Excellence has long been the hallmark of the Carleton women's swimming and diving team. Carleton finished in the top two at the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Championships from 1999 to 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2009 and captured titles in 2000, 2001 and 2009. The Knights placed sixth at the NCAA Championships in 2005, highlighted by Marie Marsman's two individual national titles and the team's two relay national titles. Carleton finished in the top 10 in three of the past eight national championship meets. Since 1995 the Knights have produced 263 all-conference performances (finishing in the top three) and 80 individual conference titles.

Carleton teams excel in the classroom as well; women's swimming and diving has been an All-Academic team for the past 13 seasons. Exemplifying this commitment to top-level swimming and academics was Britta Veitenheimer '04, a CoSIDA Academic All-American and a winner of a prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.