NCAA Men’s Championships: Jordan Crooks Dips Under 18 Again to Win 50 Free
If there was one knock against Jordan Crooks, one of two all-time members of the sub-18-second club, is that he’d never done it before at NCAAs.
Cross that off the list for the Tennessee senior Thursday night.
Crooks went 17.91 at the NCAA Championships at the Weyerhauser King County Aquatic Center, claiming his third NCAA title in four years, Crooks was also the runner-up last year.
Second place was the reigning champion Josh Liendo of Florida in 18.23. Crooks’ Tennessee teammate Gui Caribe was third in 18.26.
Crooks and Caeleb Dressel, whose NCAA record of 17.63 perseveres, are the only men to break 18 seconds for 50 yards of freestyle. Crooks went 17.93 for the first time at SECs in 2023. He was 17.99 at the conference meet in 2024, then twice broke the 18-second barrier – 17.85 in the individual event, 17.96 to lead off the relay – at the conference meet a month ago. Never had he matched that speed at NCAAs, until Thursday, then followed his 17.91 with a flat-start 17.82 to lead off the winning 200 free relay.
“I think SECs was a good learning process for that,” Crooks said. “We kind of figured out what I needed to do to be able to turn up in finals and then turn up on the relay A lot of work in the pool, in practice back home, and we kind of combined everything – experience, training and it worked out, thankfully.”
He did it to get revenge on Liendo, whose 18.07 last year bested Crooks’ 18.09. Caribe was actually first to the wall, but Crooks unleashed a heavenly underwater to pop up a yard ahead and stroked it home. For the Caymanian Olympian, this is his ninth career top-six finish at NCAAs.
Arizona State’s Ilya Kharun finished fourth in 18.31, with Chris Guiliano and Jack Alexy tying for sixth.
There’s amazing consistency among a thoroughly international spring field. Six of the eight A finalists from 2024 are back in the A final this year. The only exceptions are B finalist Bjorn Seeliger of Cal – fifth last year, third in 2023 and second in 2022, the Swede finished 11th Thursday – and Arizona State’s graduated Jack Dolan. The field featured six Olympians from four countries.
“It’s pretty cool,” Crooks said. “I think after a couple years of racing the same guys, it’s cool to race them freshman year, sophomore year, junior year and kind of see how everyone’s progressed. Behind the blocks and on the blocks, you really kind of zone in and tune out everybody around you, so sometimes you kind of forget who’s beside you.”
Liendo won the event in 2024 and was second to Crooks in 2023. In his seventh individual event at NCAAs, the Florida junior has never been worse than second.
Alex Painter won the B final in 18.60 for Florida, with Connor Foote of Texas A&M second in 18.78. Seeliger was 11th overall in 18.82, and Indiana didn’t maximize its return with 13th and 15th.
Event 5 Men 50 Yard Freestyle
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NCAA: N 17.63 3/22/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
Meet: M 17.63 3/22/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
American: A 17.63 3/22/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
U. S. Open: O 17.63 3/22/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
Name Year School Prelims Finals Points
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=== Championship Final ===
1 Crooks, Jordan SR Tennessee 18.00 17.91 20
r:+0.59 8.68 17.91 (9.23)
2 Liendo, Josh JR Florida 18.30 18.23 17
r:+0.60 8.80 18.23 (9.43)
3 Caribe, Guilherme JR Tennessee 18.34 18.26 16
r:+0.56 8.65 18.26 (9.61)
4 Kharun, Ilya SO ASU 18.44 18.31 15
r:+0.63 8.96 18.31 (9.35)
5 Guiliano, Chris SR Texas 18.73 18.48 13.5
r:+0.62 8.87 18.48 (9.61)
5 Alexy, Jack SR California 18.48 18.48 13.5
r:+0.67 8.90 18.48 (9.58)
7 Kulow, Jonny JR ASU 18.56 18.74 12
r:+0.62 9.11 18.74 (9.63)
8 McCarty, Quintin SO NC State 18.62 18.79 11
r:+0.62 9.10 18.79 (9.69)
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