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Men’s College Swimming Recruiting Times

While many swimmers dream of swimming for a Division 1 school, there are many more opportunities at other division levels. The key to finding the right fit is evaluating a school based on athletic, academic, social and financial fit. This page gives you an idea of the times needed at the various levels of college swimming with the aim of helping you identify the right fit athletically.

Quick Links

Am I fast enough to swim in college?

“Am I good enough to compete in college swimming?” “How fast do college swimmers need to be?” Student-athletes ask these questions as they evaluate if they have what it takes to compete at the college level.

NCSA’s college swimming times show a men’s swimming recruit exactly what level of competition he’s best suited for based on the averages of what coaches at every collegiate level are looking for.

In addition to swimming times, student-athletes will need to make sure they maintain their athletic eligibility and NCAA GPA requirements. Are camps for swimming training expensive?

Tips for training without access to a pool

In an interview with For the Win about training while in quarantine, Olympic swimmer Ryan Murphy said he’s focused on dryland workouts and is considering this time as a healthy break from the water. His words are an important reminder that it’s okay to take a break and to consider this unexpected time away from the pool as an opportunity to focus on cross training.

Like Ryan Murphy, athletes across the swimming community are focused on dryland workouts geared towards core, cardio and strength conditioning. Some coaches are even running Zoom dryland practices to help keep their athletes motivated. For training inspiration, check out what athletes at all levels are doing to stay in shape:

• SwimSwam is publishing daily dryland workouts.
• U.S. National Team athletes share their training alternatives.
• Russian Olympian Yulia Efimova posts her unique at-home quarantine workout.

Swim Outlet is hosting virtual dryland workouts on Instagram Live.

College Swimming Times Needed: What times do I need to swim in college?

Tier 1 Standards (Elite Power 5 D1)

Tier 2 Standards (Elite D2-D3, Strong Mid-major D1, Power 5 D1)

Tier 3 Standards (Elite NAIA, Mid-strong D2/D3, Low to Mid-major D1)

Tier 4 Standards (Low-average D2/D3, Low-strong NAIA)

1.36.3 and faster

4.23.3 and faster

15.26.1 and faster

1.46.7 and faster

1.45.0 and faster

1.58.4 and faster

1.46.8 and faster

3.51.5 and faster

As student-athletes evaluate their opportunities in the recruiting process, one of the most important steps is to set realistic expectations about what type of program is best suited for them.

Does the talent level mirror those of NCAA D1 college swimming scholarship recipients? Or, maybe the recruit’s talent would gain greater college swimming scholarship interest from a D2 or NAIA school.

This college swimming times chart gives recruits and their families a better understanding of what coaches expect for each event across all levels of competition.

College Swimming Times for Scholarships

The most important thing to remember when looking for a scholarship is that there is no minimum time that guarantees you will get a scholarship. Swimmers can increase their chances of being awarded a scholarship by looking for programs where they can contribute points to the team at the conference and national level. High school student-athletes who want to compete in college are understandably often focused on improving their individual best times, but it’s important to remember that when it comes to deciding scholarship money, coaches are more likely to give money to swimmers who can contribute the most points, which means being able to contribute in relays in addition to individual events is worth more than just individual events.

Men’s Division 1 Swimming Times

It’s no mistake that our tier 1 swimming times do not have a top limit for event times – coaches at the elite D1 programs, such as California, Texas and Indiana, are always looking for recruits who can push their team even further.

The NCAA publishes qualifying standards for the Division 1 National Championships. A Standards are very elite, while B Standards are still common marks for strong D1 programs.

Swimmers at the top end of D1 schools also typically meet the standards for the Futures Championships. Times for the majority of schools in the D1 level are comparable to the standards for the Futures Championships.

For any one particular school, student-athletes will need to be at or within a close scoring range for the conference’s championship meet.

