NCAA Men’s Championships: Hubert Kos Defends 200 Back Title With Third NCAA Record This Week
Give credit to Jonny Marshall: he refused to let Hubert Kos utterly dominate the 200 back throughout. Marshall has previously challenged Kos in the 100-yard event, coming up just two hundredths short in the NCAA final last season, and here he matched Kos on the first 50 yards before flipping only two tenths back at the halfway point.
But no one in the world can match Kos over 200 yards — or meters — of his signature event. As Marshall and the rest of the field fell back, Kos swam a third 50 split that almost matched his second. He was almost a full second better than anyone else in the field over those two lengths, and the title was clearly his. The only question remained was whether Kos could beat his own NCAA and U.S. Open records, perhaps even get under the 1:34 barrier.
Coming home, Kos continued to kick out past the halfway point, but his stroke tempo dropped slightly as he approached the finish. Still, he hit the wall in 1:34.13, three seconds clear of the field and eight hundredths better than his previous record of 1:34.21 set last season. This small drop followed up a monstrous performance in 2025 when Kos beat the previous record in the event by more than a second.
In the aftermath, Kos called his performance “an odd race.” Following up Friday’s sensational time of 42.61 in the 100 back was a nearly impossible feat, and he noted that none of his splits were as fast as intended. He admitted to miscounting his laps in the final, needing to glance at the scoreboard on the final 25 to ensure he was at the finish.
“There have been a lot of things on my mind this week, and it’s been anything but an easy meet, and this being my last year in the NCAA, not just be a good swimmer, but a good
teammate, find ways to overcome the adversity that we’ve we’ve faced, not just this meet, but during the whole season,” Kos said. “There were a lot of things going on in my mind, and then yesterday’s 100 backstroke didn’t really help with that, because it was such a good time. It was one of those things that you can’t really like you can’t really decompress after that like with bad time. So it was, it was hard to not overcome it, but process that.”
Hours later, Kos reflected on his four years in the NCAA, during which he has blossomed into a world and Olympic champion and world-record holder. The fastest times in history were hardly on his radar when he began working with Bob Bowman at Arizona State. After two years there and then following Bowman to Texas, Kos expressed gratitude.
“I’m super grateful for what I got in these four years in the NCAA, and then with this man,” Kos said, pointing to Bowman. “If you guys would have seen what kind of swimmer I was, what kind of person I was, just super grateful that I made the decision to come to the U.S., and to not just come to the U.S. but actually swim in the NCAA. It’s given me so much.”
Marshall faded down the stretch, splitting 26.12 over the last two lengths, but he held on for second in 1:37.15. Virginia’s David King placed third in 1:37.43, earning his team’s third top-three finish of the evening after Maximus Williamson topped the 200 IM and Thomas Heilman got second in the 200 butterfly. Indiana, meanwhile, got a fourth-place finish from Kai Van Westering, just one effort in a huge day as Indiana powered toward a third-place finish.
Event 19 Men 200 Yard Backstroke
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NCAA: N 1:34.21 3/29/2025 Hubert Kos, Texas
Meet: M 1:34.21 3/29/2025 Hubert Kos, Texas
American: A 1:35.37 3/30/2024 Destin Lasco, California
U. S. Open: O 1:34.21 3/29/2025 Hubert Kos, Texas
Pool: P 1:35.73 3/26/2016 Ryan Murphy, California
Name Year School Prelims Finals Points
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=== Championship Final ===
1 Kos, Hubert SR Texas 1:36.29 1:34.13N 20
r:+0.71 22.15 45.93 (23.78)
1:09.73 (23.80) 1:34.13 (24.40)
2 Marshall, Jonny JR Florida 1:38.08 1:37.15 17
r:+0.70 22.15 46.14 (23.99)
1:11.03 (24.89) 1:37.15 (26.12)
3 King, David SO Virginia 1:37.69 1:37.43 16
r:+0.79 23.10 47.73 (24.63)
1:12.51 (24.78) 1:37.43 (24.92)
4 Van Westering, Kai SR Indiana 1:38.18 1:38.29 15
r:+0.65 23.08 48.06 (24.98)
1:13.58 (25.52) 1:38.29 (24.71)
5 Hagar, Tommy JR Alabama 1:37.96 1:38.63 14
r:+0.68 22.83 47.93 (25.10)
1:12.87 (24.94) 1:38.63 (25.76)
6 Van Renen, Ruard SR Georgia 1:38.05 1:39.05 13
r:+0.53 22.82 48.28 (25.46)
1:14.08 (25.80) 1:39.05 (24.97)
7 Simons, Nick SR Tennessee 1:38.21 1:40.07 12
r:+0.62 23.04 48.47 (25.43)
1:14.46 (25.99) 1:40.07 (25.61)
8 Aikins, Jack SR Virginia 1:37.90 1:40.69 11
r:+0.87 23.11 48.48 (25.37)
1:14.41 (25.93) 1:40.69 (26.28)
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