The transfer portal has opened for women’s swimming and diving and a flood of athletes have already entered as of Wednesday morning. Highlighting the list is Big Ten runner up and NCAA qualifier Ava Whitaker who is in her sophomore season with the Hoosiers.
With roster cuts already taking place, the transfer portal is expected to flood, and this morning’s rush already shows that.
Morning Update:
Eight women from Indiana have entered the portal already including Whitaker. Whitaker is slated to compete for the Hoosiers at NCAAs next week and scored 44 individual points at Big Tens last month, the 13th most of the team. She finished 2nd in the 200 fly, 11th in the 100 fly, and 50th in the 200 IM.
Other names in the portal for Indiana include Claire Stuhlmacher, Lucie Delmas, Justine Delmas, Ana Hazlehurst, Adrianna Lojewski, James Jones, and Daniela Karnaugh. The Delmas twins deferred their enrollment a year but did not compete for the Hoosiers at all this season. Lojewski originally committed to Houston and Northeastern before landing at Indiana.
Hawaii’s Dorottya Dobos also highlights names in the portal. Dobos won the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) title in the 200 backstroke swimming a 1:57.33 in finals, although she was faster in prelims with a 1:56.53. She also swam to 3rd in the 200 back in a 54.66.
ASUN runner-up Isabelle Gomez of Liberty is also in the portal. Gomez swam to a 16:55.79 in the 1650 free to finish 2nd in the event. She also was 9th in the 400 IM in a lifetime best 4:23.93 while she was 15th in the 500 free.
Indiana is not the only school with numerous women in the portal as South Carolina has nine members in the portal, Virginia Tech has five, and Auburn has eight.
South Carolina:
- Sofia Krstolic
- Sterling Burd
- Hannah Wachendorfer
- Eva Tzouvelekas
- Sianna Savarda
- Reagan Phillips
- Grace Tuchi
- Aubrey Finn
Virginia Tech:
- Sofia Salvato
- Norah Guillot
- Yasmine Hassan
- Christine Datovech
- Camille Weiss
- Augusta Ness (Afternoon Update)
- Amanda Aidar (Afternoon Update)
Auburn:
- Olivia Stewart
- Ashlyn Morr
- Lawson Ficken
- Kara West
- Aislyn Barnett
- Audrey Olen
- Amie Perna
- Taylor Grimley
Kentucky:
- Anastasia Tichy
- Delaney Sullivan
- Samantha Hamilton
- Mary Freiburger
- Lily Delong
Among the names in the portal for Auburn is Lawson Ficken who swam for the team at SECs. The sophomore notably just missed out on scoring in the 100 fly as she was 25th in prelims in a 52.93. Her personal best from a dual meet of a 52.43 in January against Alabama would have been 17th in prelims.
After their program was cut last week effective immediately, Cal Poly already has nine women in the portal.
Lunchtime Update:
Texas A&M had a group of women join the portal in this update. The four include Rachel Love, Ellis Fox, Abigail Hood, and Paula Warren. Love and Hood did not compete for the team this season.
Fox did not swim at SECs but swam to numerous lifetime bests at the Last Chance Meet including a 52.53 in the 100 back, 1:54.62 in the 200 back, and 52.63 in the 100 fly. Those were not far off what it took to make NCAAs as it took a 1:53.31 in the 200 back and 51.87 in the 100 fly. Warren also swam numerous best times at last chance including 54.3/1:57.5 backstrokes.
Ivy League Champion Morgan Lukinac has not competed since US Olympic Trials last summer but entered the portal. She won the 2024 Ivy League title in the 200 free with a 1:45.49.
Late Lunch Update:
Cal Poly now has 12 women in the portal, meaning almost half of the team that included 29 this season are in the portal. With six seniors on the roster, 23 women would have returned for next year.
Helena Pinto Coelho Lopes of Georgia has also entered the portal. She did not compete for the Bulldogs this season after being slated to arrive this past fall. She was a member of Brazil’s Junior National team.
Afternoon Update:
More swimmers from Virginia Tech and Indiana (see list above) have entered the portal. Indiana’s addition is Avery Spade, who scored 2o points at Big Tens and was highlighted by a 10th place finish in the 200 fly (1:57.14).
After her sister entered the portal this morning with Indiana, Isabella Lojewski of Houston has also entered the portal. Isabella transferred to Houston after spending her freshman season with Tulane. She also committed to Tulane after originally verbally committing to Florida.
