SEC Championships at Texas A&M a Reminder of Wicked Fast 2009 NCAAs
Seven times during the 2023 SEC Championships, hosted by Texas A&M’s Student Recreation Aquatic Center, last weekend, a certain number came up: 2009.
Sixteen of the pool records at the home of the Aggies stemmed from that year, when College Station hosted the NCAA Championships, for the men and women on consecutive weekends. It was, like just about every meet in that watershed year, not without controversy.
The 2009 NCAAs were the last to permit tech suits by swimmers, FINA and the NCAA swimming powers having ostensibly distinct come-to-Jesus moments that summer that the suits were ruining the sport, on the heels of the farcical World Championships in Rome. (The NCAA, which saw 70 meet records re-set in all three division in 2009, even made the decision to print heat sheets in 2010 with pre-09 records.)
All but one of the NCAA Division I records set in 2009 or before have been clipped in the intervening years, but more than a dozen posted in College Station remained on the pool record board for SEC swimmers to take aim at last weekend. Seven went down, all stemming from the 2009 NCAA men’s meet. That includes four of the five men’s relays.
Tennessee’s men’s 200 medley relay took down an Auburn record from 2009 on the opening night of competition (Florida was also under it). The Gators downed Texas’s mark in the 800 free relay late that night. The Gators would break three minutes in the 400 medley relay, erasing another Auburn mark, and Tennessee and Florida both undercut the Tigers’ 400 free relay time on the final night.
The lone survivor on the men’s side is also the last holdout on the NCAA record board: The 200 free relay record of 1:14.08 set by Auburn on March 26, 2009 by Jakob Andkjaer, Gideon Louw, Kohlton Norys and Matt Targett.
Three other men’s records went by the wayside. Nathan Adrian won the 2009 NCAA title in the 50 free for Cal at 18.71 seconds. No swimmer went faster in the Texas A&M pool until first Josh Liendo (18.35), then Jordan Crooks (18.25) in prelims, then Crooks again in finals at 17.93. Adrian would’ve tied Adam Chaney for bronze.
Austin Staab’s pool record in the 100 fly of 44.18 went to Crooks in prelims at 44.04. Shaune Fraser had held the 200 free mark at 1:31.70 until Charlie Hawke of Alabama turned in a 1:31.20. (Worth noting that of those times, only Staab’s was an NCAA record at the time; Adrian was behind Cesar Cielo’s 2008 mark of 18.52, and Fraser trailed a Simon Burnett record from 2006.)
Impressive as the records that fell are the nine that remain, mostly on the women’s side of 2009 NCAAs. That includes a Gemma Spofforth backstroke double that only gets better with age: She went 50.55 in the 100 back and 1:49.11 in the 200, both unsurpassed. (The 200 back was an NCAA mark at the time.)
Dana Vollmer’s 1:42.01 200 free from 2009 hasn’t been touched. Nor has Elaine Breeden’s 1:50.98 in the 200 fly. Both were NCAA records in 2009. The only individual men’s mark to stand was Jean Basson’s time of 4:08.92 in the 500 free.
The three women’s relay records that survived the 14 years all live to see another day. No one was within a half-second of Arizona’s 200 free relay of 1:26.20. The Wildcats’ 400 medley relay (3:28.31) scraped by by .15 over the winning Alabama time. And Cal’s 400 free relay record of 3:09.88 had a half-second to spare over LSU. None of those three times was an NCAA record when set, accolades that long belonged to a storied 2004 meet.
