Ranking The 2026 Men’s NCAA Recruiting Classes: #8-5

The calendars have flipped to September, which signifies that NCAA Division I packages are gearing up for the beginning of the 2026-27 season.

We transfer into the fifth by eighth-ranked recruiting courses for the upcoming marketing campaign, that includes among the premier packages within the nation.

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Just a few vital notes on our rankings:

• The rankings listed are primarily based on our Class of 2026 Re-Rank. “HM” refers to our honorable mentions and “BOTR” refers to our Best of the Rest part for top-tier recruits.
• Like most of our rankings, these placements are subjective. We base our crew ranks on quite a lot of components: prospects’ incoming instances are by far the primary issue, however we additionally think about potential upside within the class, class measurement, relay influence, and crew wants. Greater weight is positioned on identified success briefly course yards, so overseas swimmers are barely devalued primarily based on the issue in changing lengthy course instances to quick course manufacturing.
• Transfers are included, although they’re weighed lower than recruits who arrive with 4 seasons of eligibility.
• For the complete listing of all verbally dedicated athletes, click on right here. A giant thanks to SwimSwam’s personal Anne Lepesant for compiling that index – with out it, rankings like these could be far much less complete.
• Some groups had not launched a finalized 2026-27 crew roster on the time these articles have been revealed, which means it’s doable we missed some names. Let us know within the feedback under.

Honorable Mentions: Minnesota, Harvard, Ohio State, Northwestern, UNC, Kentucky, Georgia Tech

Previously Ranked:

• #16: Michigan Wolverines
• #15: Notre Dame Fighting Irish
• #14: Princeton Tigers
• #13: Georgia Bulldogs
• #12: Alabama Crimson Tide
• #11: Virginia Tech Hokies
• #10: Virginia Cavaliers
• #9: Auburn Tigers

NCAA Swimming and Diving Recruiting Classes – Men’s Class of 2026: #8-5

#8: NC State Wolfpack

• SwimSwam Ranked Recruits: #6 Liam Carrington (FL – free/again/IM), BOTR Sam Marsteiner (NC – fly/distance free)
• Remainder of Class: Austin Temple (VA – dash free), Ethan Holloway (NC – free/again/fly), Andrei Theodor Proca (Romania – distance free), Jan Gajda (Poland – breast), Nusrat Allayerdi (Turkey – breast), Vasileios Kakoulakis (Greece – distance free), Mason Lawson (IN – diving), Grant Hester (TX – diving), Alan Vergine (Pitt switch – free/fly), Isaiah Aleksenko (Keiser switch – fly/IM)

NC State has a powerful freestyle and butterfly class that additionally features a pair of worldwide breaststrokers who look primed to be impactful proper from the get-go.

Liam Carrington is a local of Trinidad and Tobago however since he’s primarily based out of the Bolles School in Florida, he was featured in our home rankings and emerged because the #6 recruit within the class.

He’s the quickest within the class within the 200 free, proudly owning a private better of 1:32.88 which instantly places him within the dialog for a spot on the Wolfpack 800 free relay. Though the crew is shedding nobody from final yr’s squad, Kaii Winkler was the one one on the crew to interrupt 1:32 from a flat begin final season.

Carrington can be 19.8/42.3 within the dash freestyle occasions, making him a relay candidate within the 400 free relay (and certain the 200 sooner or later), and he’s additionally 47.5/1:44.1 within the backstrokes and 1:44.5 within the 200 IM.

Last yr at Winter Juniors – East, he gained the 100 and 200 free whereas inserting 4th within the 200 IM, and people will most likely be his important particular person focuses heading into school. He’s simply over a second shy of NCAA scoring within the 200 free and inside eight-tenths within the 100 free, so he might get there as a freshman if he continues to enhance.

Local NC native Sam Marsteiner is a 200 fly/500 free specialist who was the highest 200 butterflier within the class coming off his sophomore yr of highschool (1:45.2) however didn’t drop time as a senior, nonetheless proudly owning a PB of 1:44.66 from his junior marketing campaign. In the five hundred free, his greatest time of 4:22.68 continues to be on the books from December 2023, and the identical goes for his 1650 (15:16.91).

