By Sophie Kaufman on SwimSwam
In our first version of this season’s faculty swimming digest, we joked about how the season was properly underway with out the NCAA releasing the time requirements for the 2026 NCAA DI Swimming and Diving Championships.
Properly, people, these time requirements lastly dropped this week. However that was removed from the one factor the NCAA did. Some weeks, it feels unattainable to suit every part that’s occurred within the NCAA into an acceptable size digest. That’s usually as a result of lots of swimmers popped off—a testomony to how briskly the league has been the previous a number of seasons and the way the normal arc of the school swimming season has been upended. There was lots of quick swimming this week, which we will definitely get to, however a lot of this week’s discourse has been dominated by the NCAA’s large bulletins.
NCAA Approves Modifications to 2026 DI Championships
This week, the NCAA accepted the proposed adjustments to the 2026 NCAA Division I Championships. This comes after the Faculty Swimming and Diving Coaches Affiliation of America (CSCAA) submitted a proposal to the NCAA Sport Oversight Fee in July with quite a few adjustments to the present format. That proposal was initially tabled in August, however has now been pushed via weeks after the season obtained underway with speedy implications.
Headline Modifications:
No ‘B’ finals—ninth via sixteenth place at the moment are scored straight out of prelims
New occasion lineup
A brand new qualification mannequin that can give occasion winners at convention championships automated qualification to the NCAA Championships so long as they’re underneath the ‘A’ time customary
Diving finals break up into three segments, award ceremonies moved out of the session
These adjustments are the NCAA’s try and modernize the NCAA swimming and diving scene in addition to create a extra simply digestible primetime broadcast. In response to the report, the adjustments “are strategically designed to raise the championship’s linear broadcast potential with out negatively impacting student-athletes” and that “marquee occasions will now anchor the ultimate days of competitors.” Central to the adjustments is the concept that each time athletes dive in, there must be a nationwide title on the road.
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As if that wasn’t sufficient change for the week, on Wednesday the NCAA Division I Administrative Committee has additionally formally adopted a proposal that will enable pupil athletes and athletic division workers to wager on skilled sports activities.
Extra Particulars About CSCAA Twin Meet Problem Revealed, Kyle Sockwell To Commentate
Let’s simply preserve the executive information rolling. Final spring, the CSCAA Twin Meet Problem was introduced. It incorporates a bracket-style format based mostly on the November CSCAA High 25 Twin Meet Ballot, and was one of some of those bracket-style meets—one of many newest efforts to reimagine the NCAA format—introduced round that point.
This week, the CSCAA introduced that Kyle Sockwell would be the in-house commentator for the competitors, which runs November 21-23 on the College of Tennessee. Sockwell has been one of many greatest names main the cost to make faculty twin meets extra thrilling and accessible.
The meet will function the internet hosting Volunteers in addition to the Arizona State Solar Devils, Michigan Wolverines, and Virginia Cavaliers, that means every energy convention can have one consultant. The #1 seed and the #4 seed will compete and the #2 and #3 seeds will race on the primary day of competitors. From there, the 2 winners will sq. off to kick off Day 2, and the 2 groups that misplaced will even go to battle. Then the loser of the winner-only meet will face the winner of the loser-only meet, after which on Day 3, there can be a championship twin meet together with a Third-place meet. Learn extra concerning the format, scoring, and occasion schedule right here.
Picture: CSCAA
In Different Information, Swimmers Went Quick This Week
Okay, let’s get again to the pool
First off, the Kennedi Dobson prepare is rolling for Georgia. On the Dawgs twin meet in opposition to the South Carolina Gamecocks, the freshman Dobson dropped a lifetime greatest 1:43.40 within the 200 freestyle. It’s her first time cracking the 1:44 barrier as she improved on the 1:44.07 she swam on the 2024 U.S. Open. Dobson additionally swam lifetime bests within the 500 (4:36.22) and 1000 freestyle (9:29.94).
Regardless of Dobson’s three wins, it was the Gamecock girls who got here out on high, 157 to 141, beating the Dawgs for the primary time since 1985. South Carolina’s divers have been key to the victory as they swept the rostrum on 3-meter and went 1-2-4 on the 1-meter board. South Carolina additionally gained all three 200s of stroke with NCAA finalist Amy Riordan successful the 200 backstroke (1:53.95), Jordan Agliano successful the 200 fly (1:56.68), and Delaney Franklin taking the 200 breaststroke (2:10.81). The Georgia males have been with out Luca Urlando however nonetheless took the win.
We talked about each swimmers final week, however Ilya Kharun and Bryn Greenwaldt proceed to impress early this season. Kharun shined vibrant on the Solar Devils residence meet in opposition to UNLV in entrance of a record-breaking crowd on the Mona Plummer Aquatic Middle. Earlier this season he showcased his early-season dash butterfly velocity. He stored that up with a pool-record 43.91 100 butterfly on the meet and an 18.91 50 butterfly break up that clocks in as fifth quickest in historical past. At this meet, he additionally flexed his 200 butterfly abilities, ripping a 1:37.94 200 butterfly, which is the eighth quickest 200-yard butterfly swim in occasion historical past.
Kharun now holds the seventh and eighth quickest occasions on the highest 10 listing, as the hassle was only a hundredth off the lifetime greatest 1:37.93 he posted at a 2024 twin meet.
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Switch Adam Chaney additionally put collectively a high 10 swim as he opened the Solar Devils’ 200 medley relay with a 20.20 50 backstroke. This ties Ryan Murphy for the fifth quickest 50 backstroke lead-off all-time and is .01 seconds off his lifetime greatest, a 20.19 from the 2022 NCAA Championships. That meet rewrote the 50 backstroke high 10 as Bjorn Seeliger (20.08), Kacper Stokowski (20.16), and Chaney (20.19) all put collectively historic swims. In 2024, Aiden Hayes took excessive mark with a 20.07. Chaney is the one a kind of 4 nonetheless swimming within the NCAA—is that this the yr we lastly see somebody crack the elusive 20-second barrier?
In the meantime, Greenwaldt retains posting quick 50-yard freestyle splits in her first season in Charlottesville. She break up 21.32 at UVA’s intrasquad meet, which additionally noticed Thomas Heilman break three meet data in a schedule that largely featured off-distance races. This was Virgina’s second meet that largely had off-distance occasions, however the Cavaliers will dive into the normal twin meet format this weekend in opposition to Florida. Virginia can be Florida’s second top-10 opponent of the season as they beforehand took on the Indiana Hoosiers.
Omaha’s freshman diver Nathan Frette has additionally made an enormous impression early in his collegiate profession. Frette took over the college’s one-meter diving document throughout Omaha’s season opener in opposition to South Dakota State. He surpassed his mark on the workforce’s subsequent meet in opposition to Rockhurst with a 356.90, then broke the college’s three-meter document with a 357.35. Each scores are NCAA Zone Qualifying scores, as was fellow freshman Owen Kipp’s 339.95 effort on the three-meter board.
Learn the complete story on SwimSwam: 2025-26 NCAA Digest: NCAA’s Modifications To 2026 DI Championships Dominate The Week
