Texas Women Look to New Faces to Continue Top-Three Streak in 2026 College Swimming Season

By Madeline Folsom on SwimSwam

It’s that time of the year again. SwimSwam will be previewing the top 12 men’s and women’s teams (and then some) from the 2025 NCAA Championships. Follow along with the College Swimming Preview Channel. Want to read even more? Check out the latest edition of the SwimSwam magazine. 

Women’s #3: Texas Longhorns

Key Losses: Emma Sticklen (48 NCAA Points, 4 NCAA relays), Hailey Hernandez (21 NCAA Points), Abby Arens (13 NCAA Points, 3 NCAA relays), Olivia Bray (2 NCAA Points, 1 NCAA relay), Grace Cooper (2 NCAA relays), Ava Longi (2 NCAA relays)

Key Additions: #7 Haley McDonald (KY – back/IM), #20 Sarah Rodrigues (NJ–back/free), BOTR Avery Collins (TX – breast), Lucy Mehraban (Louisville Transfer – free), Eva Okaro (Great Britain – free), Inez Miller (Singapore – free), Nikolett Padar (Hungary – free)

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, but 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.

2024-25 Lookback

The Texas women had a strong year, and they made the most of their last season with a strong class of fifth-year swimmers.

They finished 3rd at the 2025 NCAA Championships after earning the runner-up spot three years in a row behind Virginia. Last year, they fell to Virginia and Stanford, coming in just over 20 points behind the Cardinal, who had their highest finish since 2019.

Graduate Student Emma Sticklen led the team in points, bringing in 48 individual points with her win (and NCAA record) in the 200 fly, 3rd place finish in the 100 fly, and 7th place finish in the 200 IM.

She was followed in the point totals by freshman diver Alejandra Estudillo Torres and sophomore Jillian Cox at 42 and 40 points, respectively.

Estudillo Torres finished 1st in the 3-meter, 6th in the 1-meter, and 9th in the platform events, and Cox won the 500 and 1650 freestyles (the only events she swam).

Joining Cox in the Longhorns Sophomore Class were diver Bayleigh Cranford (29 points), Campbell Stoll (24 points), and Erin Gemmell (12 points). There was also a quartet of freshmen who came in after Estudillo Torres in Piper Enge (14 points) and Kate Hurst, Lillian Nesty, and Campbell Chase, who all scored seven points.

Hailey Hernandez was the only senior individual point scorer with 21 total points, and Abby Arens (13) and Olivia Bray (2) were the final Longhorn point scorers at the meet.

Texas also won its first SEC Championship, taking home the trophy in its very first year in the conference and dethroning the defending champions, Florida.

The scores at that meet were also led by Sticklen, who scored 96 points by winning all three of her events. Campbell Stoll scored the 2nd most at 83.

Sprint Free: ★★★ ½

Last season, the Longhorns were weak in the 50 and 100 events. Grace Cooper was the highest finisher in the 50, touching in 18th at 21.91, and Erin Gemmell was the highest 100 freestyle finisher, tying for 16th before losing the swim-off to Georgia’s Helena Jones for the last spot in the final.

Their 200 freestyle was stronger, with Erin Gemmell bringing in 12 points with her 7th place finish at 1:43.52, and Lillian Nesty scoring 7 points after finishing 10th in 1:42.86, her lifetime best. Gemmell added about a second in the 200 free final, with her best time coming in at 1:42.32 from the SEC Championships in February. That time would have been 5th at last year’s Championships, which would have been 14 points for the team.

Nesty is another potential ‘A’ finalist if she can have a stronger prelim swim. Last season, it took 1:43.24 out of prelims to qualify for the ‘A’ final, and she touched 10th in 1:43.52.

Gemmell also added in the 100 freestyle. Her best time of 47.38 would have comfortably qualified for the ‘A’ final, where she would have finished 10th for 7 points.

