NCAA Men’s Championships: Florida Blasts Second-Fastest 200 Free Relay Ever For Second Relay Win in Indy

Florida's Josh Liendo -- Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

NCAA Men’s Championships: Florida Blasts Second-Fastest 200 Free Relay Ever For Second Relay Win in Indy

Day one of the NCAA Men’s Championships saw the University of Florida knock off favored Arizona State in the 200 medley relay. Winning relays was nothing new for this group of Gators, with the likes of Josh Liendo, Macguire McDuff and Adam Chaney all returning from winning three relays at last season’s national Championships, all in NCAA-record time.

“We just wanted to win,” Chaney said.

Now, the streak of Florida sprint relay success continues in the 200 freestyle relay, with the same foursome that won the medley relay all swimming the same stroke this time as they knocked off the field by more than four tenths.

“It is obviously really special – this is No. 5,” McDuff said. “It is really cool to do it with the same guys.”

Liendo, fresh off a touch-out win over Tennessee’s Jordan Crooks in the individual 50 free, finished just behind the Volunteers’ speedster on this occasion, with Crooks going 18.14 on the leadoff leg ahead of Liendo’s 18.25.

“I was just trying to go faster, but I knew they were going to take care of business,” Liendo said.

Tennessee then extended the lead on the second leg as Guilherme Santos clocked 18.22, quicker than the personal-best mark of 18.25 from Chaney. But the third leg was the difference as Julian Smith put Florida into the lead for good.

Smith, a junior, was part of only two Florida relays a season ago, but the departures of Eric Friese and Dillon Hillis have forced Smith into a larger role, one in which he has thrived. His breaststroke leg on the Gators’ 200 medley relay was quickest in the field before he stepped up to race the 800 free relay an hour later. One day later, Smith’s 18.51 leg gave Florida a one-hundredth lead over Tennessee heading into the last leg and a lead for McDuff, who came home in 18.44 to secure the win.

“I don’t really sprint that much, but when I had the opportunity, I was ready,” Smith said.

Florida’s final time was 1:13.49, 14-hundredths slower than the Gators clocked last season but enough to hold off a spirited Cal team swimming in lane eight of the final heat. The Golden Bears led off with a pair of 50 free A-finalists, with Jack Alexy clocking an 18.40 that was just off his individual event time (18.38) and Bjorn Seeliger splitting 18.43 before the versatile pairing of Liam Bell (18.46) and Destin Lasco (18.57) helped Cal finish second in 1:13.86.

Just behind was Arizona State, with the Sun Devils’ Jack Dolan, Ilya Kharun, Cam Peel and Jonny Kulow maintaining their third seed with a time of 1:13.95, six tenths quicker than their entry time. Kulow anchored in 18.11, the second-fastest overall split in the field, and Arizona State accomplished a very respectable finish in the lone relay that all-world superstar Leon Marchand will sit out all week long. ASU’s 32 points in that race were more than enough to hold Cal and Florida at bay in the team competition heading into the crucial Friday slate of events.

Finishing fourth in the race was North Carolina State, with the all-U.S. team of Noah Henderson, Luke Miller, Jerry Fox and Quintin McCarty clocking 1:14.13 to establish a new American record, breaking the mark of 1:14.44 the exact same team established at the ACC Championships last month. Tennessee, meanwhile, fell from second to fifth on the final leg, finishing in 1:14.38.

In the entire race, there was one split under 18 seconds: Notre Dame’s Chris Guiliano swam a mark of 17.94 on the second leg for the Fighting Irish, a team which ended up eighth in 1:15.42. Guiliano had finished fourth in the individual 50 free earlier in the night behind Liendo, Crooks and Alexy, and Guiliano will again be in contention in the 200 free Friday and 100 free Saturday.

At the end of night two, Arizona State owns a 32-point edge in the team race. The Sun Devils had six individual A-final swims Thursday, including Marchand’s win in the 500 free, plus 3 B-final results, to open up an advantage. Arizona State owns 201 points, ahead of Cal (169) and Florida (161). After the top-three teams, there is a sizable gap back to Indiana (107), Texas (106) and NC State (98).

