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It’s that time of the year again. SwimSwam will be previewing the top 12 men’s and women’s teams (and then some) from the 2026 NCAA Championships. Follow along with the College Swimming Preview Channel. Want to read even more? Check out the latest edition of the SwimSwam magazine. Women’s #7: Indiana Hoosiers Key Losses: Kristina Paegle (7 NCAA points – sprint free), Mya Dewitt (3 NCAA points – backstroke) Key Additions: Anita Bottazzo (Florida transfer – breaststroke), #3 Kayla Han (CA – distance free), #14 Elizabeth Eichbrecht (MI – distance free), #18 Paige Downey (AZ – distance free), HM Eva Rottink (TN – back/fly) Grading Criteria Over the years, we’ve gone back and forth on how to project points, ranging from largely subjective rankings to more data-based grading criteria based on ‘projected returning points.’ We like being as objective as possible, but we’re going to stick with the approach we’ve adopted post-Covid. The “stars” will rely heavily on what swimmers actually did last year, but we’ll also give credit to returning swimmers or freshmen who have posted times that would have scored last year. Since we only profile the top 12 teams in this format, our grades are designed with that range in mind. In the grand scheme of college swimming and compared to all other college programs, top 12 NCAA programs would pretty much all grade well across the board. But in the interest of making these previews informative, our grading scale is tough – designed to show the tiers between the good stroke groups, the great ones, and the 2015 Texas fly group types. - 5 star (★★★★★) – a rare, elite NCAA group projected to score 25+ points per event - 4 star (★★★★) – a very, very good NCAA group projected to score 15-24 points per event - 3 star (★★★) – a good NCAA group projected to score 5-14 points per event - 2 star (★★) – a solid NCAA group projected to score 1-4 points per event - 1 star (★) – an NCAA group that is projected to score no points per event, though that doesn’t mean it’s without potential scorers – they’ll just need to leapfrog some swimmers ahead of them to do it We’ll grade each event discipline: sprint free (which we define to include all the relay-distance freestyle events, so 50, 100 and 200), distance free, IM, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly and diving. Use these grades as a jumping-off point for discussion, rather than a reason to be angry. Also, keep in mind that we are publishing many of these previews before teams have posted finalized rosters. We’re making our assessments based on the best information we have available at the time of publication, but we reserve the right to make changes after publication based on any new information that may emerge regarding rosters. If that does happen, we’ll make certain to note the change. The final note is that we are not including athletes who graduated last spring after exhausting their college eligibility despite ongoing lawsuits against the NCAA regarding the new “Five-for-Five” rule. 2025-2026 LOOKBACK The Hoosier women graduated Anna Peplowski but had no problem setting themselves up for another top-10 NCAA finish. Freshman Liberty Clark surged onto the scene leading the team to a 7th place finish at the 2026 NCAA Championships while fellow freshman Alex Shackell arrived for the spring semester as the two led the charge. After being an unranked recruit coming into her senior year of high school, Clark was an honorable mention ranked recruit after her senior year. Despite being an honorable mention ranked recruit, Clark was the 3rd-highest scoring freshman at the 2026 NCAA Championships with 45 individual points, only behind Claire Weinstein‘s 48 points and Teagan O’Dell’s 46 points. Fellow freshman Shackell scored 33 individual points, only swimming in two individual events as she instead swam all five relays. SPRINT FREE: ★★★ After a breakout freshman year, Liberty Clark returns as the top sprinter for the Hoosiers. Clark became the 5th woman to ever break the 1:40 mark in the 200 freestyle while leading off Indiana’s 800 free relay and swam another sub-1:40 swim in the individual race as she touched in a 1:39.88 for 2nd behind Virginia’s Anna Moesch. Clark