This might be the area where Texas will see the most improvement this year, though. They are bringing in a major international sprinter in Great Britain’s Eva Okaro, the World Junior record holder in the SCM 50 freestyle. Her 50 free best time converts to 21.33, which would have finished 5th place, and her 100 free converts to 47.67, which would have been 12th.

They also picked up Louisville transfer Lucy Mehraban, who has best times of 22.05 and 47.81. She finished 16th in the 100 free at last year’s Championships, and she will help boost the 100 free points for Texas.

Nikolett Padar is also coming in as a freshman from Hungary, and her 200 freestyle best time converts to 1:42.55, which would have qualified for the ‘A’ final last year.

Distance Free: ★★★★★

Texas will return the reigning NCAA Champion in both distance events. Jillian Cox took home both golds last year, and she is one of the favorites to repeat that performance this year.

She won the 500 freestyle by more than two seconds over two seniors, touching in 4:31.58. The fastest returning swimmer is Katie Grimes, who comes in at 4:34.25 after finishing 4th overall. The 1650 is a similar story, with Cox winning the event by nearly seven seconds over Stanford’s Aurora Roghair.

While she will face a challenger in the form of Claire Weinstein, from Cal, it is safe to say she is an easy prediction for the top two at least.

The Longhorns will also return Kate Hurst, who finished 10th in the 1650 and 32nd in the 500 free. She swam 15:54.37 in the mile at NCAAs, but her lifetime best of 15:47.93 from SECs a month prior would have been 4th overall. She has an NCAA season and a double taper under her belt now, so she could be a serious point threat in the mile.

Her 500 is also a potential point event, with her best time of 4:37.59 putting her in ‘B’ finals position, where she would have finished 12th.

Erin Gemmell and Lillian Nesty also have lifetime best times in the 500 that would make them potential finalists. Nesty finished 30th in 4:40.44, a four-second add from the 4:36.72 she swam at SECs. That time would have made her a comfortable ‘A’ finalist, where she would have been 7th. Gemmell was 37th at NCAAs in 4:41.74, a three-second add from her best of 4:38.21, which would make the ‘B’ final.

Among incoming swimmers, they have Nikolett Padar, whose LC best converts to 4:37.95 in the 500 freestyle, another potential ‘B’ finalist.

If all the Texas pieces are on for NCAAs, they could easily end up with multiple top-eight finishers in both distance events, including the champion in Cox.

Backstroke: ★★

Texas did not have any point scorers in either backstroke event last season. Berit Berglund is their top returning backstroker, with her season best time sitting at 51.02 from the SEC Championships. She swam the event at NCAAs, finishing 43rd after a two-second add to touch in 52.41, but her season best time would have been 14th overall.

Berglund also swam the 200 backstroke, adding two-and-a-half seconds from her best of 1:52.97 to swim 1:55.22. Her best still sits just outside of scoring position in the event, with 1:51.75 earning the 16th place out of prelims.

Nesty was the fastest 200 backstroker for the Longhorns last season, coming in at 1:52.51, though she swam 1:53.47 at NCAAS to finish 31st.

They are bringing in two ranked backstrokers in the freshman class with our #7 recruit, Haley McDonald, and our #20 recruit, Sarah Rodrigues. McDonald’s 200 back best of 1:52.74 would sit just outside of scoring. She has been dealing with injury, so it isn’t clear what kind of form she will be in when she arrives in Austin, but she swam 2:13.17 in the long course 200 backstroke in July, which is a strong indication that she is returning to top form.

Rodrigues is also better at the 200, and her lifetime best of 1:51.14 would have been 10th last year. Her 100 back best time sits at 51.89, which would have been 30th, about seven tenths outside of scoring position.

Breaststroke: ★★ ½

The Longhorns only had two athletes in the women’s 100 breaststroke last year, Piper Enge and Abby Arens.

Enge will be returning this year after finishing 5th in the 100 breast as a freshman. Their final time of 58.19 was about four tenths off their best time of 57.69, which would have finished 4th in the event.