He’s coming off a strong summer season, which included setting a PB within the lengthy course 1500 (15:49), and has an opportunity to be impactful on the ACC stage this season if he can unlock career-best type in yards once more.

The remainder of the home class contains dash freestylers Austin Temple (20.0/43.9) and Ethan Holloway (20.0/44.5), and divers Mason Lawson and Grant Hester. Holloway, the son of head coach Braden Holloway, can be a good fly sprinter (21.7/48.2) and set 22.9/48.9/1:47.6 backstroke PBs this previous season.

The worldwide class features a pair of game-changing breaststrokers in Turkey’s Nusrat Allayerdi and Poland’s Jan Gajda, and distance aces Andrei Theodor Proca from Romania and Vasileios Kakoulakis from Greece.

Allayerdi owns a standout greatest time of 26.98 within the lengthy course 50 breast—and has been 26.67 from a relay takeover—and is coming off inserting eleventh within the occasion on the European Championships. That converts to 23.4 in yards, whereas he’s additionally 1:00.24 (LCM) and 59.07 (SCM) within the 100 breast, changing to 53.2.

Gajda is barely slower within the 50 breast (27.61 LCM/27.03 SCM), however owns a blistering 57.81 SCM greatest time within the 100, changing to 52.08, and his 200 can be respectable at 2:09.5 in SCM (1:56.7 conversion).

Last season, NC State had the slowest breaststroke cut up amongst top-eight groups at NCAAs within the 200 medley relay, whereas within the 400 medley relay, they’d the slowest breast cut up within the prime 16. That ought to change this yr with Allayerdi and Gajda.

Proca is a standout distance freestyler, coming off a Seventh-place end on the European Championships within the 1500 free (14:57.97 in prelims) and a Twelfth-place end within the 800 free (7:54.26). His SCM greatest instances within the 400/800/1500 stand at 3:46.8/7:39.6/14:37.5, which convert quicker than his LCM instances, popping out at 4:19.2/8:45/14:32.

Kakoulakis gained bronze final summer season on the European Juniors within the 1500 free, the place he set a greatest time of 15:00.29, whereas he’s additionally been 3:50.8 within the 400 and seven:52.5 within the 800 in lengthy course. Those instances given him related conversions to Proca—he’s quicker within the 500 (4:18.6), however barely slower within the 1000 and 1650 (8:49/14:42).

That may imply each are solely scoring threats in a single race, the mile, however Proca’s SCM means signifies he might be pushing for a spot within the prime eight. They’ll type a long way group alongside Max Carlsen, who’s coming off a formidable freshman marketing campaign.

NC State additionally brings in Isaiah Aleksenko, a switch from Keiser University who gained the NAIA titles 100 fly (45.21), 200 fly (1:43.37) and 200 IM (1:44.48) final season. He additionally cut up 19.4/42.1/1:35.6 on Keiser’s free relay final season at NAIAs, including to NC State’s free relay depth.

#7: Stanford Cardinal

Stanford’s class is freestyle/butterfly heavy, and although they’ve acquired two top-20 recruits, Norwegian Sander Sorensen is probably going their largest addition.

Sorensen is the Norwegian Record holder within the males’s 100 and 200 free in each quick course and lengthy course meters. He was a semi-finalist in each races on the 2025 SC European Championships, setting his present NRs of 46.55 and 1:41.87, and on the 2025 World Championships in Singapore, he took ninth within the 200 free (1:45.78) and twenty fourth within the 100 free (48.65).

His SCM instances give him yards conversions of 41.93/1:31.77, placing him atop Stanford’s depth chart within the 100 free and #2 within the 200 free behind Henry McFadden.

Sorensen can be 3:46.6/3:52.3 within the 400 free, changing to 4:18.3 within the 500, and he’s been 24.5/53.6 within the lengthy course fly occasions and 1:59.4 within the SCM 200 IM, making these extra occasion choices for him in school.

#13 Maxwell Stanislaus and #20 Nathan Foucu are the 2 ranked recruits in Stanford’s class, each specializing within the free and fly occasions.

