{"id":605213,"date":"2025-02-23T13:00:23","date_gmt":"2025-02-23T20:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=605213"},"modified":"2025-02-23T16:08:53","modified_gmt":"2025-02-23T23:08:53","slug":"ncaa-record-in-100-breast-solidifies-unique-julian-smith-in-select-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ncaa-record-in-100-breast-solidifies-unique-julian-smith-in-select-club\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Record in 100 Breast Solidifies Unique Julian Smith in Select Club"},"content":{"rendered":"

NCAA Record in 100 Breast Solidifies Unique Julian Smith in Select Club<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first man to break 50 seconds for 100 yards of breaststroke never represented the United States as a senior international, never made the final of an event at Olympic Trials.<\/p>\n

The second swam at the University of Minnesota, far from the mainstream of NCAA hotbeds.<\/p>\n

The third won the C final at SEC Championships in his true sophomore year of college.<\/p>\n

And the fourth graduated high school tied for the 44th-fastest time in the nation his senior season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The sub-50 club in men\u2019s breaststroke is an unusual fraternity. It includes no one who has (yet) swum at an Olympics or a World Championships in the long-course realm. Instead, it features four swimmers whose journeys have been amazingly diverse.<\/p>\n

Julian Smith<\/strong> renewed his membership in that contingent Friday night at the SEC Championships, clocking in at 49.51 seconds to re-set the NCAA and American records in his second career sub-50 swim. He took the record from Liam<\/strong> Bell<\/strong>, the Cal swimmer who set it at NCAAs in 2024<\/a>. Bell had moved Ian Finnerty<\/strong> off his perch, the Indiana swimmer holding the record since 2018 at 49.69 and adding a second sub-50 swim the next year. Behind them came the assault of Max<\/strong> McHugh<\/strong>, whose 49.90 brought one of his three NCAA titles in the event.<\/p>\n

It’s an amazing \u2013 and amazingly unusual \u2013 group that Smith belongs to. Briefly:<\/p>\n

– Finnerty came out of Indiana\u2019s breaststroke powerhouse that included 2024 Olympian Josh Matheny<\/strong> plus many standouts on the women\u2019s side. He was the first man to break 50 twice, with a 49.85 in repeating as champion in 2019<\/a>. But Finnerty never translated it into long-course success: He didn\u2019t swim at Olympic Trials delayed a year to 2021 after finishing 11th in the 100, his only event, in 2016.<\/p>\n

– McHugh was ticketed for success in high school, the Sturgeon Bay, Wisc., native having gone 51.62 in high school, a national public school record. He delivered on that promise in five years with Minnesota, collecting four NCAA titles.<\/p>\n

– Bell, a Georgia native, was the youngest male to qualify for Olympic Trials in 2016. His winding career helped him post the sixth-fastest time in the NCAA in 2019-20, before the national championships were cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. He struggled as a sophomore with the Crimson Tide, skipping NCAAs (in which he was seeded 24th in the 100 breast) and Olympic Trials before a rebirth in Berkeley. He went 50.50 to set the program mark in 2022, finishing third at NCAAs, then sixth in 2023 at 50.76. Even with that pedigree, the drop from 50.89 at the Pac-12 Championships in 2024 to 49.53 at NCAAs astounded. (His fourth place at Olympic Trials in June, .24 off the second Olympic spot, is also the nearest brush to international long-course representation of the U.S.)<\/p>\n

And now, Smith. His time of 49.98 at the Georgia Fall Invitational<\/a> served notice. His build in Gainesville has been steady and inexorable, even if it might have seemed unlikely at the outset to culminate with SEC Male Swimmer of the Meet honors.<\/p>\n

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SEC Swimmer of the Meet \ud83d\udc0a #GoGators<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/6TrM4VXyUu<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 Gators Swimming & Diving (@GatorsSwimDv) February 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n