Men's Swimming & Diving | 3/24/2026 8:37:00 AM

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The largest contingent of Navy swimmers to qualify for individual events at the NCAA Championship in a generation heads to Atlanta this week for the national championship.  Five Mids will take part in the meet that runs Wednesday through Saturday at the McAuley Aquatic Center on the Georgia Tech campus.

The last time Navy qualified as many as five individual event swimmers for the NCAA Championship was when five competed at the 1970 event.  In addition to their combined nine individual events, Ben Denman-Grimm, Ben Irwin, Dean Jones, Chase Maier and Michael Phillips also will comprise entires in four relay events.

ESPN+ will provide a video stream of the daily 10 a.m. preliminary heats and the 6 p.m. session of championship finals.  Links to those streams and to live results from the meet can be found at NavySports.com.

The new qualifying procedures for the meet provided automatic berths to swimmers who won the conference championship in an event with a winning time that met or bettered a national standard.  That meant the Mids all qualified for the meet with their respective winning efforts during the Patriot League Championship.  Those Mids also will be able to compete in additional events in which they had posted a qualifying time at some point during the season. 

Irwin earned automatic qualification by winning the 100 fly and 200 back finals at the Patriot League Championship.  He also will be able to swim in a third event, the 100 back.  This will be Irwin's second-straight national championship as he previously qualified for the 2025 meet in the same three events.  

Denman-Grimm advanced through winning the 50 free final at the league meet and also qualified for the 100 free event through his best time on the year.  Jones earned his invitation by winning the 500 free title at the Patriot League Championship, which also allows him to compete in the 200 free.  Maier punched his ticket to Atlanta by winning the 1650 free and Phillips garnered qualification by winning the 200 breast title.

Navy's 200 medley relay team earned an invite to the championship by meeting the automatic qualifying time with its winning clocking at the Patriot League Championship.  Navy's 200 free, 400 free and 400 medley relay teams also will be able to compete at the championship through their meeting the provisional qualifying time in their events.

Wednesday
1650 free - Chase Maier; 200 medley relay

Thursday
100 fly - Ben Irwin; 200 free - Dean Jones; 200 free relay

Friday
100 back - Ben Irwin; 200 breast - Michael Phillips; 500 free - Dean Jones; 50 free - Ben Denman-Grimm; 400 medley relay

Saturday
100 free - Ben Denman-Grimm; 200 back - Ben Irwin; 400 free relay