Men’s Division 2 Swimming Times

Competitive D2 and D3 programs recruit student-athletes whose swimming times match the Speedo Sectionals time standards, at the least. Top programs in D2 use the Futures Championships standards, as well. Many coaches will only reach out to a student-athlete once he has met those competitive times.

Men’s Division 3 Swimming Times

Similar to D2, competitive D3 coaches recruit swimmers whose times are at the level of the Speedo Sectionals time standards. The college swimming times chart on this page provides a breakdown of the differences across these division levels, including D3 swimming times.

At a less competitive D3 program, swimmers don’t necessarily need to reach the Speedo Sectionals time standards to earn a spot on a roster.

Men’s NAIA Swimming Times

As you can see in our swimming times chart, NAIA times are similar to D3 swimming times. Because of that, student-athletes within these event time ranges may choose to focus on finding the school where they’ll be the best fit both academically and socially, as well, as they research the 377 D3 and 44 NAIA schools with swimming programs.

The standards for major meets like the USA Swimming Futures Championships are less important in the overall recruiting process for student-athletes interested in competing at an NAIA school.

USA Swimming Futures Championships Time Standards 2019

USA Swimming’s Futures Championships times are an important gauge for swimming recruits, since coaches in D1 and D2 levels use the minimum swim times for these meets as a reference for evaluating their recruits.

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USA Swimming Wants More Diversity In The Pool

Emily Lopez-Diaz, 11, swims for the YMCA of South Florida Barracudas in the Miami area. Her father, Josue Lopez, estimates that about 30 percent of the team is Latino.

Simone Manuel made history Thursday night by becoming the first female African-American swimmer to win Olympic gold in an individual swimming event.

Juan Caraveo, a sports diversity and inclusion consultant for USA Swimming, points to Manuel, as well as Olympic swimmers Lia Neal and Anthony Ervin, who has won two golds in Rio, as evidence that a historically white-dominated sport is now beginning to draw from a wider base.

The U.S. Swim Team competing in Rio is the most diverse yet, he says. «But we still have a lot of work to do.»

The USA Swimming Foundation, the philanthropic branch of USA Swimming, is working to help more African-Americans learn to swim. Today, 70 percent of African-American children haven’t learned to swim.

«We want the demographics of our sport to be reflective of that of the country,» says Caraveo.

But to make that happen, he and USA Swimming must also succeed in encouraging another underrepresented group to join their sport: Latinos.

Nearly 60 percent of Latino children can’t swim, compared to 40 percent of Caucasians.

According to the USA Swimming Hispanic/Latino Cultural Inclusion Resource Guide, Hispanics and Latinos make up 17.4 percent of the U.S. population, but only 2.9 percent of the more than 300,000 athletes registered with USA Swimming.

Caraveo wants to see these numbers rise, in part for safety reasons. Swimming, he says, «is perhaps the only sport that can save your life.» The group’s resource guide reports that 10 people drown in the United States every day, but formal swim lessons can reduce the likelihood that a child will drown by 88 percent.

Caraveo and USA Swimming also have another motive in mind: more Olympic medals. By attracting more minorities, he says, «then we’ve increased our talent pool. Then we’re not relying just on the Caucasian community . . It’s better from a competitive standpoint.»

So Caraveo and USA Swimming are on a mission to identify the barriers to diversifying their sport and then break them down one by one.

Juan Caraveo, a diversity consultant for USA Swimming, began swimming at an early age, encouraged by his parents. On the right, he was about age 7 when he was swimming in a city pool in Temple, Texas. Courtesy of Nicole Wilson/USA Swimming Foundation; Courtesy of Juan Caraveo hide caption

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Courtesy of Nicole Wilson/USA Swimming Foundation; Courtesy of Juan Caraveo

Juan Caraveo, a diversity consultant for USA Swimming, began swimming at an early age, encouraged by his parents. On the right, he was about age 7 when he was swimming in a city pool in Temple, Texas.