In the 200 breast, Enge finished 32nd, touching in 2:10.60, about three seconds off the 2:07.90 mark they set in January. That time would have comfortably been in the ‘B’ final out of prelims, where they would have finished 13th.

Texas also had Campbell Chase in the 200, where she finished 33rd in 2:10.74, a new personal best time.

They are bringing in BOTR recruit Avery Collins, who has best times of 1:00.47 and 2:10.42. These are over the NCAA cutlines of 59.51 and 2:09.58, but with slight drops, she could be a conference scorer.

Butterfly: ★★½

Texas has had one of the top butterflyers in the NCAA the last few years in the recently graduated Emma Sticklen. Last year, she was 3rd in the 100 fly and 1st in the 200 fly, setting a new NCAA record in the process.

On top of Sticklen, they also graduated NCAA scoring butterflyers in Abby Arens and Olivia Bray, quickly going from one of the top butterfly groups in the NCAA, earning five stars on this ranking last year, to a struggling one.

The fastest returning butterflyer this season is junior Campbell Stoll, who holds best times of 51.44 and 1:51.64. Stoll did not swim the 100 butterfly last season, opting for the 400 IM instead, where she was a finalist. It doesn’t seem likely that she will flip that event choice this season, but she will still be available for the medley relays.

Stoll did swim the 200 butterfly, earning a spot in the ‘A’ final, finishing 7th in 1:52.29. Her best time would have been 4th, just ahead of Virginia’s Tess Howley and behind two graduates.

The Longhorns are in a rough spot in the 100 fly individually. They had five swimmers in the event at SECs last year, and all five of them have graduated. Nesty (52.44), Angie Coe (53.06), Campbell Chase (53.54), and Emma Kern (53.78) are the next fastest flyers after Stoll, but all three swam other events last season. Only Nesty is under the 52.92 mark it took to score at SECs, and she likely will not drop the 200 freestyle.

Eva Okaro is the only butterflyer Texas is bringing in this season. Her best time converts to 51.95, which is in scoring position at conference, but is seven tenths over the 51.35 it took in the prelims to score.

IM: ★★★½

The Texas IM group will be led by a pair of Campbells this season, with Campbell Stoll returning as the top swimmer in both and Campbell Chase coming in just behind her.

While Stoll had the faster times last year, Chase came out on top in the 200 IM at NCAAs, finishing 10th overall in 1:53.90 to Stoll’s 1:54.78 for 12th. Both women added a bit with Chase coming in one-hundredth behind the 1:53.89 mark she set at the Eddie Reese Texas Showdown, which would not have changed her event finish.

Stoll added from the 1:53.37 she went at the SEC Championships. That time would have earned an ‘A’ finals swim, with the 8th place time out of prelims coming in at 1:53.72.

Angie Coe also swam the 200 IM, finishing 38th in 1:57.13. This was a three-second add from her best of 1:54.33, which would have been 10th out of prelims.

In the 400 IM, Stoll was the only Longhorn point scorer, finishing 10th in 4:04.55, a second-and-a-half add from her lifetime best of 4:03.11 from the SEC Championships. That time would have been 6th overall.

Chase finished 18th in 4:07.36, about a second off her best of 4:06.57, which would have been comfortably in the ‘B’ final.

Coe was 26th in 4:10.35. Her best of 4:08.63 would have sat just outside of finals position at 21st.

Haley McDonald is the top IMer, coming in at 1:55.90 in the 200 and 4:12.26 in the 400. Her 200 IM time is more than a second under the cutline, and she sits less than half a second outside the scoring position of 1:55.50.

Diving: ★★★★

The second-highest point scorer for the Longhorns at NCAAs was freshman diver Alejandra Estudillo Torres. She brought in 42 points with two top-eight finishes and one 9th-place finish, and she was only a freshman. Twenty of her 42 points came in the form of an event win on the 3-meter springboard.

Texas also has current junior Bayleigh Cranford, who brought in 29 points on the boards, also scoring in all three. Her highest finish was 6th on the platform.

Current sophomore Taylor Fox scored 51 points at SECs and is another potential conference point scorer.

