Scratches Bump 2 Alternates Into 2025 Men’s NCAA Championships

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 (updated)

The first two alternates for the 2025 Men’s NCAA Division I Championships—LSU’s Stepan Goncharov and Virginia Tech’s Luis Dominguez Calonge—will join their team’s roster after Cal and Texas made scratches to allow for their divers.

When the pre-selection psych sheets dropped on Tuesday, Mar. 11, Cal had 19 swimmers qualified for the championships and Texas had 18. The maximum roster for NCAAs is 18, meaning Cal had to cut one athlete even if the team was not planning to bring any divers. Texas was exactly at the roster cap, meaning it also had to make cuts to bring divers.

The updated psych sheets released Thursday, Mar. 14 revealed Texas had cut two swimmers, junior Manning Haskal and sophomore Brayden Taivassalo from the championship roster to add four divers.

Cal has dropped Luca Gissendaner, who was only entered in the 100 breaststroke, which puts the Golden Bears at 18 swimmers. More cuts will likely be on the way for Cal as divers Joshua Thai and Geoffrey Vavitsas qualified for NCAAs on the boards.

With these cuts, Goncharov and Dominguez Calonge have all punched their tickets to Federal Way. Goncharov was the first alternate after losing the second tie-breaker to Alex Santiago, but given Cal was over the roster limit, we expected him to be added to the meet. He’s entered in the 50 freestyle (41st), 100 backstroke (30th), and 100 freestyle (29th).

Dominguez Calonge making the meet gives Virginia Tech seven individual swimmers as they aim to defend a top ten finish. He’s entered in the 500 freestyle (42nd), 200 freestyle (30th), and 100 freestyle (73rd).

Updated Alternates List

Row Number Swimmer Team Event Time Tiebreaker Ratio
30 Sam Campbell Ohio State 1650 free 14:49.25 0.98639
30 Chase Mueller NC State 500 free 4:14.16 0.985956
30 Gustavo Saldo Louisville 200 fly 1:41.65 0.984008
30 Gavin Wight Indiana 100 back 45.3 0.981565
30 Marton Nagy Brown 200 IM 1:42.69 0.987044
30 Peter Bretzmann Florida 200 breast 1:53.08 0.978039

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RJM
6 hours ago

Can Cal scratch someone, get Matthew Chai into the meet, then scratch someone else?

SwimmerTX
Reply to  RJM
5 hours ago

Chai is already scratched out completely so they can’t re-enter him

Foreign Embassy
7 hours ago

It’ll prob be Freddy Klein from Cal 😩

NCSwimFan
Reply to  Foreign Embassy
6 hours ago

Tough spot for Cal but seems like the best option if they do end up making another cut – Klein is a freshman who is one of the last in the meet and swam a big PB in the 1650 to make the meet. He also wasn’t on the Cal ACCs roster. Luckily he’s a freshman so there’s still more chances to make NCAAs.

man of isle
8 hours ago

Nicusan was never on the alternate list but on the invitee list already, ABOVE the cut line, both on the 03/11th and the 03/13th PDFs. Why did he need to be added? What happened to Campbell?
https://swimswam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/di-men-championships-psych-sheet.pdf

Moreover the article mentions:

“will join their team’s roster after Cal and Texas made scratches to allow for their divers”
and
“More cuts will likely be on the way for Cal”
Which one is it? You can’t have it both ways. Cal either WILL make a scratch for the 2 divers or has already.

On the PDF, Cal has 18 swimmers. So it appears one will be cut?

Last edited 7 hours ago by man of isle
SaveCollegeSwimming
Reply to  man of isle
6 hours ago

Exactly! Nicusan was never an alternate. And the story mentions Chai from Cal being next alternate – but he’s not on list either. Campbell from Ohio State is. So does he get bumped up? Also, didnt they already do the cuts for Texas and Cal? Isn’t that why they got bumped up? Why would there be more

Big Ten
8 hours ago

Isn’t Sam Cambell, OSU, in the alternates list?

B1G Swim Fan
9 hours ago

What happened to Sam Campbell? He was the third alternate listed in the official psych sheets article

Admin
Reply to  B1G Swim Fan
4 hours ago

I think I’ve got it all squared away now. Sorry for the confusion.

About Sophie Kaufman

Sophie Kaufman

Sophie grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, which means yes, she does root for the Bruins, but try not to hold that against her. At 9, she joined her local club team because her best friend convinced her it would be fun. Shoulder surgery ended her competitive swimming days long ago, …

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