{"id":578694,"date":"2024-02-21T19:34:20","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T02:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=578694"},"modified":"2024-02-21T19:34:20","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T02:34:20","slug":"sec-championships-night-2-jordan-crooks-goes-sub-18-again-in-50-free-domination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/sec-championships-night-2-jordan-crooks-goes-sub-18-again-in-50-free-domination\/","title":{"rendered":"SEC Championships, Night 2: Jordan Crooks Goes Sub-18 Again in 50 Free Domination"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEC Championships, Night 2: Jordan Crooks Goes Sub-18 Again in 50 Free Domination<\/strong><\/p>\n

Only two men in history have ever broken 18 seconds from a flat-start in the 50 freestyle: one, of course, is former Florida star\u00a0Caeleb Dressel<\/strong>, who went 17.81 and 17.63 at the 2018 NCAA Championships. The other is\u00a0Jordan Crooks<\/strong>, a junior at the University of Tennessee who represents the Cayman Islands in international competition. Crooks joined the exclusive club with a mark of 17.93 at last year’s SEC Championships, and he achieved the time once again Wednesday night in Auburn, Ala.<\/p>\n

Crooks was out in 8.63 and back in 9.36 as he swam a time of 17.99 for the fourth-fastest performance ever. Crooks previously held the top time in the country in the splash-and-dash by more than a quarter-second at 18.30, which he recorded in the morning prelims, before he annihilated that time twice at night, first by leading off Tennessee’s 200 free relay in 18.06, a mark which is now the fifth-fastest performance in history, and then with his 17-second blast in the individual race.<\/p>\n

Crooks defeated the field by more than seven tenths, with Tennessee teammate Gui Caribe<\/strong> taking second in 18.70, leaving Florida’s\u00a0Josh Liendo<\/strong> in third at 18.83.<\/p>\n

The field was a swift one for a conference championship meet, with Florida’s\u00a0Adam Chaney<\/strong> (18.91), Auburn’s\u00a0Logan Tirheimer<\/strong> (18.95) and Florida’s\u00a0Macguire McDuff<\/strong> (18.98) all breaking 19, but no one was on the same level as Crooks, who will go to the NCAA Championships next month heavily favored for a title defense in his signature event, although we would not be surprised if Liendo or others in the field could close the gap on Crooks by that point.<\/p>\n