Event 7  Men 200 Yard Freestyle Relay
==================================================================================
         NCAA: N 1:13.35  3/23/2023 Florida
                          J Liendo, A Chaney, E Friese, M McDuff
         Meet: M 1:13.35  3/23/2023 Florida
                          J Liendo, A Chaney, E Friese, M McDuff
     American: A 1:14.44  2/21/2024 NC State
                          Q McCarty, D Salls, N Henderson, L Miller
   U. S. Open: O 1:13.35  3/23/2023 Florida
                          J Liendo, A Chaney, E Friese, M McDuff
         Pool: P 1:14.59  3/23/2017 Texas
                          B Ringgold, J Conger, T Jackson, J Schooling
    School                                 Seed     Finals Points 
==================================================================================
  1 Florida                             1:14.36    1:13.49P  40  
     1) Liendo, Josh SO               2) r:0.23 Chaney, Adam SR       
     3) r:0.20 Smith, Julian JR       4) r:0.08 McDuff, Macguire JR   
     r:+0.59  8.83        18.25 (18.25)
           26.91 (8.66)       36.54 (18.29)
           45.21 (8.67)       55.05 (18.51)
         1:03.60 (8.55)     1:13.49 (18.44)
  2 California                          1:15.55    1:13.86P  34  
     1) Alexy, Jack JR                2) r:0.34 Seeliger, Bjorn SR    
     3) r:0.05 Bell, Liam 5Y          4) r:0.15 Lasco, Destin SR      
     r:+0.66  8.86        18.40 (18.40)
           26.92 (8.52)       36.83 (18.43)
           45.39 (8.56)       55.29 (18.46)
         1:03.99 (8.70)     1:13.86 (18.57)
  3 ASU                                 1:14.59    1:13.95P  32  
     1) Dolan, Jack 5Y                2) r:0.31 Kharun, Ilya FR       
     3) r:0.99 Peel, Cam 5Y           4) r:0.06 Kulow, Jonny SO       
     r:+0.70  8.97        18.80 (18.80)
           27.53 (8.73)       37.28 (18.48)
           45.85 (8.57)       55.84 (18.56)
         1:04.28 (8.44)     1:13.95 (18.11)
  4 NC State                            1:14.44    1:14.13A  30  
     1) Henderson, Noah 5Y            2) r:0.23 Miller, Luke SR       
     3) r:0.15 Fox, Jerry FR          4) r:0.15 McCarty, Quintin FR   
     r:+0.62  8.98        18.93 (18.93)
           27.32 (8.39)       37.16 (18.23)
           45.84 (8.68)       55.60 (18.44)
         1:04.30 (8.70)     1:14.13 (18.53)
  5 Tennessee                           1:14.81    1:14.38P  28  
     1) Crooks, Jordan JR             2) r:0.24 Santos, Guilherme SO  
     3) r:0.07 Chambers, Micah SR     4) r:0.32 Blackman, Nikoli FR   
     r:+0.57  8.73        18.14 (18.14)
           26.61 (8.47)       36.36 (18.22)
           44.94 (8.58)       55.06 (18.70)
         1:04.29 (9.23)     1:14.38 (19.32)
  6 Auburn                              1:15.91    1:15.05   26  
     1) Tirheimer, Logan SR           2) r:0.12 Makinen, Kalle SO     
     3) r:0.02 Stoffle, Aidan 5Y      4) r:0.00 Stoffle, Nate JR      
     r:+0.65  9.15        18.79 (18.79)
           27.51 (8.72)       37.43 (18.64)
           46.13 (8.70)       56.31 (18.88)
         1:04.91 (8.60)     1:15.05 (18.74)
  7 VT                                  1:15.47    1:15.32   24  
     1) Ramadan, Youssef SR           2) r:0.17 Whitfield, Brendan FR 
     3) r:0.16 Dominguez CalonLuis JR 4) r:0.11 Molla Yanes, Mario JR 
     r:+0.58  9.06        18.74 (18.74)
           27.49 (8.75)       37.35 (18.61)
           46.19 (8.84)       56.26 (18.91)
         1:05.13 (8.87)     1:15.32 (19.06)
  8 Notre Dame                          1:15.59    1:15.42   22  
     1) Elaraby, Abdelrahman 5Y       2) r:0.14 Guiliano, Chris JR    
     3) r:0.35 Filion, Tanner 5Y      4) r:0.17 Bacon, Tate SO        
     r:+0.63  9.26        19.16 (19.16)
           27.49 (8.33)       37.10 (17.94)
           46.04 (8.94)       56.15 (19.05)
         1:04.98 (8.83)     1:15.42 (19.27)

Men - Team Rankings - Through Event 7                       
 
  1. Arizona St                        201   2. California                        169
  3. Florida                           161   4. Indiana                           107
  5. Texas                             106   6. NC State                           98
  7. Tennessee                          86   8. Stanford                           84
  9. Auburn                             67  10. Virginia Tech                      61
 11. Georgia                            57  12. Michigan                           48
 13. Ohio St                            42  14. Notre Dame                         39
 15. Louisville                         30  16. Smu                                26
 16. Alabama                            26  18. Texas A&M                          21
 19. Florida St                         20  20. Missouri                           19
 21. Minnesota                          17  22. Arizona                            15
 22. Miami (Fl)                         15  24. Virginia                           12
 25. Wisconsin                           7  26. Lsu                                 6
 27. Purdue                              5  28. Brigham Young                       3
 29. UNC                                 2

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