also swam to a 4th place finish in the 100 free (46.11) and a 6th place finish in the 50 free (21.25). She is expected to be the core of the sprint group over the next three seasons. Alex Shackell primarily focuses on butterfly and backstroke at the individual level but has the versatility to be a key freestyle relay piece. Her biggest split was a 1:41.47 200 free flying start split on the 800 free relay while she anchored the team’s 200 free relay in a 21.35 at NCAAs. The graduation of Kristina Paegle will leave a relay spot open in the 200 and 400 free relays and it’s unsure who will fill that gap. Grace Hoeper had a strong freshman season capped off by an individual invite at 2026 NCAAs where she swam the 50, 100, and 200 freestyles. She also swam on all three free relays for the Hoosiers. DISTANCE FREE: ★★★ Distance free was a bit of a gap this past season as the team did not have any individual swimmers in either the 500 or 1650 freestyles at 2026 NCAAs, thus scoring zero points in either event. Things should change this season as the team brings in three top 20 ranked recruits that all specialize in distance freestyle. The #3 ranked recruit Kayla Han has the best 1000 freestyle in the class with a 9:30.10 and is second fastest 500 freestyler in the class with a 4:36.88. That lifetime best in the 500 free would have made the NCAA ‘A’ final and finished 8th overall while her lifetime best 15:56.07 1650 free would have been 10th. Han is not the only key addition as #14 Elizabeth Eichbrecht also brings NCAA scoring potential in both events. Her lifetime best 4:41.54 500 free would have just missed the NCAA cutline of a 4:41.28 while it took a 4:39.19 to score. Her best time of a 16:06.54 1650 free would have been 14th. #18 ranked recruit in the girls high school class of 2026 Paige Downey rounds out the strong recruiting class with lifetime bests fo a 4:44.68 500 free and a 16:03.94 1650 free. Her 1650 free time would have been 12th at NCAAs, giving the Hoosiers a potential for three scorers in the 1650 free. BACKSTROKE: ★★★ Miranda Grana led the way in the backstroke group and had Mya Dewitt this past season but has since graduated. Shackell opted to swim the 100 back at Big Tens but did not swim a 3rd individual event at NCAAs as she instead swam on all five relays. Macky Hodges transferred into Indiana this past season and swam prelims in the 200 back at NCAAs. Grana was the 5th seed in the 100 back (49.89) and the 6th seed in the 200 back (1:49.06) entering the 2026 NCAA Championships but was off her season best times in both events to finish 8th in the 200 (1:50.71) and 14th in the 100 (51.27). Her season bests would have been 3rd in the 200 back and t-6th in the 100 back if she repeated them during finals at NCAAs. BREASTSTROKE: ★★★ Despite being known as “Breaststroke-U,” it has been since the 2022-2023 season when the team had a sub-59 second breaststroker when Noelle Peplowski swam a 58.99 that season. The Hoosiers did not have any sub-1:00 breaststrokers this past season but that is set to change with the arrival of Anita Bottazzo who spent her freshman and sophomore seasons at Florida. Bottazzo was 9th in the 100 breast and 20th in the 200 breast at the 2025 NCAA Championships as a freshman and improved to make the ‘A’ final in both events as a sophomore. She finished 2nd in the 100 breast with a 57.00 and 7th in the 200 breast with a 2:07.13. She has been as fast as a 56.87 in the 100 and a 2:06.97 in the 200, both of which she swam last fall. The rising junior will be a huge relay piece as her 100 breast split of a 56.10 on Florida’s 400 medley relay would have moved Indiana up to 2nd from 7th. Her 25.69 50 breast split would have moved Indiana from 9th to 2nd as well. BUTTERFLY: ★★★★½ Alex Shackell scored 33 points at NCAAs with all of those coming from the 100 and 200 butterfly events as she did not swim a 3rd individual event. She was 3rd in the 100 fly with a 49.82 and 2nd in the 200 fly with a 1:50.40. Shackell only swam for the Hoosiers in her spring semester and splits her time between training with her club team, Carmel Swim Club, and down in Bloomington on campus. It’s still a busy fly field returning for NCAAs as 200 fly NCAA champion Campbell Stoll returns to Texas