26 Swimmers from Mid Major Programs Qualify for 2025 Women’s NCAA Championships

2025 Women’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships

• March 19-22, 2025
• Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Center — Federal Way, Washington
• Short Course Yards (25 yards)
• Meet Central
• Official Psych Sheets
• Live Stream
• Invited swimmers by team (not including relay swimmers)
• Alternates list
• Eligible Relays

With the official psych sheets out for the 2025 Women’s NCAA Championships, it’s time to take a look at the mid major qualifiers for the meet. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, “mid major” refers to Division I programs that aren’t members of a “Power 4” conference (Big 12, Big Ten, ACC, Sec). Of course, it used to the the “Power 5”, but with the disbandment of the Pac-12 at the end of last season, there are now just 4 “major” conferences.

This year’s NCAAs saw 26 swimmers from mid major programs qualify individually.

Here are the 26 swimmers from mid major programs who qualified for the 2025 NCAA Championships:

Leading the way in terms of number of swimmers qualified are Princeton and Washington State, both of which programs have 3 swimmers attending the meet individually. Princeton is, of course, in the Ivy League and has a history of producing NCAA caliber swimmers. Meanwhile, Washington State was a member of the Pac-12 until this year, when they joined the Mountain West after the Pac-12 disbanded.

Of note, Princeton also qualified each of the free relays for the meet. Their 200 free relay is seeded 24th, while the 400 free relay is 23rd, and the 800 free relay is 18th.

If we want to take a look at where these mid major programs are having the most success in producing NCAA qualifiers, it reveals some interesting things.

Taking into account that there are far more freestyle events (5) than any other stroke (2), it looks as though breaststroke is where these mid major programs are having the most success. There are 7 entrants from mid major programs in both the 100 and 200 breast. That being said, the 50 free is the event with the single most entrants with 9. Freestyle as a whole looks great, however, the 200 free is on the low end of the scale with only 3 entrants.

Fly is another area where these programs are excelling. The 100 fly has 8 qualifiers, which is the 2nd-most of any event, but there are only 4 qualifiers in the 200 fly, which differentiates it from breaststroke, where the same number of swimmers qualified in both events.

Notably, of the 26 mid major swimmers who qualified for NCAAs this year, 12 competed at last year’s NCAAs. Here is the list of swimmers who were at last year’s meet:

• Abby Daniel – 100 fly (16th), 200 IM (16th), 200 fly (40th)
• Sofia Maksimova – 50 free (19th), 100 free (37th), 100 fly (56th)
• Kamryn Cannings – 100 fly (19th), 200 fly (37th)
• Zita Szoke – 100 free (26th), 200 free (38th), 50 free (48th)
• Heidi Smithwick – 200 fly (33rd), 100 fly (57th), 200 free relay (21st), 800 free relay (22nd), 400 free relay (24th)
• Eleanor Sun – 400 IM (25th), 200 fly (30th), 200 IM (39th), 800 free relay (22nd), 400 free relay (24th)
• Dakota Tucker – 200 IM (30th), 400 IM (30th), 200 breast (34th), 800 free relay (22nd)
• Celia Pulido – 100 back (7th), 200 back (13th)
• Scarlett Ferris – 100 back (25th)
• Anna Moehn – 1650 free (33rd), 500 free (59th)
• Dori Hathazi – 200 fly (36th)
• Emily Lundgren – 200 breast (14th), 100 breast (24th), 200 IM (52nd)

A few of these performances from last year really stick out. Of course, Southern Illinois’ Celia Pulido is a returning ‘A’ finalist in the 100 backstroke after finishing 7th in the event last year. Pulido was also 13th in the 200 back, which made her the highest scoring mid major swimmer at last year’s meet.

Akron’s Abby Daniel made a pair of ‘B’ finals last year, finishing 16th in both the 200 IM and 100 fly. Meanwhile, Washington State’s Emily Lundgren, who wasn’t at a mid major program last year, came in 9th in prelims of the 200 breast before taking 14th in finals.

That means we should be looking at those swimmers as potential scoring threats this year as well. That being said, only Lundgren is seeded to score out of those 3 swimmers. Lundgren comes in as the 9th seed in the 200 breast (2:07.08). Pulido is just outside of scoring range in the 100 back, coming in as the 17th seed with her season best of 51.07.

Liberty’s Kamryn Cannings is also seeded to score, however, coming in as the 16th seed in the 100 fly with her season mark of 51.42.

We also should highlight the 3 freshmen who made it to the big meet out of these programs. Liberty’s Alyssa Bozzuto, Wyoming’s Macey Hansen, and Washington State’s Darcy Revitt have all been outstanding in their first year in the NCAA.

Bozzuto, who grew up in Florida, has been a huge asset for Liberty this year. She’s blown away her career bests in her primary events and looks like she’ll be one of the stars for the Flames and the ASUN Conference for years to come. Bozzuto came to Liberty with a career best of 1:01.06 in the 100 breast, and has brought it down to 59.17 this season. She’s made even more progress in the 200 breast, where she joined Liberty with a 2:20.01, and has been 2:11.28 already this season. Bozzuto has also shown quite a bit of improvement in the 50 free, coming in with a 22.69 and having gone 22.09 at the ASUN Championships last month.

Macey Hansen grew up in Columbia, Missouri before joining Wyoming this past fall. She was exceptional at the Mountain West Championships, winning the 500 free and 1650 free. Hansen came to Wyoming with a career best of 4:49.67 in the 500 free, and went 4:41.56 to win the event at the Mountain West Champs. Her best event, however, is the 1650 free, where she joined Wyoming with a career best of 16:45.22 and went 16:07.75 to earn the Mountain West title, which is also the swim that earned her an invite to NCAAs.

Darcy Revitt is a Washington State freshman from the United Kingdom. Of course, with that being the case, we don’t have yards times to compare for improvement, but we know she was excellent for the Cougars in her first year. Revitt clocked a 21.89 in the 50 free at the Mountain West Champs, also swimming a 48.11 in the 100 free. She already holds the Washington State program records in both events.

Other noteworthy qualifiers include UC San Diego’s Chloe Braun, who became the program’s first Division I qualifier. UCSD used to be a Division II program, however, they made the move to reclassify as Division I in 2020. There is a 4 year transition period, during which time they could compete in their conference, but weren’t eligible for the NCAA Championships. This year is UCSD’s first year as an eligible DI program, and they have a qualifier for the big meet.

Meanwhile, Melissa Nwakalor became Richmond’s first women’s NCAA qualifier since 2019.