bring it up to 56.
• FSU diver Kayleigh Clark, who redshirted the 2022-23 season, scored 16 points this season after taking 3rd on platform, a massive improvement after she was 19th in 2025.
• Margo O’Meara, the former Duke diver who redshirted 2022-23 and transferred to Miami (FL) this past offseason, scored 13 points this year after taking 6th on 1-meter, bringing her career total up to 45.
• Texas A&M’s Kaitlyn Owens, who didn’t compete in the 2022-23 season, scored 4.5 points this year after placing 12th in the 100 back.

ALL INDIVIDUAL SCORERS IN THE CLASS

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