while Claire Curzan of Virginia was 2nd in the 100 fly. The two returning means there is still plenty of competition in both butterfly events this upcoming season. Shackell has been as fast as a 49.49 in the 100 fly and a 1:50.15 in the 200 fly, with both times coming from high school. Grana swam alongside Shackell in the 100 fly at NCAAs where she was 8th in the 100 with a 51.11. She only swam the 200 fly at one dual meet this past season but her 100 fly is strong enough for the group to be 4.5 stars. IM: ★★ Rising senior Reese Tiltmann led the IM group with a lifetime best 4:06.02 400 IM at NCAAs, a time that earned her a 16th place finish. That was a second and a half drop from her previous lifetime best 4:07.61 that she swam as a sophomore at the 2025 Big Ten Championships. Tiltmann just missed scoring in the 200 IM as she posted a 1:56.74 and it took a 1:56.43 to finish 16th in the event. Macky Hodges swam a season best 1:56.96 200 IM at Big Tens but did not swim the event at 2026 NCAAs. That time would have been 20th, finishing just behind Tiltmann. Hodges instead swam the 200 back on the final day of NCAAs with the new event lineup. DIVING: ★★★ Ella Roselli returns for her senior season after scoring 14 points at NCAAs with a 9th place finish in the platform in the event and a 12th place finish in the 1 meter. Mary Kate Cavanaugh and Kaylee Bishop both competed in the platform event while Lily White competed in the 1 and 3 meter events at NCAAs as well. All four NCAA divers return this fall. RELAYS: ★★★★★ Note that the grading system doesn’t align perfectly for relays as double points. Relay grading system: - 5 star (★★★★★) – 31+ points per relay event - 4 star (★★★★) – 22-30 relay points per event - 3 star (★★★) – 12-21 relay points per event - 2 star (★★) – 5-11 relay points per event - 1 star (★) – 0-4 relay points per event The medley relays have all the pieces to make a run for it especially with the arrival of Bottazzo as she is over a one and a half second difference in the 200 medley relay and over a three second difference in the 400 medley relay. Grana, Bottazzo, Shackell, and Clark are a star-studded relay lineup. Paegle’s graduation on the sprint free relays leave a gap that will need to be filled but having Shackell and Clark already puts the free relays at a good starting point with Grace Hoeper. | Relay | 2026 NCAA Result (Time) | Lineup | Losing | Potential Adds | | 200 FR | 3rd (1:25.67) | Clark, Paegle, Hoeper, Shackell | Paegle | | | 400 FR | 5th (3:07.51) | Clark, Shackell, Hoeper, Paegle | Paegle | | | 800 FR | 5th (6:48.85) | Clark, Shackell, Hodges, Hoeper | None | | | 200 MR | 9th (1:34.26) | Grana, Laegreid, Shackell, Clark | None | Anita Bottazzo | | 400 MR | 7th (3:25.17) | Grana, Laegreid, Shackell, Clark | None | Anita Bottazzo | Total Stars: 26.5/40 2026-27 OUTLOOK The incoming class with Bottazzo as a transfer and the three distance girls fill the biggest gaps that the Hoosiers already had in breaststroke and distance free where the team scored 0 points in all four events (500 free, 1650 free, 100 breast, 200 breast). The biggest question is who will fill the final spot on the 200 and 400 free relays with Paegle’s graduation. Clark’s breakout freshman season has her as a swimmer to watch as she enters her sophomore year and Alex Shackell has been a dominant force for the U.S. at the international level already. | RANK (2026) | TEAM | SPRINT FREE | DISTANCE FREE | BACK | BREAST | FLY | IM | DIVING | RELAY | TOTAL | | 1 | Virginia Cavaliers | ||||||||| | 2 | Stanford Cardinal | ||||||||| | 3 | Texas Longhorns | ||||||||| | 4 | California Golden Bears | ||||||||| | 5 | Tennessee Volunteers | ||||||||| | 6 | Michigan Wolverines | ||||||||| | 7 | Indiana Hoosiers | ★★★ | ★★★ | ★★★ | ★★★ | ★★★★ ½ | ★★ | ★★★ | ★★★★ | 26.5/40 | | 8 | Louisville Cardinals | ★★★½ | ★★★★ | ★ | ★★★★ | ★ | ★★★ | ★ | ★★★ | 20.5/40 | | 9 | NC State Wolfpack | ★★½ | ★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★½ | ★★★½ | ★★ | ★ | ★★★★ | 23.5/40 | | 10 | Florida Gators | ★ | ★★½ | ★★★ | ★★½ | ★ | ★★ | ★★★ | ★½ | 16.5/40 | | 11 | Alabama Crimson Tide | ★★★ | ★ | ★★½ | ★ | ★★ | ★ | ★ | ★★★ ½ | 15/40 | | 12 | Ohio State Buckeyes | ★★ | ★★★ ½ | ★ | ★★★ | ★ ½ | ★ | ★★ ½ | ★★ | 16.5/40 |