The calendars have flipped to September, which means that NCAA Division I programs are gearing up for the start of the 2026-27 season.
Now that we’ve gone through the Honorable Mentions, below you can find the 16th through 13th-ranked men’s recruiting classes this season.
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A few important notes on our rankings:
- The rankings listed are based on our Class of 2026 Re-Rank. “HM” refers to our honorable mentions and “BOTR” refers to our Best of the Rest section for top-tier recruits.
- Like most of our rankings, these placements are subjective. We base our team ranks on a number of factors: prospects’ incoming times are by far the main factor, but we also consider potential upside in the class, class size, relay impact, and team needs. Greater weight is placed on known success in short course yards, so foreign swimmers are slightly devalued based on the difficulty in converting long course times to short course production.
- Transfers are included, though they are weighed less than recruits who arrive with four seasons of eligibility.
- For the full list of all verbally committed athletes, click here. A big thank you to SwimSwam’s own Anne Lepesant for compiling that index – without it, rankings like these would be far less comprehensive.
- Some teams had not released a finalized 2026-27 team roster at the time these articles were published, meaning it’s possible we missed some names. Let us know in the comments below.
Honorable Mentions: Minnesota, Harvard, Ohio State, Northwestern, UNC, Kentucky, Georgia Tech
NCAA Swimming and Diving Recruiting Classes – Men’s Class of 2026: #16-13
#16: Michigan Wolverines
- SwimSwam Ranked Recruits: HM Aiden Moy (NY – fly/IM), BOTR Oliver Shao (NY – distance free/IM)
- Remainder of Class: Lucas Young (FL – breast), Sam McCaffrey (Canada – diving), Archie Biggin (Great Britain – diving), Jaxon Bowshire (Texas A&M transfer – diving)
Michigan bolsters its diving group with this recruiting class, and though there are only three incoming freshmen swimmers, they’ve all got the ability to be immediately impactful.
Honorable Mention recruit Aiden Moy had a breakthrough senior year that saw him get down to 47.4/1:44.1 in the 100 and 200 fly and 1:45.2/3:48.8 in the IMs, and he’s also a respectable 1:36.3 in the 200 free. He projects as a 200 fly, 200/400 IM swimmer in college, and he’s fast enough to crack ‘B’ finals at Big Tens in the two 200s right away.
Oliver Shao brings some distance free ability to the team, with bests of 4:22.9/8:58/15:05 along with a 3:48 400 IM. He adds to the team’s distance free depth that includes Lorne Wigginton (14:46) and Will Siegel (14:56), who were both sub-15 last season in the mile, but loses Josh Brown (14:58 for 8th at Big Tens).
Florida native Lucas Young was a BOTR recruit in the boys’ high school class of 2026 rankings last year, but after failing to drop time as a senior, he narrowly missed out on a spot in the recent re-rank. He still owns elite best times of 53.5/1:56.3 in the breaststroke events, which is an area of need for Michigan following the transfer of Luka Mladenovic and the graduation of Ozan Kalafat.
Among the divers, Jaxon Bowshire transfers over from Texas A&M with two seasons of eligibility remaining. The Australian native was the NCAA runner-up in the platform event as a freshman in 2025, but failed to qualify for NCAAs last season. A return to form could be worth double-digit points for Michigan.
Canada’s Sam McCaffrey and Great Britain’s Archie Biggin both represented their countries at the recent World Junior Diving Championships, with McCaffrey winning a gold medal in the 3-meter synchronized event. There’s no synchro in the NCAA, but that talent level will be a good base to build off of.
Despite having no NCAA qualifiers last year, Michigan diving is on the upswing, with the three new additions joining reigning Big Ten champion in the 3-meter event, Emmitt Reesor, who’s entering his sophomore season.
#15: Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Notre Dame will be injected with some distance freestyle prowess with this class, an area that’s mostly been lacking since the departure of Jack Hoagland in 2023.
The Fighting Irish bring in two of the top five milers in the boys’ high school class of 2026, adding 17th-ranked recruit Grant Lilly and BOTR distance freestyler James Darcy.
Lilly owns a best time of 15:01 in the 1650, but his best event would have to be regarded as the 500 free, where his 4:17.50 PB ranks 4th in the class and slots him 2nd on Notre Dame’s roster behind rising junior Patrick Branon (4:15.92).
Lilly is versatile, owning notable bests in butterfly (48.7/1:46.3) and IM (1:49.5/3:51.0), and he’s got some speed, getting down to 1:36.1 in the 200 free.
Darcy is a pure distance freestyler, ranking 4th in the class with his PB of 14:58.09 from the Katie Ledecky Invitational—less than five seconds shy of the NCAA cutline—where he also set his best time in the 500 free (4:24.21). He went on to win the NCSA spring title in the 1000 free in 8:53.54, which ranks him 3rd in the class.
