NCAA Men’s Championships: Florida Medley Relay DQ Costly as Arizona State Extends Team Lead
Entering the 400 medley relay, the final event of day three at the NCAA Men’s Championships, Florida had cut Arizona State’s advantage to 30 points in the team competition. The Gators had qualified 12 swimmers to race individually in the evening session, and strong performances at night, including Josh Liendo’s win in the 100 butterfly, had followed.
In the 400 medley relay, Florida appeared to take second behind Arizona State, swimming eight tenths quicker than the NCAA record the Gators had set in 2023, and that would have meant that ASU only extended its lead by six points. However, Florida was disqualified, with anchor swimmer Macguire McDuff leaving five hundredths before Liendo had touched the wall at the conclusion of the butterfly leg.
Liendo’s fly split of 42.56 was the fastest in history, but in the aftermath, the Canadian veteran took the full blame for his team instead of blaming his teammate.
“I was probably out a little too fast. I probably should’ve swam that a little smarter,” Liendo said. “I think that’s why Mac left early because he’s used to me accelerating on the last 25. I don’t think I was accelerating on the last 25. I was kind of dying. He was beating himself up, but that’s not on him.”
Relay swimmers are allowed a cushion of three hundredths at the start of their legs, and that was highly beneficial for a pair of top teams as Arizona State’s Jonny Kulow had a takeover time of -0.01, as did Cal breaststroker Liam Bell, who helped propel the Golden Bears under the previous NCAA record as well. But McDuff’s overly-quick changeover cost Florida dearly, with 34 points lost as a result of the DQ.
That meant that Arizona State will take a 56.5-point lead into the final day of the meet, with Cal moving into second with 286.5 points, followed by Florida at 273. All three teams will have plenty of scoring opportunities Saturday, but Arizona State has the most, meaning both Cal and Florida have lost any margin for error in their respective longshot comeback hopes.
If the Gators end up finishing within 34 points of ASU, they will deeply regret the opportunity lost with this relay mistake, but that will not be the approach for head coach Anthony Nesty’s squad entering the final day.
“We have another day tomorrow,” Liendo said. “I’m not going to dwell on it. Obviously you can’t help think what if. We’re that competitive and we’ve done so well in those relays. Obviously it’s going to be a little tough, but at the same time, we still have work to do. We’re not going to dwell on it and lose sleep over it.”
Florida was not the only team to lose out thanks to an overly-ambitious relay exchange. Georgia, currently sitting in 10th place in the team contest, lost out when butterflyer Bradley Dunham had a -0.04 exchange, and SEC rival Auburn was also disqualified, with breaststroker Henry Bethel sitting at -0.13. Additionally, Arizona State, Cal, Tennessee and Penn State all benefitted from the -0.03 allowance, with ASU’s Kulow, Cal’s Bell, Tennessee breaststroker Flynn Crisci and the Nittany Lions duo of Mariano Lazzerini and Lachlan Byrne all leaving as quickly as allowable.
Men - Team Rankings - Through Event 14 1. Arizona St 343 2. California 286.5 3. Florida 273 4. Indiana 247 5. NC State 206 6. Texas 165 7. Tennessee 147 8. Stanford 144 9. Virginia Tech 116 10. Georgia 88 11. Notre Dame 79 12. Auburn 72 13. Louisville 69 14. Michigan 68.5 15. Ohio St 65 16. Texas A&M 62 17. Alabama 50 18. Smu 41 18. Virginia 41 20. Florida St 34 21. Minnesota 28 22. Miami (Fl) 21 23. Missouri 19 23. Arizona 19 25. Towson 17 26. Wisconsin 16 27. Pittsburgh 15 28. Lsu 11 29. Southern California 9 29. UNC 9 31. Penn St 8 32. Brigham Young 7 33. Utah 6 34. Purdue 5 35. GW 3
.jpg "2024 NCAA Division I Men's Swimming Championships - logo"){kind=logo}