NCAA Men’s Championships: Olympic Medalists and Short Course World Champs Set to Shine
Eight years ago, Caeleb Dressel turned his first Olympic appearance, in which he qualified for one individual final and captured two relay gold medals, into college swimming stardom. He had won NCAA titles as a freshman and sophomore, but as a junior, he achieved his first three-event sweep at the NCAA Championships, swimming the fastest time ever on each occasion. And after the Tokyo Olympics, the new arrivals to college included Leon Marchand, who was coming off Olympic finals appearance in the 400 IM, and it was during his time at Arizona State that he became a star.
This year’s NCAA Men’s Championships will include one swimmer who has already won Olympic gold, Hubert Kos of Hungary and the University of Texas, as well as three others who won individual medals during strong Paris performances. Luke Hobson is the only American in the group, having taken bronze in the 200-meter freestyle at the Games, while the Canadian duo of Ilya Kharun and Josh Liendo each took home butterfly medals, with Kharun grabbing a pair of bronzes while Liendo had 100-meter silver.
The most decorated swimmers are not necessarily the favorites on the collegiate level, with some skillsets better suited to either the 25-yard course or the Olympic 50-meter distance. But these are the most accomplished swimmers in the international equivalent of each event.
500 Freestyle: Relatively new faces are poised to shine in the 500 free, with Rex Maurer, Noah Millard and Tomas Koski as the top seeds. The only swimmers in the field who have ever qualified for a global-level final in the 400-meter event are Florida’s Jake Mitchell, the eighth-place finisher in the 400 free at the Tokyo Olympics, and Cal’s Lucas Henveaux, who has multiple World Championship top-eight finishes as well as a European Short Course Championships bronze in this event.
200 IM: Swimmers including Kos, defending champion Destin Lasco, Luca Urlando and Carles Coll Marti all have significant international experience, but Kos is the only one with a track record of success in the 200-meter medley race. He was the European champion in the event and a World Championship finalist in 2022, but he has shifted his attention toward backstroke (and to a lesser extent, the 100 fly) since coming to the United States.
Tennessee’s Jordan Crooks — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
50 Freestyle: The sprint events might be the most loaded of the meet: the top-four finishers from the event at the Short Course World Championships are in the field, and Liendo joins the mix; although he’s better known for his butterfly success internationally, he is the defending national champion in the 50 free. But Jordan Crooks will be the headliner, shortly after he became the first man ever under 20 in the short course meters version of the event on his way to a second consecutive short course world title. In Budapest, he was followed by Tennessee teammate Gui Caribe, Cal’s Jack Alexy and Texas’ Chris Guiliano. Alexy has also captured long course Worlds silver in the 50 free.
100 Butterfly: Four men in this field have experience winning international medals in the 100-meter fly. Liendo and Kharun took silver and bronze, respectively, in Paris, while one year earlier, Cal’s Dare Rose made a surprise podium appearance at the World Championships. Meanwhile, past champion Andrei Minakov was the World Championships silver medalist in this event while representing Russia at the 2019 World Championships. Urlando and Caribe are both in this event while international veteran Youssef Ramadan (Egypt) was the champion two years ago.
400 IM: With the departures of Marchand, Hugo Gonzalez and Carson Foster from college swimming in recent seasons, this event does not have its usual luster, with the relatively inexperienced Maurer and Tristan Jankovics seeded ahead of the field entering the national meet. The only swimmer with strong international results in the 400-meter IM is David Johnston, the Texas senior who placed fifth at the Doha World Championships last year. Baylor Nelson has represented the U.S. internationally but only for relay purposes.
200 Freestyle: The big favorite here is Hobson, the fastest swimmer ever coming off the best year of his career. Hobson followed up Olympic bronze in the 200 free with a gold medal and world record at the Short Course World Championships. Lucas Henveaux, who took bronze behind Hobson in Budapest, chose to pass on the 200 free her in favor of the 400 IM, but the field will include 200-meter free Olympic semifinalist Rafael Miroslaw (Indiana). Guiliano was the second American representative in the 200 free in Paris while Henry McFadden and Coby Carrozza have competed internationally for the U.S. in the 800 free relay. Crooks, meanwhile, will be trying his hand at the 200 free at a major meet for the first time.
100 Breaststroke: Most of the internationally-decorated swimmers here achieved their best results in the 200 breast, so more on them later. As for the 100, Caspar Corbeau made the Olympic final this year while Josh Matheny was a top-eight finisher in the 100 at the 2023 World Championships.
100 Backstroke: This field includes no finalists from the 100-meter back at the Paris Games but three semifinalists. Kos had the top prelims time in Paris but surprisingly ended up 10th that evening while Miroslav Knedla (Czech Republic, Indiana) and Mewen Tomac (France, Cal) took 12th and 15th, respectively.
1650 Freestyle: Zalan Sarkany enters the meet as the defending champion after winning for Arizona State in 2024 and then transferring to Indiana. In between, Sarkany placed 11th in the 1500-meter free while representing Hungary in Paris. David Johnston, who enters NCAAs seeded first, finished 18th in the same event as the second American representative.
200 Backstroke: Kos has established himself as the clear No. 1 performer in the world in the 200-meter back, with an Olympic gold plus world titles in short course and long course, but he is no sure thing on the college level thanks to a stacked field. Mewen Tomac and Keaton Jones, both of Cal, placed fourth and fifth in the Olympic 200-meter final, and Destin Lasco and Jack Aikins have both qualified for international finals in the event. Even in years when Kos has gone on to claim international gold, he has been unable to top Lasco at the NCAA Championships, with the Cal fifth-year swimmer owning three consecutive national wins and the fastest time ever in the event.
Florida’s Josh Liendo — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
100 Freestyle: The field here looks quite similar to the group assembled in the 50 free. Alexy and Guiliano were both Olympic finalists in the 100-meter free while Caribe, Liendo and Crooks took 10th, 11th and 13th, respectively. Alexy won silver in the event at the 2023 World Championships, and he captured a short course world title late last year, with both Tennessee swimmers also reaching the podium. These men will target the long-standing NCAA record of 39.90 belonging to Caeleb Dressel. Indiana’s Matt King could also contend as he returns to college swimming following two years of swimming on the U.S. men’s 400 free relay in international competition.
200 Breaststroke: This event will also have two finalists from the 200-meter event in Paris, bronze medalist Caspar Corbeau and his Indiana teammate Josh Matheny, who was seventh. The favorite, however, will be Penn’s Matt Fallon, whose American-record time of 2:06.54 would have been sufficient for silver in Paris (where Fallon fell to a surprising 10th-place finish). Fallon previously took bronze in the event at the 2023 World Championships. Virginia Tech’s Carles Coll Marti was the surprise winner of the short course world title in the event in December, and he enters NCAAs with the country’s No. 2 time behind Fallon.
200 Butterfly: Here is a fourth consecutive event with a large contingent who experienced success at the Olympics. Kharun won bronze while USC’s Krzysztof Chmielewski (Poland) placed fourth and Tennessee’s Martin Espernberger (Austria) took sixth. Luca Urlando, meanwhile, struggled in Paris as he ended up two hundredths out of the semifinals, but simply reaching the Games was a huge success after narrowly missing Tokyo and suffering a major shoulder injury in late 2022. This college season, Urlando has already recorded the fastest time ever in the 200-yard event.
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Kharun’s recent history is undersold a bit in the 200 Fly, as he is the defending champion and just won the SCM World title in the event.