Conference Swimming Championships Men’s Preview: Texas and Cal in New Conferences, Mega Sprint Showdowns Incoming
The University of Florida Gators have captured the Southeastern Conference title in men’s swimming and diving each of the last 12 seasons, and before that, Auburn captured 16 consecutive wins at the conference meet. Impressive, but that’s nothing compared to a stunning 45-year streak of conference titles that the Texas Longhorns bring to the SEC. The first title came in 1980, the second year of Eddie Reese’s tenure as head coach, when Texas competed in the now-defunct Southwest Conference. After 17 wins there, Texas moved onto the Big 12 and won the conference in each of its first 28 years of existence.
Texas men’s coach Bob Bowman — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
In the SEC, Texas will face much tougher competition than the sleepy, three-team meet that has typified the Big 12. The Longhorn men competed against only Texas A&M and Missouri until 2012, when both those teams departed for the SEC, and for the next 11 seasons, the only other Big 12 men’s programs were Texas Christian University and West Virginia. Last season was a rarity with men’s teams from Cincinnati and BYU also competing. Now, Texas competes against 10 other men’s teams in the SEC, with three additional teams attending the meet in Athens, Ga., with women’s only squads.
Texas finished seventh at last season’s NCAA Championships, coming in behind SEC schools Florida and Tennessee, but the Longhorns have reloaded in the first season under new head coach Bob Bowman to reenter the national-title race and give themselves a real chance at consecutive conference title No. 46, even against the Gators and Volunteers again fielding high-level squads with particular strength in the sprint events.
Meanwhile, the Longhorns’ typical rival in the quest for national supremacy, the California Golden Bears, also have a new conference home in 2025, having relocated to the Atlantic Coast Conference following the collapse of the Pac-12. Cal will be joined by a familiar Bay Area rival in Stanford, and the arrival of those two teams means that the last decade of NC State dominating the conference on the men’s side is over.
Before team titles in the SEC and ACC are handed out, look for some exceptional races over the next five days, with the results in Athens, Ga., and Greensboro, N.C., previewing the NCAA Championships next month.
Sprints for the Ages
The all-time best times in the men’s sprint freestyle events and 100 butterfly date back to the 2018 season from Caeleb Dressel’s finale at the University of Florida. Those times — 17.63 in the 50 free, 39.90 in the 100 free and 42.80 in the 100 fly — will all be threatened this season, possibly as soon as an SEC Championships that will feature four swimmers who scored top-10 finishes in the sprint events at the Paris Olympics.
Jordan Crooks — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
Jordan Crooks is the short course world champion in the 50-meter free, having become the first man ever under 20 in the event, and his Tennessee teammate Gui Caribe won a pair of individual silvers at the same Short Course Worlds. They will face off against Florida’s Josh Liendo, the NCAA champion in three individual events last year who ranks second all-time in the 100 free and 100 fly while sitting third in history behind Dressel and Crooks in the 50. Add into the mix Chris Guiliano, who represented the U.S. in the 50, 100 and 200-meter free in Paris and was a top-five finisher in the yards versions of each event while swimming for Notre Dame at last season’s NCAAs.
Meanwhile, the Cal duo of Jack Alexy and Bjorn Seeliger will try to throw down their own elite times in the sprint events at the ACC meet, and the entry list indicates that Brooks Curry will return to college swimming to give the Golden Bears a third stud performer in the shorter freestyle events. Perhaps the Cal swimmers won’t match or exceed the times posted at SECs, but they have a consistent track record of bringing their top performances at the national meet.
As for the 100 fly, four of history’s top-five performers will be racing this week, along with the swimmers ranked seventh, 12th and 13th. Liendo, who clocked 43.07 in winning the national title last year, will race against Crooks, Georgia’s Luca Urlando and possibly Hubert Kos of Texas at the SEC meet while Virginia Tech’s Youssef Ramadan, the 2023 NCAA champion in the event, meets Stanford’s Andrei Minakov and NC State’s Luke Miller at the ACC Championships. Arizona State’s Ilya Kharun and Indiana’s Tomer Frankel, who sit in a tie for ninth all-time, will wait until the following week for their conference championships.
What’s Next for Midseason Breakout Stars?
Rex Maurer — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
The finest single-meet performance this season this college season belongs to Texas’ Rex Maurer, who went off at the Texas Invitational. The transfer from Stanford broke the American record in the 500 free while moving into the all-time top-five in the 400 IM and swimming the country’s fastest time (at that point) in the 1650 free. We’ll see this week if Maurer tries to improve upon those times at the conference meet or if he holds something back with an eye on the NCAA Championships.
Two other Texas sophomores made huge jumps into title contention at midseason: Will Modglin broke 44 for the first time in the 100 backstroke, and he continues to rank No. 1 in the country, while Nate Germonprez swam a time of 50.39 in the 100 breaststroke.
Germonprez currently ranks No. 2 in the country in that event, and he will swim against the top-ranked swimmer at SECs. That is Julian Smith, who became the fourth swimmer ever to go sub-50 at the Georgia Invite in November. Smith has been a consistent performer during his first three seasons with the Gators, contributing to national-title-winning relays as both a sprint freestyler and breaststroker, and now he is in pole position for the first time.
Mile Favorite?
Six of the top-eight performers in the 1650 freestyle so far this season will race at either the SEC or ACC Championships, with only 2024 NCAA champion Zalan Sarkany (then of Arizona State, now of Indiana) and Yale’s Noah Millard idle until next week. Lucas Henveaux, recently returned to the Cal roster, clocked the country’s only sub-14:30 effort when Cal raced Stanford, and he will be up against the NC State duo of Owen Lloyd and Lance Norris at ACCs as well as Stanford’s Liam Custer. Lloyd will be aiming to win the conference title in the mile after he appeared to win in 2024 but received a controversial disqualification for falling into another lane during his celebration.
Meanwhile, Maurer will swim against Texas teammate David Johnston at the SEC Championships while the Florida duo of Gio Linscheer and Andrew Taylor will try to put up strong times on the heels of finishing second and third, respectively, in the event at last year’s NCAA Championships. The 1650 free is one of the few events in college swimming without at least one established star, so this week’s results will help establish the status quo for the NCAA Championships.