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 three alternates for the 2025 Men’s NCAA Division I Championships—LSU’s Stepan Goncharov, UNLV’s Daniel Nicusan, 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. 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, Nicusan, 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).
Fifth-year Daniel Nicusan is now the first UNLV swimmer to qualify for this year’s championships. He makes 18 mid-major swimmers qualified for the championships and is entered in the 200 IM (50th), 100 breaststroke (29th), and 200 breaststroke (30th).
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
Below is the updated alternates list. Note that based on SwimSwam’s math from the pre-selection psych sheet, the next swimmer on the list should be Cal’s Matthew Chai. However, he’s from Cal and since the program has already reached the maximum number of swimmers, the next swimmer that will be invited to the championships if there’s a scratch is NC State’s Chase Mueller, which is reflected on the NCAA’s official alternates list.
| 30 | Mueller, | Chase | North Carolina State | 4:14.16 | 0.9861504564 |
| 30 | Saldo, | Gustavo | Louisville | 1:41.65 | 0.9842597147 |
| 30 | Wight, | Gavin | Indiana | 45.30 | 0.9818984547 |
| 30 | Nagy, | Marton | Brown | 1:42.69 | 0.9811081897 |
| 30 | Bretzmann, | Peter | Florida | 1:53.08 | 0.9785107888 |
Can Cal scratch someone, get Matthew Chai into the meet, then scratch someone else?
Chai is already scratched out completely so they can’t re-enter him
It’ll prob be Freddy Klein from Cal 😩
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.
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?
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
Isn’t Sam Cambell, OSU, in the alternates list?