Michigan
NCAA Championships
Michigan Turns Attention to NCAA Championships in Atlanta
3/16/2026 9:06:00 AM | Women's Swimming & Diving
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The No. 4-ranked University of Michigan women's swimming and diving team (11-2, 5-0 Big Ten) will travel to Atlanta, Ga., for the 2026 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships. The four-day meet, running Wednesday through Saturday (March 18-21), will be held inside Georgia Tech's McAuley Aquatic Center and will be streamed on ESPN+. Preliminaries will begin at 10 a.m. and finals will start at 6 p.m. on all four days.
Notes
• Eleven Wolverines qualified for the NCAA Championships and will compete in 23 individual events across four days of competition.
• The championships will feature a new format this season, with only the top eight individual swimmers and relay teams advancing to the evening sessions.
• Michigan enters the national meet with momentum after capturing the Big Ten Championship in February. The Wolverines totaled 1,243 points to secure the program's 18th conference title.
• Bella Sims enters the championships as the top seed in the 400-yard IM and the No. 2 seed in the 100-yard backstroke. In her first Big Ten Championships, Sims claimed two individual titles and helped Michigan win three relay crowns, earning Swimmer of the Championships honors.
• Hannah Bellard has had a standout junior season, setting a Big Ten record in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:50.34. She enters the NCAA Championships with the nation's fastest time in the event and will also compete in the 400-yard IM after finishing second behind Sims at the Big Ten Championships.
• Senior Letitia Sim qualified for three events at the NCAA Championships and will compete in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke as well as the 200-yard IM. Sim swept the breaststroke titles at the Big Ten Championships and placed third in the 200 IM. She enters the national meet ranked among the top 16 nationally in all three events.
• Brady Kendall will compete in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly. The senior set a Big Ten record in the 50 free with a time of 21.09, which ranks third nationally, while her season-best 50.53 in the 100 fly is ninth in Division I.
• Lexi Greenhawt will race in three events and three different stroke disciplines. The junior will compete in the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard butterfly. Greenhawt owns two top-16 national marks in the 50 free and 100 back.
• Sophomores Leila Fack and Marian Ploger each earned two event qualifications. Fack will take on the best in the nation in the 100-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly while Ploger will race in the 500-yard and 1,650-yard freestyles.
• In diving, Kiarra Milligan qualified for the three-meter event after finishing in the top 10 at the NCAA Zone Championships. Milligan has reached the three-meter final in each of the last two seasons.
Players Mentioned
