Swimming and Diving Heads to Big Ten Championships

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Rutgers swimming and diving group is ready to compete this week on the 2026 Big Ten Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships, hosted by the University of Minnesota on the Jean Okay. Freeman Aquatic Center. Competition begins on Wednesday night and stretches via Saturday.
 

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Schedule of Events

Wednesday – 5 pm

• 200 Medley Relay
• 800 Free Relay
• Exhibition Team Diving Event

Thursday – 11 am Prelims | 6 pm Finals

• 100 Butterfly
• 400 IM
• 200 Freestyle
• 100 Breaststroke
• 1 Meter Diving
• 200 Freestyle Relay  

Friday – 11 am Prelims | 6 pm Finals

• 100 Backstroke
• 200 Breaststroke
• 500 Freestyle
• 50 Freestyle
• 3 Meter Diving
• 400 Medley Relay

 
Saturday – 11 am Prelims | 6 pm Finals

• 200 IM
• 100 Freestyle
• 200 Butterfly
• 200 Backstroke
• Platform Diving
• 1650 Freestyle
• 400 Freestyle Relay

 

The Scarlet Knights have had a aggressive schedule main up this meet, relationship again to October, opening the season with a win in a tri-meet in opposition to St. Bonaventure and Fordham, main right into a twin win over La Salle in January on Senior Day. RU has additionally competed in opposition to Arkansas, Miami, Princeton and Nebraska, whereas touring to the Minnesota Invite. The divers particularly went to the Naval Academy Invite and hosted the Rutgers Platform Invitational most not too long ago on February 7, the place Katerina Hoffman took the crown.

The diving squad has been among the best diving teams within the nation this season. In the latest US PDCA ballot launched in December, Rutgers ranked eighth nationally in diving, whereas rating fifth within the group championship energy rankings. Katerina Hoffman, Bailee Sturgill and Sephora Ford are all projected as top-eight Big Ten scorers within the energy rating projections.

Rutgers excelled within the classroom this fall as effectively. The group was named a Scholar All-America group by the CSCAA and had a semester GPA of three.398 with six 4.0 college students and 12 on the Dean’s List. 

 

The Scarlet Knights might be competing within the Big Ten Championships for the 11^th time since becoming a member of the convention. Their finest group end beforehand is eighth place, executed thrice, most not too long ago in 2022.

The Scarlet Knights have six Big Ten medalists, all coming between 2018 and 2020, with three swimmers (Vera Koprivova – two bronze in 2019 within the 100/200 again, Francesca Stoppa – bronze in 2019 within the 200 fly and Tereza Grusova – silver in 2020 within the 100 again) and one diver (Addison Walkowiak – silver within the 1M and bronze within the 3M dive in 2018).

The group’s most up-to-date top-five end got here in 2024, when the 400 medley relay group of Valeria Egorova, Tina Celik, Martyna Piesko and Jade Smits got here in fifth. RU additionally had a fourth place end by Abigail Knapton in 2022 in 3-meter diving. Overall, RU has 12 top-five finishes and 53 podium finishes.

The Scarlet Knights have two All-Big Ten choices (the 2 silver medalists, Walkowiak and Grusova), and one Big Ten All-Freshman (Bailee Sturgill final yr).

Last yr’s efficiency on the Big Ten Championships in Columbus was highlighted by

• Bailee Sturgill reaching the rostrum within the 1M dive (seventh place) and podium (eighth place), as she was named an All-Big Ten Freshman
• Two B finals for graduated Molly Urkiel
• Multiple comfort finals in diving and a second place end within the group diving occasion

 This yr, there are six Big Ten swimming packages ranked within the CSCAA Top-25 ballot as of February 5. That group contains No. 4 Michigan, No. 6 Indiana, No. 11 Ohio State, No. 15 Wisconsin, No. 22 UCLA and No. 25 Minnesota. On the diving aspect, Purdue (2), Minnesota (4), Indiana (6), Ohio State (7), Nebraska (20) and UCLA (23) seem within the Pro Diving Coach ballot.
 

Rutgers has set 13 new marks on this system’s all-time top-10 lists this season.  Anna Vlachou leads the way in which with three. Nine of them are on the swimming aspect, with 4 new marks on the diving boards. Three of them reached the top-3 all-time, whereas 5 of them are among the many 4 quickest.

Swimming

• Ana Hazlehurst, 400 IM: 4:16.57, Fourth
• Anna Vlachou, 100 Butterfly: 53.25, Fourth
• Anna Vlachou, 100 Free: 49.20, Third
• Emilianna Gonzalez, 50 Free: 22.40, 2^nd
• Anna Vlachou, 50 Free: 22.67, seventh
• Cameron Kuriger, 200 Butterfly: 1:59.58, Eighth
• Ana Hazlehurst, 200 IM: 2:00.41, Third
• Ellie Schinsky, 100 Butterfly: 54.01, Ninth
• Angelica Bath, 200 Back: 1:58.62, Tenth

Diving

 

The Big Ten Championships might be adopted in March by the ECAC Last Chance Meet (March 6-8) as RU gears up in direction of NCAA Championships, with the NCAA Zone A Championships held March Sept. 11 and the NCAA Championships in Atlanta from March 18-21.