Evening Update:
Arizona State has two women in the portal, Haiden Schoessel and Kaitlyn McMorrow. The defending NCAA Champions of Virginia has their first entry into the portal from Elise Clift. Clift was a “Best of the Rest”recruit coming out of high school. Clift was off her high school best times during her freshman season and did not swim at ACCs. She finished her season at the Cavalier Invite last month swimming season bests in the 500 free, 1650 free, and 200 back.
In total, about 130 women entered the portal on day 1.
Day 2 update?
https://staging.swimswam.com/womens-swimming-and-diving-transfer-portal-day-2-live-updates/
It’s been a slow day 2.
A good thing no doubt that yesterday was a much slower day for women entering the transfer portal. With that said, I think there are still a fairly significant number of teams that have not yet made cuts…especially across mid-majors. And, I also think that for women that are cut that only have one remaining year of eligibility, the majority of them will choose to retire and become swammers at their current university.
Well, coaches don’t even have to look at the Portal. SwimSwam is doing the work for them!!!
And.. there is Zero Loyalty in college sports now.
Idk if its loyalty or rather the team is turning their back on them so that they have to find a new home.
It’s neither. University finances and/or conference roster limits means cuts. Teams are cutting swimmers (and divers) left and right.
If the team was actively recruiting for next year when they were at or over the limit, it means they’ve chosen to replace some swimmers. Find out how many swimmers they recruited for 2025 AFTER the ruling, do the math, and draw your own conclusions.
Listening to Shackell’s pod with Beisel and Hoff (quite the 4IM lineup!) – I’m so sorry but they completely missed the point re: the current college competitive landscape. i appreciate her presenting her POV with her decision, but it comes off as a little tone-deaf given an entire class of freshmen at IU just entered the portal + the murmurs surrounding the program as a whole.
…and she made a comment about getting the coaches’ attention…some of us swim for coaches where if we’re not Olympians we’d be lucky to even sniff a crumb of their time. It’s not about wanting it more/less. Idk why I’m getting worked up about this, but I know multiple people affected by these cuts and it feels like a slap in the face to hear this from IU’s new shiny bluechip recruit while her supposed teammates quit the sport/find new programs after a single year.
$hackell effect
Dad’s British, you mean $hacke££ effect.
oi, right!
The $hackell tariff is steep.
shackelling
Also mentions Ray looze was at her practice and gave her feedback?? Sounds like potential tampering
Came across this interesting article from last year that indicated that there were approximately 191 women swimmers that entered the transfer portal last year. So, perhaps a bit of a “baseline” for comparison purposes to this year…
https://staging.swimswam.com/the-ncaa-transfer-portal-window-closes-today-for-womens-swimming-and-diving/
Gotta subtract all the fifth years out of there
I believe the article said there were around 40 Graduate transfers last year. I’d assume that vast majority were fifth years that were able to use the extra Covid year that permitted them to compete 5 years. So, if you account for those, the “baseline” would be approximately 150 swimmers and divers.
And, while I get that the number of graduate transfers eligible to compete will be significantly fewer this upcoming year (since the extra Covid year of eligibility no longer applies), there still will be some (those that took a redshirt year or potentially graduated in three years).
Interestingly enough, that isn’t actually the case. Per the SwimSwam article last year, there were 40 Graduate transfers that entered the portal in the Spring of 2024. Based on the great data provided by Springboard Creative on their Instagram, it appears that in the Spring of 2025, there have been 12 Grad Transfers entering the portal. And, there were an additional 18 Grad Transfers that entered the transfer portal last Fall.
I just feel bad for the swimmers trying to get recruited this year as freshman. I have a daughter and son a few year behind her. Both have winter junior cuts and aren’t getting officials and responses. This isn’t helping things AT ALL!
No offense – but as a current swimmer at a mid major there are PLENTY of schools that would respond to your daughter and son. Make sure they are reaching out to more schools!
And that they are looking at the right schools. Winter Junior Cuts are good, but they won’t get you any attention from the top 20 teams.
We have a Female ’28 with multiple US Nationals cuts. We have decided to table any questionnaires and any proceedings towards recruitment for the time being. We feel they will get lost in the shuffle, and everything is going to change regardless. Keeps the stress off her as there will be plenty down the road. But there is not a day that goes by I’m not heard saying, “Thank God we have a ’28.” She could have been a ’27!
