ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul's Sophie Leo will represent the swimming and diving program at the 2025-26 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in Evansville, Ind. at the University of Southern Indiana in the Deaconess Aquatic Center.
Action will begin for Leo on Wednesday, Mar. 11 and conclude on Saturday, Mar. 14. The junior has become the first swimmer in program history to be invited into the Championships in three events and will swim each day of the meet.
Head coach Rachel Busch on Leo's NCAA Championship appearance, "I am very excited for Sophie to shine on the National stage. She has been working hard these three weeks since NSICs - we have upped the yardage and intensity, and now bringing them back down to have her in prime position for racing fast at NCAAs."
Busch added, "It's a huge accomplishment to qualify for the meet, and even more impressive that she qualified in three events. It will be fun to be reunited with the other swimmers and divers from NSIC and cheer them on as well. Evansville here we come!"
AT THE NSIC CHAMPIONSHIPS
Leo became a two-time NSIC Champion after finishing first and setting personal-best times in both the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle.
In addition to her two NSIC titles, Leo notched two more All-NSIC placements with a runner-up finish in the 100-yard backstroke and a third-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle.
The junior tallied 73 total points throughout the four days of competition to notch a top-three point total of the entire field of swimmers.
On top of her NSIC performance, Leo has been named an NSIC Swimmer of the Week four times throughout the season and was named the CSP Female Athlete of the Week three times.
Leo finished the regular-season and NSIC Championships with 18 first-place finishes and never finished a race outside of the top-10 in any event at any meet.
KEEP UP WITH THE ACTION
Each session of the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships will be broadcast on NCAA.com. For more information on the meet, please visit NCAA.com or follow along for updates and announcements on CSPBears.com.
Prelims will take place each day at 10 a.m. with finals taking place at 5:30 p.m.
SCHEDULE FOR SURGING SOPHIE
Wednesday- 50 Yard Freestyle
Thursday- 200 Yard Freestyle
Friday- 100 Yard Backstroke
Saturday- 100 Yard Freestyle
MAKING CSP HISTORY
Leo qualified for the NCAA Championships in three events: 100 free, 100 back and 50 free. She becomes the first Golden Bear to be invited in more than one event and with her additional NCAA B-Cut in the 200 free will swim on each day of competition.
This marks the third consecutive year that a Golden Bear will appear on the national stage with Leo becoming the third student-athlete in program history.
The past two seasons swimmer Farida Maher and diver Cailtyn Greenwalt have made an appearance at the NCAA Championships where Greenwalt solidified the first All-America finish for the program last season. Greenwalt finished 11th in the 3-Meter Dive to lead the post-season effort for the Navy and Gold. Maher recorded two top-30 placements to finish a stellar CSP career.
In the previous season, Maher became the first swimmer to represent the Navy and Gold where she qualified for the 2024 NCAA Division II Championships after she became the first NSIC Champion in school history, winning both the 200 yard freestyle and the 1000 yard freestyle. Maher collected a top 30 finish at the NCAA Championships in the 200 yard freestyle with a time of 1:50.88 to finish 29th, 11 spots shy of a spot in finals.
Greenwalt became the first diver in school history to hit the pool at nationals where she narrowly missed an automatic bid for the NCAA Championships. She finished 28th in the 3-meter dive with a score of 185.85 and 16th in the 1-meter dive with a score of 222.90. Greenwalt remained an alternate for the rest of the competition.