Courtesy of Nicole Wilson/USA Swimming Foundation; Courtesy of Juan Caraveo

Cultivating A Culture Of Swimming

«My parents swim,» says Caraveo. «My mom always felt that it is important for us to know how to swim and enjoy the water.»

His parents, who both immigrated to the United States from Mexico, encouraged Caraveo’s interest in the sport, but Caraveo recognizes that many children in Latino communities don’t come from a culture of swimming. «Because the parents aren’t swimming, the kids aren’t swimming,» he says.

Indeed, USA Swimming says that if a parent can’t swim, there is only a 13 percent chance that a child will learn.

USA Swimming is trying to break that cycle. They have a multicultural team, which includes Caraveo, that is available to help local swim clubs find ways to reach out to different cultural groups.

«We work at the grassroots level,» Caraveo explains. «We’re having conversations with parents and grandparents in parks in the summer who are not utilizing pools.»

One incentive Caraveo points to when speaking with reluctant parents is financial.

In Texas, he says, a high-schooler can make $8 an hour working at a fast food chain or mowing lawns.

«If you’re a swim instructor or life guard, those jobs start out at $10 an hour,» he says. «In urban areas, . there is often a shortage of swim instructors and lifeguards because the kids in those communities aren’t learning how to swim.»

Some local swim clubs do succeed in drawing Hispanic swimmers. Eleven-year-old Emily Lopez-Diaz swims for the YMCA of South Florida Barracudas in the Miami area. Her father, Josue Lopez, estimates that about 30 percent of the team is Latino.

Lopez doesn’t consider himself much of a swimmer, but that hasn’t stopped him from becoming an integral part of his daughter’s swimming community.

«I was surprised because I didn’t really know that I was one of the best,» says Emily Lopez-Diaz about winning a bronze medal in a regional competition last year. Naomi Lopez hide caption

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Naomi Lopez

«I get excited,» he says. «Whenever she is swimming, I am cheering for her.»

And his daughter is thriving. In a regional competition last year, Lopez-Diaz won a bronze medal for the 50-meter backstroke.

«I felt like I was really accomplished and I was proud of myself,» Lopez-Diaz says. «I was surprised because I didn’t really know that I was one of the best.»

It may seem unsurprising that Miami, with its large Hispanic population, would have a swim team that succeeds in attracting a more diverse group of swimmers.

But there are other parts of the country where large Hispanic populations remain mostly separate from swimming culture.

According to Merari Chollette, the diversity chair of Potomac Valley Swimming around Washington, D.C., of 11,533 athletes swimming in clubs under the PVC umbrella, only 76 identified themselves as Hispanic. This, despite the fact that Hispanics make up 14 percent of the D.C. area population.

She knows that the true number of Latino swimmers is likely higher since many choose not to identify ethnicity on forms. But it is still far from where she would like it to be.

«We want every child to feel that this is a sport they can participate in,» she says.

Chollette is finding that for some non-English speakers, language is a barrier — people are hesitant to become part of a community where they can’t speak with others.

For some, the financial commitment may be a challenge. To address that barrier, Potomac Valley Swimming set up a grant program for this upcoming year.

«Training in this sport can be very expensive. It can cost as much as $1,500 to $4,000 a year for swim team fees in the Washington metropolitan area,» says Chollette.

But she also says that swimmers shouldn’t be discouraged by the financial hurdle. Some clubs like YMCAs charge significantly lower fees and many clubs have funding to offer scholarships and financial assistance.

Promoting Pool Access

All successful competitive swimmers have one thing in common: access to a pool as a kid.

The USA Swimming Foundation is making swimming more accessible through their Make a Splash Initiative. The program provides funding to local swim lesson-providers to raise awareness about water safety and offer swim instruction to children who otherwise couldn’t afford it. More than 3.4 million children have received swim lessons through this program.

For children who want to take the next step and swim competitively, USA Swimming has an outreach program that offers need-based discounted memberships.

