Bold claim: Virginia’s Aimee Canny is reshaping her NCAA strategy by skipping the 200 and 500 freestyles to instead attack the 200 IM, 400 IM, and 200 breast at the NCAA Championships. And this is the part most people miss: this tactical shift could redefine her medal chances and change how coaches plan lineups for the meet.
2026 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships
Event window: Wednesday, March 18 – Saturday, March 21, 2026
Venue: McAuley Aquatic Center, Atlanta, GA
Defending champions: Virginia (five-time champions)
Championship Central: https://www.ncaa.com/news/swimming-women/article/2026-02-25/2026-ncaa-di-womens-swimming-and-diving-championship-selection-info-schedule
Pre-Selection Psych Sheets: https://swimswam.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-pre-selection-entry-list.pdf
Live Results: https://swimmeetresults.tech/NCAA-Division-I-Women-2026/
Live Video: [link not provided in original content]
Aimee Canny, a senior from the University of Virginia, will contest the 200 IM, 400 IM, and 200 breaststroke at the NCAA Championships. Notably, she will forgo the 200 and 500 freestyle events, races she has competed in at these championships during the past two seasons.
Her potential selection of events at ACCs offered some clues about the upcoming NCAA lineup. At ACCs, Canny swam the 200 breast and the 400 IM, finishing second in the 200 breast (2:02.97) and third in the 400 IM (4:02.35), both season-best performances. She also swam the 500 free, finishing second in 4:34.46, just two tenths off her personal best of 4:34.26 from October.
Returning to the 200 breast isn’t startling given her seventh-place finish at last year’s NCAA Championships—the only individual final she reached that week. This selection marks the third different NCAA Championship lineup of her career and the first time she has raced the 200 IM since 2023, when she placed 19th in 1:56.10.
Her omission of the 200 freestyle is somewhat surprising since that event has been a staple for her at the national meet, including a 4th-place result in 2024 (1:42.33) and a 9th-place finish last year (1:42.57). She recently posted her best time of 1:41.81 as Virginia’s leadoff in the 800 free relay at ACCs, ranking 10th in a loaded 200 free field. On the pre-scratch psych sheets, she sits 2nd in the 200 breast, 6th in the 400 IM, and 8th in the 200 IM.
The 500 freestyle would have been a strong option for her, as she stands 5th fastest this season. However, the 500 is scheduled on day three right after the 200 breast—an event she is among the favorites to win. Historically, the NCAA 500 has been less fruitful for Canny; in 2024 she dropped nearly three seconds off her season best (4:36.26) to finish 17th in 4:39.11, and 2025 followed a similar pattern with a 38th-place finish after adding more than five seconds to her time (4:41.96 from a 4:35.43 season best).
This meet also marks Canny’s 400 IM debut at the NCAA Championships, and it features a highly competitive field led by top seed Bella Sims (Michigan) and two Stanford swimmers, Lucy Bell and Caroline Bricker. Virginia teammates Katie Grimes (4th), Leah Hayes (9th), and Sophia Umstead (12th) also rank in the top 12 for the 400 IM.
Canny’s clearest path to her first individual NCAA title likely lies in the 200 breast. Lucy Bell currently holds the top seed in 2:02.67, just three-tenths ahead of Canny, and the two ACC powerhouses are the only competitors under 2:05 this season. This scenario underscores Virginia’s growing strength in breaststroke and the broader trend of building specialized, event-focused sprint-to-middle-distance specialists on their women’s team.
In This Story
- Bella Sims
- Katie Grimes
- Leah Hayes
Would you like to discuss whether Canny’s absence from the 200 free signals a broader strategic shift for Virginia or if the 200 breast is truly her best shot at an individual NCAA title this year?
