The 2022 NCAA Men\u2019s Division I Swimming and Diving Championships continued with the 100-yard butterfly finals from McAuley Aquatic Center on the campus of Georgia Tech in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

The prelims saw a second difference from first to eighth and only a half-second difference from second to eighth as a slew of competitors, led by Stanford\u2019s Andrei<\/strong> Minakov<\/strong>, took aim at Caeleb Dressel<\/strong>\u2019s 42.80 NCAA record.<\/p>\n

Despite hard charging efforts on either side of him, Minakov won in 43.71, holding off the challengers on all sides, which wasn’t easy to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew everyone was going to be incredibly fast and you can\u2019t make any mistakes,\u201d Minakov said. “I feel like racing started yesterday after the finals because we needed to recovery, and recovery starts as soon as you finish the race. Coming into prelims, I knew it would be hard. We knew that we needed to go fast in the prelims and be as fast as we could in the finals.”<\/p>\n

He didn’t make any mistakes, at least none big enough to relinquish the lead.<\/p>\n

Minakov said his teammates motivated him during the race and knowing the journey he has been on from Russia to college in the U.S.<\/p>\n

“This movement to the United States with a completely different environment, completely different society. These are my first in-person classes since 2019 when I graduated from high school. I\u2019m privileged to have such a great team to help me in the water, in class and be as efficient as possible,” Minakov said. “We are privileged to have such great people on the team. Not all of them made it here to NCAAs, but they are completely supporting us. We are honored to have such great teammates. They motivate us because they know that we are young and humble and we need the push. We just help us getting better.”<\/p>\n

Luca Urlando<\/strong> of Georgia made a huge move in the final 25 and touched in 43.88 to finish second as he was closing in hard on the wall.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on the other side of Minakov, Virginia Tech\u2019s Youssef Ramadan<\/strong> also made a late charge and touch in 43.90, just behind Urlando.<\/p>\n

NC State junior Nyls Korstanje<\/strong> took fourth in 44.17, followed by Indiana sophomore Tomer Frankel<\/strong> (44.56), Louisville fifth-year\u2019s Nicholas Albiero<\/strong> (44.61), NC State freshman Aiden Hayes<\/strong> (44.75) and Harvard junior Umitcan Gures<\/strong> (44.88).<\/p>\n

Indiana\u2019s Brendan Burns<\/strong>, swimming the first of his Friday night double, won the NCAA B final to finish ninth overall in 44.54.<\/p>\n