Helen Garcia began her swimming career at the age of 5 when her family moved to South Gate, Calif., from East Los Angeles.

Helen Garcia is the head coach of Albany Armada Aquatics in Calif. Her parents encouraged her to swim as a child even though they didn’t know how themselves. Berrin Yavuzer-Judd hide caption

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Berrin Yavuzer-Judd

Helen Garcia is the head coach of Albany Armada Aquatics in Calif. Her parents encouraged her to swim as a child even though they didn’t know how themselves.

Her parents, who grew up in Mexico, didn’t know how to swim, although her father has since learned from watching Garcia and her three brothers.

There was a pool in their new neighborhood that offered affordable programming, so her father signed his children up for lessons.

Garcia feels lucky that her family happened to move near a pool. «There aren’t a whole lot of indoor 50-meter pools out here,» she says.

She also feels lucky that she happened to fall into an elite swimming program. When she was 12, her local team merged with another that was more competitive. In the first week, her new coach said that he saw her going to Junior Nationals in a year.

«I didn’t even know what that was,» she says. «There was a whole other level of swimming that I hadn’t even tapped into.»

Garcia did go on to compete at Junior Nationals at 13 and again at 14, when she broke the record in the 200-meter breaststroke. She later progressed to Senior Nationals and earned a scholarship to swim for the University of California, Berkeley.

Garcia is now the head coach of Albany Armada Aquatics in Albany, Calif., and owner of Helen’s Happy Swim School in Oakland, Calif.

As she progressed in competitive swimming, most of her teammates were white. Now she’s a member of the coaching community, which is also predominantly white.

USA Swimming has a mentoring program that helps coaches from or serving underrepresented groups to strengthen their coaching skills.

Caraveo is Garcia’s mentor. He has visited her team and worked with her to troubleshoot training challenges.

«Just to see his enthusiasm about our team was just so wonderful,» she says. «It’s amazing to have that kind of mentorship and guidance.»

Swimmer Cristina Teuscher Fabbri (third from left) with her family and coach John Collins (right) at the 1994 World Championships in Rome. Courtesy of Cristina Teuscher Fabbri hide caption

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Courtesy of Cristina Teuscher Fabbri

Swimmer Cristina Teuscher Fabbri (third from left) with her family and coach John Collins (right) at the 1994 World Championships in Rome.

Courtesy of Cristina Teuscher Fabbri

Identifying Role Models

«[Young swimmers] need to see somebody like them. A star. Somebody they can relate to,» says Caraveo. «When I was growing up, it was Pablo Morales, a gold medalist. His family was from Cuba. For me, it was that his last name was Morales, and I could identify with that.»

Another athlete who has served in that role is Cristina Teuscher Fabbri. She won gold at the 1996 Olympics in the 4×200 meter freestyle relay and bronze at the 2000 Olympics in the 200-meter individual medley.

Teuscher Fabbri, whose parents are from Argentina, grew up in New Rochelle, N.Y., with Spanish as her first language.

«I just took to swimming at an early age,» she says. «When I was a baby and fussy, my mom would stick me in the kitchen sink with water. It’s just something that calmed me.»

She didn’t have Latina swimming role models growing up. Her heroes were Janet Evans and Summer Sanders. «You identify with the part of yourself that’s like [them],» she says. «For me, I was born in this country, I swam with this team, I represented the United States.»

And so on some level, Teuscher Fabbri didn’t miss having Latina swimmers to look up to. «Someone doesn’t have to be your same skin color to be a role model,» she says.

But she also wonders whether the lack of other Latina swimmers in her world made it harder for her to embrace the strengths that she associates with her Latina identity.

«My strength was laughing and connecting with people when I got up on a block. I didn’t do that at first,» she says. «I was trying to be what I thought a tough American swimmer was supposed to be.»

