NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP MEET INFORMATION
Purdue Men at the NCAA Championships
Wednesday to Saturday, March 25-28 / ESPN+
Swimming Prelims at 10 a.m.
Diving Prelims at 12 p.m.
Finals Sessions at 6 p.m.
McAuley Aquatic Center / Atlanta, Ga.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A program-record 11 Boilermakers earned the right to compete among the nation’s elite at the NCAA Championships as Purdue Men’s Swimming & Diving will be represented in eight events this week in Atlanta.
Action is set for Wednesday morning through Saturday evening at the McAuley Aquatic Center on the campus of Georgia Tech. Prelim sessions begins at 10 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m. There are no consolation finals this year.
Swimmer Evan Mackesy earned the right to race individually in three events – the 200 and 400 individual medley as well as the 500 freestyle. He’ll also join Jānis Dzirkalis, Alex Hotta and Nathaniel Thomas in Thursday’s 200 free relay. Lucas Byrd joins Hotta, Thomas and Dzirkalis in the 200 medley relay – the first event of the meet. That quartet set a team record (1:23.10) in the event at the Big Ten Championships that doubled as an NCAA automatic qualifying time.
All six of the Boilermakers’ men’s divers qualified for the NCAA Championships. Nathaniel Grannis and Tyler Wills are among the 21 divers nationally this season to qualify in all three events – Grannis achieving the feat as a freshman. Max Miller and Zach Welsh qualified on both springboards. Holden Higbie is back at NCAAs after a redshirt season, qualifying on 3-meter and platform. Kaden Springfield rounds out the sextet, returning to the national championship meet as the 2025 NCAA bronze medalist and an All-American on platform.
The top 16 finishers in the preliminaries clinch All-America honors. The top eight compete for the national championship in the evening finals. Relays remain timed-finals events and teams only race once. The top eight seeds are in the last event of the finals sessions.
INDIVIDUAL EVENT SCHEDULE AT NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
• Lucas Byrd – 200 Medley Relay
• Jānis Dzirkalis – 200 Medley & 200 Free Relays
• Nathaniel Grannis – 1-Meter, 3-Meter & Platform Diving
• Holden Higbie – 3-Meter & Platform Diving
• Alex Hotta – 200 Medley & 200 Free Relays
• Evan Mackesy – 200 & 400 IM, 500 Free; 200 Free Relay
• Max Miller – 1-Meter & 3-Meter Diving
• Kaden Springfield – Platform Diving
• Nathaniel Thomas – 200 Medley & 200 Free Relays
• Zach Welsh – 1-Meter & 3-Meter Diving
• Tyler Wills – 1-Meter, 3-Meter & Platform Diving
PURDUE’S DAILY SCHEDULE IN ATLANTA
All Start Times Approximate
Wednesday, March 25
• 200 Medley Relay (Hotta, Byrd, Thomas, Dzirkalis) – Purdue’s Heat at 10:40 a.m.
Thursday, March 26
• 400 IM (Mackesy) – First Prelim Heat at 10:12 a.m., Final at 6:15 p.m.
• 200 Free Relay (Hotta, Mackesy Thomas, Dzirkalis) – Purdue’s Heat at 11:38 a.m.
• 1-Meter Diving (Grannis, Miller, Welsh, Wills) – Prelim at 12 p.m.; Final: Rounds 1-3 at 6:27 p.m., Rounds 4-6 at 7:10 p.m.
Friday, March 27
• 500 Free (Mackesy) – First Prelim Heat at 10:34 a.m., Final at 6:51 p.m.
• 3-Meter Diving (Grannis, Higbie, Miller, Welsh, Wills) – Prelim at 12 p.m.; Final: Rounds 1-3 at 6:25 p.m., Rounds 4-6 at 7:10 p.m.
Saturday, March 28
• 200 IM (Mackesy) – First Prelim Heat at 10 a.m., Final at 6 p.m.
• Platform Diving (Grannis, Higbie, Springfield, Wills) – Prelim at 12 p.m.; Final: Rounds 1-3 at 6:25 p.m., Rounds 4-6 at 7:08 p.m.
The Purdue men have had at least one diver qualify for NCAAs in all three events every year since 2021. Grannis and Wills will look to join Jordan Rzepka (2025) and Tyler Downs (2022) as Boilermakers this decade to be All-Americans in all three events. Downs punctuated his All-American trifecta by winning the national title on the platform in his lone season competing collegiately.
Miller (gold on 1-meter) and Wills (silver on platform) were both medalists at the Big Ten Championships last month. Grannis and Wills finished top 10 in all three diving events in Madison. Miller is a three-time honorable mention All-American on the springboards, scoring on both 1-meter and 3-meter at NCAAs last season. Higbie was an honorable mention All-American on platform as a freshman in 2024.
All five of the Purdue swimmers will be making their debut at the NCAA Championships. The Boilermakers had a relay qualify for NCAAs for the first time since 2022. Mackesy is the first Purdue swimmer to qualify for NCAAs in the 400 IM since Guillermo Blanco in 2014. It was Blanco’s team record in the 400 IM that Mackesy broke this season and his time (3:40.95) in the event earned the sophomore his individual bid to the national championship meet. Matthew Martin (2001) was the last Boilermaker to race in the 500 free at NCAAs. Martin continues to hold team records in the 1000 and 1650 free.
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2026 NCAAs QUALIFIERS IN ALL 3 DIVING EVENTS (21) |
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• Jesus Agundez – Florida |
• Nathaniel Grannis, Purdue |
Purdue has finished among the top 25 in the team scoring at the NCAA Championships 16 times since 2005. The Boilermakers placed 13th in 2009, 2010 and 2017, winning multiple national titles in diving all three years. Purdue scored in all three diving events at NCAAs every year the meet was held from 2017 to 2022 and did so again last season.
In recent history, the Boilermakers had individual All-Americans in both a swimming event and a diving event at NCAAs in the same year in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2025.
Georgia Tech’s McAuley Aquatic Center is hosting both the women’s and men’s NCAA Championships over the final two weekends of March. It’s the second year in a row and third time since 2022 that the same facility is hosting both national championship meets – the McAuley Aquatic Center also pulled double duty in 2022.
Purdue had three qualifiers – divers Daryn Wright and Avery Worobel plus swimmer Reagan Mattice – for the women’s NCAA Championships last week. Wright closed out her career as an NCAA silver medalist on platform. Worobel (1-meter) and Wright (3-meter) also finished top 10 in a springboard event. They gave the Purdue women an All-American in all three diving events for the second year in a row. The Boilermakers finished 21st in the team scoring.