2026-27 College Swimming Previews — #9 NC State Women Boosted By Young Core and Strong Recruiting Class

#9 NC State Wolfpack

Key Losses: Kennedy Noble (11 NCAA points, 1 NCAA relay), Cassie Moses (1 NCAA relay), Olivia Nel (2 NCAA relays), Katherine Helms (1 NCAA relay), Emma Hastings (NCAA qualifier), Lisa Nystrand (NCAA qualifier)

Key Additions: #7 Emerson Callis (VA – free/back/fly/IM), #10 Zoe Smith (AR – free/back), #12 Emma Cigna (VA – back/fly/IM), BOTR Vera Conic (IL – back), Sydney Gring (Pittsburgh Transfer – back/fly/IM)

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. Still, 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.

2025-26 Lookback

The NC State women’s team is made up of a very young group of athletes, and a particularly strong sophomore class, and that showed in a major way at the NCAA Championships in 2026, breaking back into the single digits with a 9th place finish after taking 10th in 2025 and tying for 9th in 2024.

The biggest addition to the NC State team last year was freshman breaststroker Eneli Jefimova. She came into North Carolina and filled a hole they were desperately seeking in the breaststroke events and became the NCAA Champion in the 100 breast to score 20 points.

Sophomore duo Erika Pelaez and Leah Shackley continued to lead the NC State roster with Pelaez bringing in 36.5 points after she finished 3rd in the 200 back, 4th in the 100 back, and 11th in the 100 fly.

Shackley scored 25 points with her 6th place finish in the 100 back, 7th place in the 200 back, and 17th in the 100 fly.

Senior Kennedy Noble was the final double digit point scorer, picking up 11 points after she finished 15th in the 100 back and 9th in the 200 back.

Sophomore Lily Christianson was the final individual point scorer, bringing in 6 points after she finished 11th in the 50 free.

NC State also finished 4th in the 400 medley relay, 5th in the 200 medley relay, 8th in the 200 free relay, 9th in the 400 free relay, and 17th in the 800 free relay to score 98 relay points at the meet.

Sprint Free: ★★½

Junior Lily Christianson is the only returning sprint freestyle point scorer with 6 points after she finished 11th in the 50 free last season with her 21.56. This was a best time for her, and made her the top swimmer on the team last season.

Senior Tyler Driscoll was also under 22 seconds last season, swimming 21.93 at a last chance meet in February. Driscoll ended up as the 3rd alternate for the NCAA Championships after missing the 21.92 cutline by just one hundredth. If she can match that time this year, she will likely earn an invite and she will be trying to match Christianson with individual points in the event.

In the 100 free, Christianson swam 47.95 at NCAAs to finish 25th overall and will be the top returning individual swimmer in the event. Junior Erika Pelaez had a faster season-best time in the event at 47.20 from the relay leadoff leg at the ACC Championships, which would be a scoring swim, but she is not likely to swim it at NCAAs.

NC State also has sophomore Lily King, who had an off season last year with season best times of 48.37 and 22.38. Her lifetime best in the 100 free of 47.31 would have been well under the NCAA cutline and would have put her in scoring position. If she can find her way back to that mark this year, she could be a second sprint freestyle scorer for NC State.

King was also the 2nd fastest 200 freestyler on the team with the 1:44.91 she swam at the NC State vs UNC meet last year coming in only behind Pelaez’s 1:44.03 from the same meet. The cutline last season was 1:44.00 and it took 1:43.46 to score points, but King could earn an invite in the event.

The Wolfpack picked up #10 ranked Zoe Smith as a sprint freestyle recruit. She is coming in with best times of 22.18/47.80/1:46.34. Her 100 free time is under the NCAA cutline of 47.85 and would earn her an individual invite to the meet.

Finally, Pitt transfer Sydney Gring has bests of 22.18/47.91/1:46.26. She likely won’t swim any of the events individually, but the potential is there, especially with NC State’s depth in the backstroke and butterfly events.

