Audrey Derivaux Heading to Texas This Fall, Reclassifies into 2026 Class
One of the top-ranked high school swimmers in the country will begin her college career one year earlier than expected. Audrey Derivaux, who won four gold medals at last year’s World Junior Championships, will join the Texas Longhorns for the 2026-27 season. The native of Haddonfield, N.J., announced her commitment to Texas last fall but will now enroll at the school just weeks after her 17th birthday.
Derivaux announced her change of plans in an Instagram post Tuesday evening.
“See you in August, Austin! Can’t wait to rep the longhorns next season! Thank you to the Texas coaching staff for making this possible and to my parents for always supporting me. #HookEm 🤘🏻🐮🤠”
Derivaux won four world junior titles last year in Otepeni, including three individual golds, topping the 200 IM (2:10.58), 200 butterfly (2:07.57) and 200 backstroke (2:06.99), the latter of which came in meet-record time. She took silver in the 100 fly and added a relay gold, swimming the butterfly leg of the gold medal-winning 400 medley relay (3:59.85). Before that, Derivaux placed fifth in both individual medley events and sixth in the 200 fly at U.S. Nationals. Derivaux is expected to to race at next week’s Nationals in Irvine, Calif.
As for the short course yards college format, she should be a valuable piece for a Longhorns team that has placed top-three at the NCAA Championships each of the last six seasons. Derivaux already owns times that would have qualified for championship finals at last year’s NCAA Championships in three events, the 200 fly (1:52.70), 200 IM (1:53.87) and 400 IM (4:01.83), and she also has been faster than the 2026 top-16 cutoff in the 200 back (1:50.91) and 500 free (4:38.09).