{"id":652957,"date":"2026-09-09T08:30:58","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T15:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=652957"},"modified":"2026-09-09T08:30:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T15:30:58","slug":"whos-back-a-look-at-the-returning-ncaa-finalists-for-the-2026-27-season-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/whos-back-a-look-at-the-returning-ncaa-finalists-for-the-2026-27-season-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Who\u2019s Back? A Look at the Returning NCAA Finalists for the 2026-27 Season (Men)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Who\u2019s Back? A Look at the Returning NCAA Finalists for the 2026-27 Season (Men)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As the next NCAA season prepares to begin, more than half of the championship finalists from last year&#8217;s NCAA Championships are slated to return. Cal&#8217;s Yamato Okadome (100 breaststroke\/200 breaststroke) and Virginia&#8217;s Maximus Williamson (200 freestyle\/200 individual) will defend titles in a pair of events, while Arizona State&#8217;s Ilya Kharun (200 butterfly), Texas&#8217; Rex Maurer (400 individual medley) and Florida&#8217;s Ahmed Jaouadi (1650 freestyle) and Ahmed Hafnaoui (500 freestyle) are also back as champions.<\/p>\n<p>Julian Koch was a finalist for Pittsburgh in the 200 freestyle and 100 butterfly last year, but has since transferred to Tennessee. In the breaststroke events, two-time defending champion Texas picked up Luka Mladenovic (Michigan) as a transfer. Meanwhile, Indiana looks like it will retain multi-event finalists Zalan Sarkany and Owen McDonald after a judge ruled they would be given a fifth year of eligibility to coincide with the new five-in-five rule adopted by the NCAA.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a look at the championship-heat finalists who are set to return to NCAA competition for the 2026-27 season:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/swimmeetresults.tech\/NCAA-Division-I-Men-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NCAA Championships Results (2026)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>50 Freestyle<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>3. Ilya Kjarun (Arizona State) &#8211; 18.24<br \/>\n4. Quintin McCarty (N.C. State) &#8211; 18.47<br \/>\n7. Nikita Sheremet (Louisville) &#8211; 18.65<br \/>\n8. Brendan Whitfield (Virginia Tech) &#8211; 18.66<\/p>\n<p><strong>100 Freestyle<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>2. Jere Hribar (LSU) &#8211; 40.33<br \/>\n4. Julian Koch (Pittsburgh) &#8211; 40.43**<br \/>\n6. Quintin McCarty (N.C. State) &#8211; 40.90<br \/>\n7. Tomas Lukminas (Arizona) &#8211; 41.11<br \/>\n8. Brendan Whitfield (Virginia Tech) &#8211; 41.22<br \/>\n**Transferred to Tennessee<\/p>\n<p><strong>200 Freestyle<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. Maximus Williamson (Virginia) &#8211; 1:30.03<br \/>\n2. Koby Bujak-Upton (Tennessee) &#8211; 1:30.11<br \/>\n3. Henry McFadden (Stanford) &#8211; 1:30.13<br \/>\n6. Kaii Winkler (N.C. State) &#8211; 1:30.93<br \/>\n7. Keaton Jones (Cal) &#8211; 1:31.08<\/p>\n<p><strong>500 Freestyle<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. Ahmed Hafnaoui (Florida) &#8211; 4:06.56<br \/>\n2. Ahmed Jaouadi (Florida) &#8211; 4:06.90<br \/>\n3. Rex Maurer (Texas) &#8211; 4:07.88<br \/>\n4. Zalan Sarkany (Indiana) &#8211; 4:07.95**<br \/>\n6. Leonardo Alcantara (Alabama) &#8211; 4:11.87<br \/>\n7. Aaron Shackell (Indiana) &#8211; 4:12.23<br \/>\n8. Sean Green (Georgia) &#8211; 4:13.29<br \/>\n**Granted Fifth Year of Eligibility<\/p>\n<p><strong>1650 Freestyle<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. Ahmed Jaouadi (Florida) &#8211; 14:10.03<br \/>\n2. Zalan Sarkany (Indiana) &#8211; 14:12.20**<br \/>\n4. Ahmed Hafnaoui (Florid) &#8211; 14:22.64<br \/>\n6. Luke Whitlock (Indiana) &#8211; 14:34.30<br \/>\n8. Carson Hick (Kentucky) &#8211; 14:39.66<br \/>\n**Granted Fifth Year of Eligibility<\/p>\n<p><strong>100 Backstroke<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>4. Will Modglin (Texas) &#8211; 43.80<br \/>\n5. Johnny Crush (Army) &#8211; 43.84<br \/>\n5. Owen McDonald (Indiana) &#8211; 43.84**<br \/>\n7. Marcus Reyes-Gentry (Notre Dame) &#8211; 44.14.