Distance Free: ★

There is a realistic possibility that the only swimming discipline NC State does not score points in at the 2027 NCAA Championships are the distance freestyle events.

The program graduated three of their top four 500 freestylers, with the 4th being Pelaez who will not race the event at NCAAs, and their top two milers after last year.

Kathleen Turano is the top returning distance swimmer with a best 500 free time of 4:48.49 and a best 1650 time of 16:38.28. She would need to see significant drops this season to reach the 4:41.47/16:15.74 marks it took to earn an NCAA Invite in 2026.

A pair of incoming freshmen also have strong 500 free times and could swim the event as well. Emerson Callis has a best 500 free time of 4:44.67 and Emma Cigna sits at 4:45.33.

Backstroke: ★★★★★

The NC State women’s backstroke group is one of the top stroke specific groups in the NCAA, and they will mark the first five star group of these women’s rankings. They also only seem to be getting stronger.

They will have three athletes on the roster who scored in the 100 back at the 2026 NCAA Championships and two scored in the 200 backstroke, on top of the fact that their entire recruiting class swims backstroke as well.

Leah Shackley and Erika Pelaez are two of the best backstrokers in the NCAA. Pelaez earned a 4th place finish in the 100 back and a 3rd place finish in the 200 backstroke in 2026, and was off her ACC best times in both. If she had matched her best times at NCAAs, she would have been the NCAA runner-up in the 100 back.

Shackley also ‘A’ finaled in both backstroke events, finishing 6th in the 100 (49.98) and 7th in the 200 (1:49.74), and she was also off her best of 1:49.67 in the 200 back, which would have been 6th.

Both women are back for this season and are very safe bets to qualify for the ‘A’ final, especially if they continue to improve.

Sydney Gring is a transfer from Pitt, and she also scored points in the 100 backstroke, finishing 11th in a personal best 51.08. She does not swim the 200 back, but will be another solid point threat in the 100 back.

Their freshmen recruits are all also potential backstroke scorers if NC State can develop them, as we have seen from Shackley and Pelaez. Emma Cigna is coming in at 1:52.81 in the 200 back which is under the cutline of 1:53.27. It took 1:51.97 to finish 16th in the 200 backstroke in 2026, under a second faster than Cigna’s best time.

Zoe Smith has a best of 52.30 in the 100 back, Vera Conic has been 52.57, and Emerson Callis has a best of 52.81. The NCAA cutline is 51.70 which is well within striking distance for all three freshmen.

Breaststroke: ★★★★½

If you only have one strong breaststroker, Eneli Jefimova is a very good one to have. The reigning NCAA Champion in the 100 breaststroke, Jefimova is geared for another strong season with the Wolfpack as their only sub-1:00 breaststroker from last season.

Her 56.30 winning time in the 100 breast is the 3rd fastest performance in history in the event, and she still has at least three more years in the NCAA.

She also had a strong summer, setting new personal best times in the 50 and 100 breast semifinals at the European Championships of 29.93 and 1:05.78 respectively. While conversions are not fully accurate, especially at the top level, it bodes well for Jefimova’s NCAA performance to see her setting lifetime bests in long course.

Jefimova is not as strong in the 200 breast, but she swam 2:06.33 at the ACC Championships to finish 9th, which would have been 6th at NCAAs if she had matched that time. She ended up finishing 27th in 2:09.70.

Butterfly: ★★★½

NC State has strong 100 butterflyers, but they have struggled in the 200 fly the last few years. That might change this year with the addition of freshman Emerson Callis.

In the 100 fly, Erika Pelaez is their only returning scorer from 2026, after she finished 11th with her 50.98. Her lifetime best comes from the 2025 NCAA Championships, when she swam 50.65 in the final to finish 10th. That time would have been 8th overall last season.

Leah Shackley finished 17th in the event, stopping the clock in 51.39, which was an add from her season best 50.52, which she set at the ACC Championships. Her lifetime best still stands at 50.29 from before she got to college, and if she can get back to that mark, she would be an ‘A’ finalist.