Relays: ★★★★

Note that the grading system doesn’t align perfectly for relays as double points.

Relay grading system:

• 5 star (★★★★★) – 31+ points per relay event
• 4 star (★★★★) – 22-30 relay points per event
• 3 star (★★★) – 12-21 relay points per event
• 2 star (★★) – 5-11 relay points per event
• 1 star (★) – 0-4 relay points per event

The relays will be an interesting position for the Texas team. They graduated a lot of their top relay swimmers, and they have a lot of room for improvement from last year. A huge space for improvement, though, will come in replicating their relay swims when it matters. Texas added time in all but one relay from SECs to NCAAs, and the one relay they did not add in was disqualified at the SEC Championships.

Their highest finish came in the 800 freestyle relay, where they finished 4th in 6:53.49. They will return three of the four athletes who swam on that relay ,with only Ava Longi graduating. Their only other top-five finish came in the 400 medley relay, where they finished 5th in 3:26.11, and two of the four swimmers, Olivia Bray and Emma Sticklen, will not return this season.

Their lowest finish came in the 200 freestyle relay, which placed 8th and will not return a single swimmer this year.

Here is a look at how the relays looked last season:

The 200 freestyle relay will see a completely new team from last year, and Eva Okaro will be leading the charge with her time converting to the fastest 50 time on the team. She will likely be joined by Lucy Mehraban, who will come in with another one of the top times on the team. Other Longhorns who could step into relay positions include senior Sienna Schellenger, junior Alexa Fulton, and incoming freshman Inez Miller. With the addition of Okaro, it is not unlikely that the team does the same, if not better than last year.

The 400 freestyle relay seems like it will be a pretty basic swap of Sticklen and Arens for Okaro and Mehraban, which will likely make the relay faster, and could propel it to a top 5 finish.

Their best bet for a top-three finish looks like the 800 freestyle relay right now. Longi was their only graduate from the relay, and it was already their highest finish of the meet. Her leg on the relay will probably go to Nikolett Padar, whose time converts to 1:42.55, which would be a huge swim for the team, and would be a second-and-a-half faster than the 1:44.08 that Longi swam on the relay last year.

Some combination of Okaro, Sarah Rodrigues, and Mehraban will likely take over the medley relay spots vacated by Sticklen, Arens, Grace Cooper, and Olivia Bray. There is also a chance that Mehraban takes over the freestyle leg of the 400 medley relay from Lillian Nesty, depending on who is faster. The only lock on the Texas medley right now is Piper Enge on the breaststroke.

Total Stars: 27/40

2025-26 Outlook

Texas graduated a lot of its top scoring swimmers, and some huge relay contributors – 90 points, and at least half of most of their relays are gone, leaving last year’s freshmen and sophomores to lead the team since Texas had no juniors score points.

Jillian Cox is their highest returning point scorer, and her performance in the distance freestyle events will be crucial for the team, looking to maintain their position or move up from last year. The current junior class as a whole was the highest-scoring Texas class last year, bringing in 105 points for the team.

The new sprint freestyle core will make or break the Longhorns and their point totals this year. Eva Okaro and Lucy Mehraban will be significant relay swimmers, and their individual swims have the potential to fill Texas’ major gap last season.

Diving has buoyed the Texas point totals for years, and that doesn’t seem to be coming to a close this year. With Virginia cutting their diving program entirely, that is an excellent place to pick up crucial points for the team, and they have the talent on the roster to do it.

While they lost a lot, there are still a lot of weapons on the Longhorn team, and they will need to use all of them to their full potential if they want to maintain their top-three spot, or even challenge for the title.

They seem to be in a safe spot in the SEC, winning last year’s meet by almost 300 points, and we are likely looking at at least a few more years of Texas’ reign in the conference.

WOMEN’S 2025-26 COLLEGE PREVIEW INDEX

Read the full story on SwimSwam: 2026 College Swimming Previews: #3 Texas Women Counting On New Faces To Extend Top-Three Run