International Trio Influencing to NCAA Women’s Swimming

International Trio Has Brought Scene-Shifting Influence to NCAA Women’s Swimming

In the present period of faculty swimming, the dominant males’s applications mix home and worldwide expertise to assemble their rosters. Last season, seven out of 13 particular person titles on the NCAA Championships went to swimmers who characterize different nations in world competitors. Fourteen out of 15 top-three relay groups featured a number of overseas swimmers, and within the 400 medley relay, an American-record-setting efficiency from N.C. State resulted in a ninth-place end.

The ladies’s facet has been the entire reverse. Virginia’s 5 consecutive national-title-winning groups have been fueled by U.S. swimmers, with the one overseas illustration coming from Aimee Canny and Jasmine Nocentini. Stanford and Texas, the applications constantly becoming a member of the Cavaliers within the top-three, have been solely American. At final 12 months’s nationwide meet, American ladies gained each particular person swimming occasion, and solely 5 non-U.S. swimmers had particular person top-three finishes – Cal’s Lea Polonsky, Michigan’s Stephanie Balduccini, Tennessee’s Mona McSharry and Indiana teammates Miranda Grana and Ching Gan. Five additional ladies contributed to top-three relays.

Expect a unique sample this spring as three internationally-acclaimed swimmers have matriculated at contending universities: Italian sprinter Sara Curtis has turn out to be a central participant for this 12 months’s Virginia crew whereas Great Britain’s Eva Okaro is already the quickest within the quick freestyle occasions for Texas. Additionally, Estonian Eneli Jefimova is already one of many high dash breaststrokers within the nation as she begins her profession at N.C. State.

Curtis arrived in Charlottesville, Va., contemporary off a World Championships finals look within the 100 freestyle in Singapore, the place she took eighth. She additionally reached the semifinal spherical of the 50 free at that meet, and beforehand, she gained a brief course world title with Team Italy’s blended 200 medley relay in December 2024. But her most interesting worldwide effort got here after she started working beneath Virginia coach Todd DeSorbo and his employees.

At the current European Short Course Championships in Lublin, Curtis captured seven medals, three of them gold. She clocked 25.49 for gold within the 50 backstroke, on the time a European document and ok to make her the fifth-fastest lady in historical past. Curtis helped Italy to gold medals in each blended 200-meter relays. She additionally tied for silver within the 50 free and took bronze within the 100 free whereas serving to the Italian ladies to 2 additional relay medals.

In yards competitors, Curtis presently ranks second within the nation within the 50 free at 21.18, with solely Torri Huske having been faster, and the mark sits twelfth on the all-time record. Curtis can be fifth within the 100 free (46.62) and seventh within the 100 again (50.56), and her high 50 again time of twenty-two.83 is faster than any swimmer went eventually 12 months’s NCAA Championships. It could be unfair to match Curtis to Gretchen Walsh, however she is going to play a significant position in making up for the factors misplaced with Walsh’s commencement as Virginia pursues one other crown. She is a lock for each dash freestyle relays, and her presence because the backstroker in medley relay motion would permit Claire Curzan to deal with butterfly and Anna Moesch to anchor.

Okaro, in the meantime, fills an enormous want for a Texas program that has by no means dominated the dash occasions like its major rivals. The 19-year-old made her Olympic debut in Paris with a relay remaining look, and she or he gained a silver medal with the British crew’s 400 medley relay on the 2024 Short Course World Championships. In 2025, Okaro gained British titles within the 50 free and 50 fly, and she or he positioned eleventh within the 50 free on the Singapore Worlds.

In Austin, she is already the No. 1 possibility for the dash occasions, having turn out to be the primary Texas swimmer to ever break up beneath 21 seconds for the 50 free. Individually, her 100 free high time of 46.49 ranks third within the nation behind solely Moesch and Huske, along with her 100 fly time of fifty.82 fourth and 50 free mark of 21.53 tied for ninth. In the Longhorns’ five-year streak of top-three finishes on the NCAA Championships, the crew has had precisely one scoring swim in both the 50 or 100 free (Grace Cooper positioned ninth in 2024), making Okaro’s emergence a doubtlessly game-changing one. As for the 100 fly, Texas has graduated Emma Sticklen, Kelly Pash and Olivia Bray throughout the previous two seasons, so Okaro might make up these factors whereas additionally taking on an essential relay place.

But of the European freshmen to reach in ladies’s school swimming this 12 months, the one with one of the best shot at a person nationwide crown is Jefimova, additionally 19. Her document of senior-level worldwide accomplishments is already stacked, with a protracted course European title within the 100 breast in 2024 and a bronze medal within the occasion on the Short Course World Championships that very same 12 months. She is already among the many finest lengthy course 50 breaststrokers on the planet, her time of 29.83 ending the 12 months because the second quickest on the planet for 2025.

At the World Championships in Singapore, she completed sixth within the 50 breast and tenth within the 100. Further, she has captured back-to-back European quick course crowns within the 50 and 100 breast. Last December in Lublin, Jefimova swam occasions of 28.81 within the 50 and 1:02.82 within the 100, each meet information and vaulting her to No. 5 all-time in each occasions.

In school swimming, European swimmers have been extra profitable within the 100 breast than every other occasion, with Nocentini successful the title in 2024 and McSharry scoring quite a few top-three finishes alongside her Olympic bronze medal within the 100-meter occasion in Paris. For this season, Italian-native Anita Bottazzo has the nation’s high time for the Florida Gators at 56.87 with Jefimova second at 57.67. Moreover, Jefimova turns the weakest leg of NC State’s medley relays right into a power. Combining with versatile sophomores Leah Shackley and Erika Pelaez plus backstroker Kennedy Noble and sprinter Olivia Nel, the Wolfpack might contend for top-three finishes on the nationwide degree.

When swimmers arrive within the United States to start competing in school, they generally face a studying curve as they compete briefly course yards for the primary time. Clearly, that won’t be the case for this trio. Based on their early-season returns plus their trajectories of enchancment whereas representing their respective nations, Curtis, Okaro and Jefimova are all robust bets for particular person top-three finishes at this 12 months’s NCAA Championships.