<br \/>\n**Granted Fifth Year of Eligibility<\/p>\n<p><strong>200 Backstroke<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>2. Jonny Marshall (Florida) &#8211; 1:37.15<br \/>\n3. David King (Virginia) &#8211; 1:37.43<br \/>\n5. Tommy Hagar (Alabama) &#8211; 1:38.63<\/p>\n<p><strong>100 Breaststroke<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. Yamato Okadome (Cal) &#8211; 49.90<br \/>\n2. Campbell McKean (Texas) &#8211; 50.25<br \/>\n3. Nate Germonprez (Texas) &#8211; 50.38<br \/>\n5. Luka Mladenovic (Michigan) &#8211; 50.47**<br \/>\n6. Alexei Avakov (Indiana) &#8211; 50.58<br \/>\n8. Will Modglin (Texas) &#8211; 51.01<br \/>\n**Transferred to Texas<\/p>\n<p><strong>200 Breaststroke<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. Yamato Okadome (Cal) &#8211; 1:48.61<br \/>\n2. Josh Bey (Indiana) &#8211; 1:48.79<br \/>\n3. Luka Mladenovic (Michigan) &#8211; 1:49.34**<br \/>\n4. Ben Delmar (North Carolina) &#8211; 1:49.66<br \/>\n5. Nate Germonprez (Texas) &#8211; 1:49.69<br \/>\n6. Toby Barnett (Indiana) &#8211; 1:49.80<br \/>\n7. Gabe Nunziata (Tennessee) &#8211; 1:50.26<br \/>\n8. Eli Martin (Virginia Tech) &#8211; 1:52.04<br \/>\n**Transferred to Texas<\/p>\n<p><strong>100 Butterfly<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>3. Ilya Kharun (Arizona State) &#8211; 42.92<br \/>\n4. Thomas Heilman (Virginia) &#8211; 43.58<br \/>\n6. Scotty Buff (Florida) &#8211; 43.67<br \/>\n8. Julian Koch (Pittsburgh) &#8211; 44.28**<br \/>\n**Transferred to Tennessee<\/p>\n<p><strong>200 Butterfly<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. Ilya Kharun (Arizona State) &#8211; 1:37.66<br \/>\n2. Thomas Heilman (Virginia) &#8211; 1:38.16<br \/>\n4. Jacob Johnson (Minnesota) &#8211; 1:39.20**<br \/>\n5. Logan Robinson (Florida State) &#8211; 1:39.44<br \/>\n6. Raekwon Noel (Indiana) &#8211; 1:39.54<br \/>\n8. Abdalla Youssef (Auburn) &#8211; 1:40.68<br \/>\n**Transferred to Georgia<\/p>\n<p><strong>200 Individual Medley<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. Maximus Williamson (Virginia) &#8211; 1:38.48<br \/>\n2. Owen McDonald (Indiana) &#8211; 1:38.57**<br \/>\n4. Will Modglin (Texas) &#8211; 1:40.94<br \/>\n6. Daniel Diehl (N.C. State) &#8211; 1:41.03<br \/>\n7. Josh Bey (Indiana) &#8211; 1:41.98<br \/>\n8. Noah Cakir (Indiana) &#8211; 1:42.23<br \/>\n**Granted Fifth Year of Eligibility<\/p>\n<p><strong>400 Individual Medley<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. Rex Maurer (Texas) &#8211; 3:32.96<br \/>\n4. Lorne Wigginton (Michigan) &#8211; 3:35.63<br \/>\n5. Ryan Erisman (Cal) &#8211; 3:36.32<br \/>\n6. Cooper Lucas (Texas) &#8211; 3:36.87<br \/>\n7. Josh Bey (Indiana) &#8211; 3:37.23<br \/>\n8. Joshua Staples (Northwestern) &#8211; 3:43.95<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who\u2019s Back? A Look at the Returning NCAA Finalists for the 2026-27 Season (Men) As the next NCAA season prepares to begin, more than half of the championship finalists from<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7533,"featured_media":640429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[138314,132511],"class_list":["post-652957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-college","tag-returning-finalists","tag-yamato-okadome"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>A Look at the Returning NCAA Finalists for 2026-27 Season (Men)<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"More than half of the finalists from last year&#039;s NCAA Men&#039;s Championships are back for the 2026-27 college season.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/whos-back-a-look-at-the-returning-ncaa-finalists-for-the-2026-27-season-women\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who\u2019s Back? 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