Looking back, she thinks John Collins, the coach who brought her to the Olympics, would have understood her better if there were more Latinos on the team. His coaching style was tough. When she first started swimming for him, he told her they couldn’t be friends.

«But whatever,» she says. «We took him into my family. That’s just the Latino way.»

Women’s College Swimming Recruiting Times

What do coaches look for in women’s college swimming recruits? At NCSA, we frequently hear that question from swimmers. The athletic requirements to compete in college differ across division levels, and this section breaks down the times needed at the various levels of college swimming with the aim of helping you identify the right fit athletically.

Quick Links

How good do you have to be to swim in college?

“Am I good enough to compete at the college level?” is a question most student-athletes wonder as they begin to think about their future as a swimmer.

NCSA’s college swimming times provide clarity for those wanting to compete in women’s college swimming at various levels. Remember that while coaches primarily look at a swimmer’s event times, they also may evaluate things like height, hand or foot size or swimming technique to understand the potential maximum performance of a swimmer. Are there seasonal swimming camps?

Tips for training without access to a pool

In an interview with For the Win about training while in quarantine, Olympic swimmer Ryan Murphy said he’s focused on dryland workouts and is considering this time as a healthy break from the water. His words are an important reminder that it’s okay to take a break and to consider this unexpected time away from the pool as an opportunity to focus on cross training.

Like Ryan Murphy, athletes across the swimming community are focused on dryland workouts geared towards core, cardio and strength conditioning. Some coaches are even running Zoom dryland practices to help keep their athletes motivated. For training inspiration, check out what athletes at all levels are doing to stay in shape:

• SwimSwam is publishing daily dryland workouts.
• U.S. National Team athletes share their training alternatives.
• Russian Olympian Yulia Efimova posts her unique at-home quarantine workout.

Swim Outlet is hosting virtual dryland workouts on Instagram Live.

College swimming times needed: What times do I need?

The best thing that student-athletes can do is be realistic about what type of swimming program is the best fit for them. A swimmer who only has Sectional Meet cuts likely won’t be heading to an elite swimming school on a full scholarship. College swimming times required to compete differ depending on division level. Swimmers who don’t have times fast enough for top tier D1 programs could still be a big contributor on a D2 or D3 swimming roster.

This swimming times chart below has been compiled to help swimming recruits see how they stack up across all division levels.

Women’s college swimming times for scholarships

When reviewing your own swimming times, it’s important to remember there is no minimum time that guarantees you will get a scholarship.

The best way that swimmers can improve their odds of getting a scholarship is to look for programs where they can contribute points to the team. When it comes to divvying up scholarship money, college coaches want to maximize their budgets by awarding scholarships to swimmers who will contribute to the team’s overall success at the conference and national levels. This can be a shift in mind-set for student-athletes, who during their high school careers have been focused on their individual performance.

This swimming times chart will guide you generally in determining at what level may be the best fit.

Women’s Division 1 swimming times

The top tier Division 1 programs are never satisfied with their current level of talent. These programs look to push their teams to the highest level with the fastest recruiting classes possible. Many women on top D1 teams compete at the Olympic level for their home countries.

The minimum time standard for most D1 programs is that of Futures Championships cuts. Student-athletes who lack cuts for this meet should consider other division levels. Making the NCAA championships can take immensely fast times. There are automatic cuts or “A” cuts, as well as consideration cuts or “B” cuts. Those with “A” cuts can swim all the events they have “B” cuts in at the NCAA championships. For top swimming schools, student-athletes generally need to either reach or be very close to the scoring range for the conference’s championship meet.

*All times in Short Course Yard

Tier 1 Standards

(Elite Power 5 D1)

Tier 2 Standards

(Elite D2-D3, Strong Mid-major D1, Power 5 D1)

Tier 3 Standards (Elite NAIA, Mid-strong D2/D3, Low to Mid-major D1)

Tier 4 Standards (Low-average D2/D3, Low-strong NAIA)