Stanislaus is the second-fastest 500 freestyler within the class together with his greatest time of 4:16.90, whereas he’s additionally close to the highest within the 200 free (1:34.57) and is powerful within the 100 free (43.52), 100 fly (46.88) and 200 fly (1:44.92).

Foucu is barely quicker than Stanislaus within the dash free occasions, proudly owning bests of 19.87/42.52/1:34.31, whereas he’s additionally 47.7 within the 100 fly and 1:47.4 within the 200 IM. Both ought to show extremely invaluable on the Cardinal free relays.

The different home recruits within the class are Enzo Desviat Ruiz and Tyler Phillips, who’re additionally robust free/fly sprinters.

Phillips’ greatest occasions are most likely the 50 and 100 fly (21.3/46.9), however he’s additionally 20.3 within the 50 free and 22.3 within the 50 again. Desviat Ruiz could be very related, sitting at 21.3/46.9 within the dash fly occasions, 20.3 within the 50 free and 22.3 within the 50 again.

The different two strokes are coated within the worldwide class, with Brazilian Davi Carvalho being an excellent backstroker and Greece’s Evangelos Efraim Ntoumas thriving in breaststroke.

Carvalho, who lately repped Brazil on the Junior Pan Pacs, owns lengthy course backstroke greatest instances of 25.49/54.84/2:01.90, giving him strong 21.0/45.5/1:42.3 conversions.

Ntoumas, who was lately fifteenth within the 100 breast on the European Championships, has been 27.59/59.77/2:10.76 within the lengthy course breast occasions, changing to 23.9/52.0/1:54.1.

#6: Florida Gators

The Gators have a powerful class that would’ve been ranked larger had it not been for freestyle stud Kim Junwoo rescinding his dedication in April and opting to remain and practice in Korea.

Although they don’t have any swimmers ranked in our home prime 20, Honorable Mention Liam Smith was proper there (and ranked sixteenth final yr) as somebody who’s well-rounded and one of many prime 200 fly swimmers within the class. His versatility was on full show at Junior Nationals in August, the place he made the ‘A’ closing within the 100 again, 200 again, 200 fly and 400 IM.

During the quick course season, Smith was the runner-up within the 200 fly at Winter Juniors – East in a private better of 1:44.12, which slots him third on Florida’s roster behind an Auburn switch to be talked about under and Matt Cairns (1:43.55). Smith will probably race the IM occasions (1:46.2/3:48.5) in postseason competitors as nicely, although he’s 47.8 within the 100 fly, 4:27 within the 500 free and 1:44.7 within the 200 again.

BOTR Santi Alzate is a rangy freestyler who’s 4:20.6/9:04/15:19 within the distance occasions, and although his 500 greatest time stems from 2024, he lately set lengthy course PBs within the 200 (1:51.32) and 400 free (3:56.45) at Junior Nationals. Alzate can be 1:48.9 within the 200 fly and 1:49.4/3:51.0 within the medley occasions.

Florida has a pair of worldwide butterfliers becoming a member of the crew in Zoltan Bagi out of Hungary and Tai Pearson out of South Africa.

The two personal very related fly greatest instances, with Bagi sitting at 23.84/52.65 within the 50/100 fly in lengthy course, whereas Pearson is 23.91/52.72, giving them conversions within the 20-high/46-low territory. Pearson can be 1:56.84 within the quick course meter 200 fly, which converts to 1:45.2.

Bagi also needs to be an vital dash free pickup, having been 21.85/48.07 briefly course meters, changing to 19.6/43.3.

The largest butterfly addition, nonetheless, will probably be Abdalla Youssef Nasr, who heads to Gainesville after a formidable freshman yr at Auburn, inserting eighth within the 200 fly and Twelfth within the 100 fly at NCAAs for 16 factors.

The greatest instances he posted at NCAAs—44.65 within the 100 fly and 1:39.59 within the 200 fly—rank him #2 and #1 on Florida’s roster, respectively, solely trailing Scotty Buff within the 100 following the commencement of Josh Liendo.