Sydney Gring also scored points in the 100 fly, finishing 16th with her time of 51.33. This was a new season best for her, but was a little off her lifetime best 51.25 from the 2025 ACC Championships.

Callis is coming in with a best time in the 200 fly of 1:54.82. This is well under the NCAA cutline of 1:56.22 and would have scored in 15th at the 2026 NCAA Championships. If Callis can improve on that time at all as a freshman, she will be a near lock for a top-16 finish in the event.

In the 100 fly, Callis sits at 52.52, which is about half-a-second off the 51.99 invite time.

Emma Cigna is another potential qualifier in the 200 butterfly with her lifetime best of 1:56.12 coming in under the invite mark, but a little off the 1:54.99 it took to score points.

IM: ★★

The only swimmer on the NC State roster this year who scored points in any IM events last season is Pitt transfer Sydney Gring. She finished 10th in the 200 IM, stopping the clock in a personal best 1:54.96.

The fastest returning swimmer in the event on NC State’s roster is junior Teia Salvino, who swam 1:57.75 at the ACC Championships to finish 16th in prelims. This was just half-a-second off the invite time of 1:57.20.

In the 400 IM, Pelaez was the fastest swimmer on last year’s team with the 4:08.42 she swam at the Raleigh Rumble in November. She probably won’t race the event at NCAAs, however.

Their 2nd fastest 400 IMer, Lisa Nystrand was only supposed to be a junior this year, but she is not on their roster for the season.

Emerson Callis will step into the 400 IM role easily with her lifetime best of 4:06.52 coming in as the fastest time on the team. She is two seconds under the cutline of 4:08.80, and only seven hundredths off the 4:06.02 that finished 16th last season. In the 200 IM, she has been 1:58.46.

Emma Cigna is coming in with a lifetime best 4:09.09 in the 400 IM, which is just two tenths over the NCAA cutline of 4:08.80. In the 200 IM, she sits at 1:59.29.

Diving: ★

The Wolfpack did not have any divers at the 2026 NCAA Championships and they only had three divers on their ACC roster.

Their top scoring diver, Grace Hurley is not on the roster for this season after she picked up 16 points at the ACC Championships.

They have Keann Guthrie, Riley McGrath, and Hailey Tipton on their diving roster for this season, none of whom scored any points at ACCs.

Relays: ★★★★

The NC State relays did very well at the 2026 NCAA Championships, finishing in the top 10 in all but one (the 800 free relay), and taking top-five in both medley relays.

They were dealt a major blow after the season, however, with each relay graduating at least one swimmer and two of the freestyle relays losing two swimmers

Their recruiting class is strong, however, and will look to fill in those remaining spots. Sydney Gring and Zoe Smith are particularly strong relay members for the Wolfpack with the potential to take over one of the open spots in all four relays. The two seem like they will battle for Olivia Nel’s open freestyle spot on the very strong medley relays that consist of Shackley, Jefimova, and Pelaez.

Other freshmen potentially fill roles on the 800 free relay with Emma Cigna (1:46.71) and Emerson Callis (1:47.25).

2026-27 Outlook

NC State had a big graduating class, but their top swimmers will still be around for a few more years, which bodes well for their NCAA performance in 2027.

The trio of Erika Pelaez, Leah Shackley, and Eneli Jefimova will help lead a superstar recruiting class that is made up of athletes exactly in the NC State wheelhouse, and their development will be crucial in building a team that can stay inside the top-10 in the coming season.

The addition of Pitt transfer Sydney Gring will be huge for the team’s relays after the graduation of Olivia Nel, and freshman Zoe Smith could be a wild card in relays and individual events if she continues to improve.

Gring will also bring some needed expertise in the 200 IM, and she will be trying to move into ‘A’ final range in the event this year.

Emerson Callis is one of the most versatile swimmers in the class of 2026, and she can step into a lot of open roles on the team leaving the only major gap on the NC State roster in the distance freestyle events.

Women’s 2026-27 College Preview Index