New Jersey native Ryan Quinn cracked the 1:45 barrier in the 200 fly (1:44.99) at Winter Juniors – East en route to winning the ‘B’ final, and he’s also been 46.7 in the 100 fly, 47.4 in the 100 back, and 20.7/45.6 in the sprint freestyles.
Brayden Jones will fit right in with Notre Dame’s large backstroke group, owning bests of 22.3/48.0/1:47.1, and he’s also been 44.9/1:37.8 in the 100 and 200 free.
Finn Martin is a sprint freestyler owning bests of 20.0/43.6/1:36.7, putting him in the conversation for relay spots right away.
#14: Princeton Tigers
Princeton brings in a relatively small but mighty class with one top-20 recruit and two BOTR ranked swimmers to go along with two more newcomers who should be impactful right from the jump.
Yury Kuzmenko, the 12th-ranked recruit in the class, is a unique addition for the Tigers as an incoming freshman who has multiple sub-19 relay splits on his resume, meaning he’ll come in and immediately boost the sprint relays.
Kuzmenko owns flat start best times of 19.3/42.7 in the sprint free events, which will put him in Ivy League ‘A’ finals and slot him right near the top of Princeton’s depth chart behind Patrick Dinu and Logan Noguchi.
Kuzmenko is a well-rounded sprinter, as he’s also been 47.1 in the 100 fly, 54.8 in the 100 breast and 48.7 in the 100 back, making him a Swiss army knife of sorts.
Michael Geh and Isaiah Tucker come in as BOTR recruits who are both strong in free, back and fly.
Geh is more suited to backstroke (47.4/1:43.4), but he’s also an elite 200 freestyler at 1:35.6, and has been 47.9 in the 100 fly and 1:48.0 in the 200 IM. Tucker is a 46.6/1:45.3 butterflier who was also the GHSA 5A state champion in the 100 back (47.5) and has been 20.4/45.0 in the sprint frees.
Peter Vu is a 54.6/1:57.0 breaststroker who also adds some depth in mid-distance free (1:37.4/4:27.7).
The lone international recruit in the class is Australian sprinter Ben Cotroneo, who owns an impressive PB of 49.02 in the long course 100 free, which converts to 42.72 in yards. He’s also been 22.62 in the 50 free, which translates to 19.65, so he’ll add to the relay depth for the Tigers along with vying to become an individual scoring contender.
#13: Georgia Bulldogs
The Bulldogs have an interesting class that’s heavy in sprint free/fly specialists, though there’s also some breaststroke pedigree and an elite transfer addition that should provide immediate help with the loss of Luca Urlando.
Jacob Johnson heads to Athens after spending his first two seasons at Minnesota, and he’s coming off a 4th-place finish in the 200 fly (1:39.20) at NCAAs, which, at 15 points, ties him with Sean Green as the team’s highest-scoring returner from last season.
Johnson also logged a new lifetime best of 44.86 in the 100 fly at Big Tens, which is fast enough to score at NCAAs, though he finished 27th there in 45.27.
Beyond Johnson, Georgia’s class is headlined by BOTR breaststroker Jude Banks, who broke the 53-second barrier last season in the 100 breast in 52.99, which would rank 2nd on the Bulldogs’ roster last season behind Elliot Woodburn (51.20).
In addition to his 52.99 swim, Banks has been 53-point-something 14 different times over the last two years, showing impressive consistency. His 200 is lagging behind the 100 (2:01.3), but he has a 23.6 50 breast relay leg on his resume, which will be crucial for the team in future medley relays.
They’ve also got South Carolina native Maddex Ternes joining as a 54.7/1:59.5 breaststroker who’s also versatile in free (20.4/45.7/1:37.5/4:30), has been 49.2 in both back and fly, and goes 1:47.8 in the 200 IM.
Among the other domestic recruits, Sam Lofstrom is sub-20 in the 50 free (19.9) and 44.4/48.3 in the 100 free/fly, while Isaiah Lewis has a similar skillset with 20.2/44.7 free times and 21.8/48.9 sprint fly PBs. Nicholas Kwan is more suited to the longer events with 1:37.8/4:28 best times in the 200 and 500 free, and he’s also been 1:48.5 in the 200 fly.
Erkhes Enkhtur is well-rounded, but leans towards backstroke (21.4/47.5/1:47.5) as his specialty, though he’s also been 20.5 in the 50 free, 55.1 in the 100 breast, 48.3 in the 100 fly and 1:47.9 in the 200 IM.
On the international side, German Lukas Fritzke is a rangy freestyler with long course bests of 1:49.4/3:52.3/8:07/15:59, while he’s been 1:46.1/3:45.7/15:26 in short course. He’s also a respectable IMer at 2:00.5/4:13.1 in SCM.
Columbia’s Frank Solano adds to the sprint free/fly depth with long course bests of 22.0/50.2 in free and 24.0 in the 50 fly.
Omar Elsayed comes in as a diving transfer from Grand Canyon, having won the men’s platform title and placed 2nd on both springboards at the 2026 Big West Conference Championships.