Very smart decision! Some of the parents here are too involved which only adds consternation to a stressful process for high school kids. IT WILL BE OK!
Might as well swim out the summer, see what happens, and watch how relative ’27s start to look.
At 15 and a freshman, I want her focusing on who she is as a human – which is HARD for 15yo today – not worried about college.
Just show up and put in the work.
And don’t forget to have FUN doing it!
Before you brag about having a ‘28, you might want to think about those ‘27’s who plan to take a gap year or red shirt to train for Olympic trials…the recruiting class for your child may be more competitive than you think on top of all of this madness.
I’m quite ok with the competition coming in. That’s ideally the whole point of sport…..
They all can join the pickleball club
There is clearly a reason as to why a whole freshman class is up and leaving — seriously should be looked into.
I mean it wouldn’t be concerning if one or two girls transfer, but the fact that two of them quit and the rest are transferring? First, Lojewski randomly disappeared in the fall term and got removed from the roster. Now, Cespedes quit after qualifying for NCAAs? Also we aren’t even considering that the rest of them are transferring, this isn’t including diving yet either. Say what you want about these girls but they were clearly not welcomed to IU for some reason. As someone who was at the UT v. IU meet the energy was off on… Read more »
Right there with you.
And honestly, does not look any better for the cohesion for next year with the “Shackell effect” I mean really, is she even on the team?
Then you follow that up with really accomplished swimmers coming in and not being the center of their program or the darling of their Coach’s eye.
Can’t wait to see what happens next week on the men’s side.
I’m 100% with you on the “Shackell effect”, I don’t believe that it’s fair to those girls. The things I’ve heard from swimmers on that team when it comes to favoritism, especially with their Olympians and Worlds swimmers, is that they get put on a high pedestal. So, I’m not shocked that these girls all stood up for themselves and chose to leave. In all honesty, I would do the same.
I thought it was pretty common knowledge that Looze definitely plays favorites with his top tier swimmers.
i would think that olympians and worlds swimmers have earned a spot on a pedestal. in most programs those are the hardest workers and are team leaders. so what your saying is that perhaps some werent getting the attention they thought they deserved and thats why they are leaving?
and there you have it…the entitled mentality.. “center of their program or darling of their coach’s eye” are you kidding? having accomplishments in high school is great but doesnt make you ENTITLED to being the center of a program. unless of course you have an olympic medal and even then i dont think you should be the center. alot of kids are big fish in high school and then become smaller fish freshman year D1. there would be multiple reasons for an athlete to enter the portal.. many were cut , maybe some are homesick, perhaps some didnt fit the program by not showing up for practices, having a bad attitude or thought they should be “the darling of the… Read more »
Many were cut.
Therefore, ‘not welcome.’ Ray recruited new 2025 swimmers in the Fall of 2024 to replace those he no longer wanted.
Honestly I just tried to do some digging myself…from what I’ve seen on their social media’s something is up. I saw on one of the freshman girls’ social media she had a caption related to an IU post saying “Moving on to bigger and better things” and on the Delmas twins instagram, looks like they both/or one of them suffered some kind of illness? A little fishy to me that they had to swim if they were ill like that…
It seems to say things on both sides. First on recruiting, you recruited a large class of girls who are not fast enough to remain on the team? Not a great job on recruiting. Cespedes is clearly something unrelated to the team or team atmosphere. She quit swimming. Not the team – swimming. Didn’t even go to NCAA’s, didn’t enter the portal – and clearly fast enough to get plenty of offers. So she just is done with swimming. As for the rest, Junta, you first seem to be looking for information, then in your second post you hint you know things. Go ahead and spill.
But would Cespedes have hated it and quit swimming had she been at another program? Maybe she just really loves going to school at IU and wants to remain and the school but stop being on the team. We will never know. But I don’t think we can exclude her quitting from her issue being with the program.
IU is notorious for over-recruiting. When I was recruited there 20 years ago, Ray was doing this. The class that hosted me on my recruiting trip had 19 freshmen on the women’s side alone. The next year there were 7 left. Most were not good enough to be on the team to begin with, but presumably, Ray gave them a year… Read more »
Could someone or swimswam post the number of swimmers per school that have entered? Releasing every single name might/would be a bit much but I’m more curious about how many from each school across the various conferences have hit the portal.