Minnesota’s top high school swimmers in the Class of 2026 believe in sticking together.
Faith Lamah of St. Michael and Libbi McCarthy of Edina, the No. 1 and No. 2-ranked girls, respectively, are headed to the Gophers. Lamah, bypassing high school, competes for Edina Swim Club while McCarthy leads the Hornets squad.
McCarthy finished second in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle and swam a leg on the Hornets’ victorious 200 medley and 400 freestyle relay teams in the Class 2A state meet last year. She won the 50 freestyle in 2023. She will join her sister, Katie, as a member of the Gophers squad. Her brother, Tommy, just completed his senior season as a member of the men’s team.

Two other girls ranked in the Top 10 — No. 6 Ellie Bina and No. 9 Caroline Mulrooney — are bound for Notre Dame. Bina, who swims for Mounds View, took fourth in the 500 freestyle and seventh in the 200 freestyle in the state meet. Mulrooney of Inver Grove Heights swims club for Riptide.
Third-ranked Catherine Pawlaski, another member of the Edina club team, is headed to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Pawlaski was the state champion in the 100 breaststroke as a freshman at Andover in 2022. She also finished fourth in the 200 individual medley that year.
Two other swimmers in the top five, fourth-ranked Julia Ogren and fifth-ranked Lydia Cameron, have committed to Louisville and Virginia Tech, respectively. Rochester John Marshall’s Ogren was third in the 100 butterfly and fourth in the 100 freestyle in the state meet this past season. Minnetonka’s Cameron is the reigning state champion in the 200 freestyle and was in the runner-up in the 500 freestyle.
The only two boys ranked in the 2026 top 10 to commit are No. 1 Micah Davis and No. 2 Nathan Carr. Both are headed to Virginia.
Davis, who swims for the combined program of St. Cloud Tech, St. Cloud Cathedral, Rocori and Becker, is the three-time defending state champion in the 100 butterfly and 200 freestyle. He is the state meet record holder in the butterfly with a time of 46.94 seconds.