(Photo: Erin Powers/Sun Devil Athletics)
The NCAA Women’s Swimming Championships took place at the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta, March 19-21, and each day, ASU entered with expectations, only to have them shattered as it failed to reach the top eight in any event and only scored six points, all from relays.
In 2025, the Sun Devils finished 19th with 12 swimmers. This year was a departure from the program’s recent rise, finishing 37th overall out of 47 teams in the competition.
No. 18 ASU was simply outperformed by elite schools like Texas, Stanford and Virginia, which clinched its sixth consecutive title. Each of the top three teams brought more than 15 swimmers who qualified past the preliminary rounds, while ASU struggled to maintain its entry times and advance.
Here are three takeaways from the Championships.
DISAPPEARING IN THE DISTANCE
ASU’s distance swimming hasn’t been its strongest category this year; however, it has remained competitive, earning points for the team. This changed at the NCCAs as the distance swimming proved to be a real weakness.
Senior Deniz Ertan looked to start the distance swims off well for the Sun Devils in the 1650-yard freestyle prelims on Wednesday. The 1650 is typically swam near the end of the championships, but was pushed to the very start this year.
Ertan started with strong splits, but tailed off with the rest of the field picking up their pace. This led to her falling behind with each split, putting herself 21 seconds behind her seeding time of 16:05.98 and far behind the pace needed to qualify for the finals. Ertan finished in 31st place and started a downward spiral for the Sun Devils.
Junior Alexa Reyna had similar results, but without the same strong start as Ertan. She finished with a time of 16:45.41, putting her in 40th place and 27.34 seconds off her seeding time.
Ertan was ASU’s lone swimmer In the 500-yard freestyle on Friday. She finished in last place in the prelims with a time of 4:50.08, over 15 seconds behind the first-place finisher. Her time was also over eight seconds off her seeding time of 4:41.34.
Reyna struggled with her other long-distance swim, the 400-yard individual medley, on Thursday, finishing last among swimmers who set a time. Reyna was 21 seconds off the fastest time and did not advance to the finals, leaving her and the rest of ASU’s distance swimmers with lots to reflect on.
Long distance is a niche; one that ASU needs to fill with a women’s program on the rise. ASU has put itself on the map with back-to-back Big 12 titles, but to compete on the National level, the Sun Devils need to be able to compete with the nation’s elite in all categories.
– Moragn Tremmel
TEAMWORK CAN’T MAKE THE DREAM WORK
Every ASU relay team managed to advance past the preliminary round to the Championships. But the finals humbled the Sun Devils in a way they weren’t familiar with.
Sophomore Jordan Greber said in the lead-up to the Championships that the Sun Devils’ 800-yard freestyle relay team was “super close to point scoring,” however, that didn’t come to fruition.
Greber hit the pool and posted a 1:46.31 split, the second fastest on the team, and only 0.2 seconds behind senior Gerda Szilagyi. Still, the Sun Devils finished 20 places behind the first-place Cavaliers.
Disappointment followed in the 400-yard medley. Freshman Albane Cachot demonstrated her force in collegiate swimming as an anchor, but she couldn’t make up enough time to overcome senior Ginger McMahon’s 59.44-second breaststroke time from the second leg of the race. In the end, ASU finished the race in 22nd.
If there was a bright spot for the Sun Devils, it was the 200-yard relay, where the team claimed 14th place, putting points on the board for the first and only time.
– Jamal Walker
UNUSUAL STRUGGLES AND DQ’S PLAGUE THE SUN DEVILS
Cachot was the only Sun Devil swimmer in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle races. She entered the championships as a newcomer for ASU, having only competed since the beginning of the calendar year, but her brief presence in the water has produced a highlight reel of results.
Before the championships, Cachot had placed in every single race she competed in for the maroon and gold. However, on the biggest stage, she finished 21st in the 100 and 27th in the 50, missing the podium for the first time in her collegiate career.
On the final day of the championships, 10 swimmers withdrew from the competition, three of them coming from ASU. It’s not been disclosed as to why the withdrawals took place, but the swimmers weren’t disqualified or ruled as no-shows, leading to their teams avoiding penalties.
The Sun Devils might not have had the success they were hoping for, and it’ll now be up to head coach Herbie Behm and his team to come back stronger and prove that the end of the 2025-26 season was just a blip in the road, instead of a sign of things to come.
– Jamal Walker