At SECs, Youssef Nasr was fifth within the 200 fly, ninth within the 100 fly and twentieth within the 500 free (4:19.38), and he additionally offered a 1:33.35 lead-off leg on Auburn’s 800 free relay at NCAAs.

The different switch addition for Florida is David Johnston, who will solely have one season of eligibility in comparison with Nasr’s three or 4.

Johnston, a longtime Texas Longhorn, solely raced as soon as final season in early October, however he’s acquired a formidable resume that features inserting Seventh within the 1650 free (14:30.48), eighth within the 400 IM (3:38.56 in prelims) and tenth within the 500 free (4:09.48) on the 2025 NCAAs. If he can recreate that sort of type, he is usually a dependable 20-30 level scorer for the Gators this season.

Colombian diver Miguel Tovar additionally appears to be like like a pleasant pickup because the two-time silver medalist on the World Junior Championships within the 1-meter springboard occasion (2022, 2024).

#5: Indiana Hoosiers

Indiana brings in a loaded home class with the #2 ranked recruit joined by 5 BOTR swimmers and a formidable surrounding group.

Sandpipers of Nevada standout Gabriel Manteufel is the highest distance freestyler within the class with greatest instances of 4:13.55 within the 500, 8:46.56 within the 1000 and 14:40.21 within the 1650. His mile time is simply over half a second shy of a top-eight NCAA scoring time in 2026 (PB would’ve been tenth), whereas within the 500, his greatest time is comfortably beneath the NCAA cutline and fewer than a second shy of scoring.

Coming off setting a protracted course greatest time within the 400 IM (4:21.49), Manteufel’s quick course greatest time in that occasion stands at 3:48.29, which might make for a powerful third occasion if he focuses on it (hasn’t raced it since March 2025), however he’s additionally strong within the 200 free (1:36.17).

Along with Manteufel, the Hoosiers add one other rangy freestyler in Grant Kellis, who’s strong within the sprints (20.9/44.4) however is greatest within the 200 (1:34.4) and 500 (4:22.7), an space that Indiana is already elite in with Luke Whitlock, Aaron Shackell and perhaps Zalan Sarkany for an additional season.

There’s loads of dash free means becoming a member of the roster as Brody Engelstad (19.6/43.1/1:36.7) is a BOTR freestyler and Elliot Rijnovean (20.0/44.1), Sam Wolf (19.8/44.6/1:37.3) and Matt Krause (20.8/44.7/1:37.6) have been featured as BOTR recruits in different strokes however are versatile. There’s extra home expertise in Landon Fike (20.0/44.4), Carter Hadley (20.7/44.0/1:35.5) and Lincoln Hofmann (20.0/43.6), giving Indiana a plethora of depth on this space.

Krause (47.0/1:41.1) and Rijnovean (46.7/1:45.2) are BOTR backstrokers who’re additionally sub-48 within the 100 fly, whereas Hofmann owns robust backstroke PBs of twenty-two.6/47.9/1:43.6. Fike is an elite fly sprinter at 21.0/47.9.

Hadley is coming off a formidable Nationals the place he set bests within the 100 (50.59), 200 (1:48.90) and 400 free (3:56.95) in lengthy course, indicating that he might have potential within the 500 free regardless of solely swimming it as soon as within the final two years (4:35).

The stroke Indiana is synonymous with is breaststroke, they usually’ve acquired one of many world’s prime up-and-coming abilities within the self-discipline becoming a member of the roster this season in Oliver Dawson.

The Commonwealth medalist took possession of all three Canadian males’s LCM breaststroke data this yr, posting instances of 27.28 within the 50, 59.33 within the 100 and a couple of:08.39 within the 200. Those instances give him conversions of 23.67/51.64/1:52.06, proper across the NCAA scoring cut-off, however given his monitor document internationally, there’s little question he’s a possible ‘A’ finalist in each the 100 and 200 as a freshman.

Wolf, a BOTR breaststroker, is available in with a really robust 53.0 greatest time within the 100, and he’s additionally 1:47.5 within the 200 IM.

They’ve additionally added diver Mason Mankey, who gained the U.S. junior title within the 3-meter springboard occasion and positioned third on 1-meter in August.