2026 Collegiate Club Swimming National Championships
- April 10-12, 2026
- Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, North Carolina
- Short Course Yards (25 yards), Prelims/Finals
- Meet Central
- Live Stream
- Entries/Results
The Collegiate Club Swimming National Championships will head to North Carolina for the first time this weekend, and North Carolina colleges have turned up big for the meet.
The University of North Carolina, specifically, which finished 44th in the men’s standings at last year’s Collegiate Club Swimming Nationals, have become a national force in a hurry – thanks in part to the addition of a number of former Power 4 varsity athletes.
That includes Walker Davis, who swam for UNC’s varsity from 2021 through 2025. A former Virginia High School State Champion, Davis finished 25th in the 100 back at the 2025 NCAA Championships. He has continued to compete since graduation, including at the World Cup in the fall, and he will now take on Collegiate Club Nationals as the top seed in four races: the 100 back (46.69), 50 free (20.00), 50 back (21.18), and 100 free (44.56).
Another former varsity swimmer Jack Donovan is entered in the 50 free, 100 free, and 200 free. He has raced at many of the same meets as Davis since finishing his college eligibility in March, though this is an event shift for him – he was more of a middle distance/IM swimmer for the varsity.
Other former UNC varsity swimmers at this meet include James Bennison, Harrison Gardner, and Everett Oehler.
The team also adds to their roster Bence Burton, a North Carolina High School State Champion last year who swam 54.71 in the 100 breast as a senior and opted to go the club swimming route.
UNC’s roster of 31 athletes at the meet is more than 50% higher than the roster of 20 they brought last year.
Other programs with big rosters include Virginia, which is bringing 37 women and 26 men and got a social media shoutout from Olympians Gretchen and Alex Walsh ahead of the meet. They won the women’s title at this meet last year.
Cal Poly, which is bringing 49 athletes a year after cutting their varsity program. The Mustangs already had a robust collegiate club swimming program, and their roster has been boosted by the addition of former members of the varsity squad.
The defending men’s champions from Purdue will bring a smaller roster of 38 this year. Another traditional club swimming power Georgia Tech will also bring a smaller roster this year – 36 athletes as compared to the 42 that won the combined scoring title last season.
I’d rather deal with kids who were swimming varsity somewhere and then got cut than a school like Liberty who “only has a men’s club team” yet are recruited, funded (for both “academic” scholarships and team needs), outfitted, coached, and swim as an under-the- radar varsity team. Their football programs even show their men’s swim team on a big spread with all of their official varsity sports so they are definitely saying the quiet part out loud. I can only assume it is to avoid Title IX issues but it makes the qualifying times and ability to place highly harder and harder for other young men who don’t have those resources. (Even the ability to swim every practice thanks to… Read more »
That’s Alex and Gretchen in the photo right?
i hate UNC. if this was any other school i’d be chill with it. but unc is the worst! they suck at everything and they’re using varsity swimmers to get a club swim title to compensate. disgusting behavior.
These UNC athletes are not varsity swimmers. Apart from Walker Davis the rest of these athletes were unfortunately and unfairly removed from the program by Mark Gangloff as a result of House vs NCAA roster limits. I 100% guarantee that they would all much rather still be associated with varsity program however that opportunity was unjustly stripped from them. Why should they be forced into retirement or punished for pursuing a life long passion when this is the only opportunity left for them to participate in. You can make the argument that they could have transferred and carried out the rest of their eligibility elsewhere, however you need to consider, is giving up a degree and education from UNC Chapel… Read more »
I heard Harrison didn’t get cut but retired and was promoted to manager 🤷♂️
Is there a livestream?
Let’s go CAL POLY!!! So many of the former varsity team are now on club team so it should be fun races to see!
Added the link above.
I swam at this meet in 2017 in Atlanta.
It’s cool seeing high profile athletes join with average college level swimmers who never been on a varsity college squad!!!
In theory this is wonderful – swimmers getting another chance to race. However it hurts the CCS athletes who can’t swim on these collegate teams and just want a fun club swim experience while still getting to swim super fast. It’s a discussion CCS needs to be having, rules on eligibility to keep the league from turning into an NCAA grad dominated league…that’s what regular masters meets are for. I think there’s a right way where we can still let these swimmers swim, we just haven’t found it yet. Some of this is fallout from NIL and a couple of the UNC swimmers were cut from their team, could be an interesting case study for swimswam to look into.
Agreed. Seeing these cuts get much faster year after year basically means that finals are dominated by varsity grads, rather than true club athletes — but the House settlement that left many off varsity rosters leaves a trickle effect down to the club level, and negatively affects those that want to enjoy themselves. Please look more into this issue!!!
It is what it is. We can’t control who joins club swimming. Maybe they quit, maybe they were cut, maybe they decided never to swim at the collegiate level bc of their major… but they’re swimming now and it’s what they enjoy and it’s fun. Good for them!
Yeah this is not new for club sports. Trying to overlegislate it can suck the fun out of it too.
At the end of the day, if everyone’s just there to have fun and enjoy swimming, “GET RID OF THE FASTER SWIMMERS” should not be the gap between enjoying swimming and not.
I’m a masters swimmer and when I was in my 20s, I competed at 2 Masters Nationals where active Olympians showed up to compete for fun. In 20212, I got beat by Micah Lawrence in the 100 breast and in 2016, Katie Meili beat me in the 200 IM. Did it feel unfair that I had to race Olympians as a retired college swimmer who had a full time job and was only swimming 3 days a week? Sure it did! But they were eligible for the meet just like I was, so I dealt with it. If you’re eligible, you’re eligible and complicated rules to keep fast people out aren’t a good look.
THE whole concept sounds wonderful.
Would be nice to see some of the video of the races – links?
It’ll be streamed here: https://youtube.com/@mastersswimmingevents?si=b1acAZ0qfymDYbOP
Added the link above, thanks.
Mitch Kubina (0x State Champion, last seed in the 200 breaststroke) is also there. Let it be known!
Absolute legend
couldnt be you tho
well, it says “Not Mitch Kubina” as his username so I imagine it’s not him.
Legit hilarious