Stones of the Yarra Valley

NCAA men’s swimming and diving championships: Florida and IU lead scoring, Arizona State and Texas win relays

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WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS ARENA, SINGAPORE - 2025/08/03: Ahmed Jaouadi of Tunisia, competes in the swimming 1500m Freestyle Men Final during the 22nd World Aquatics Championships. Ahmed Jaouadi placed first winning the gold medal. (Photo by Andrea Staccioli/Insidefoto/LightRocket via Getty Images)Insidefoto via Getty Images

The men’s NCAA swimming and diving championships started off with an all-time collegiate swimming race.

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Florida freshman Ahmed Jaouadi and Indiana senior Zalan Sarkany battled for 1,625 yards stroke for stroke in the 1,650 freestyle. Both Jaouadi and Sarkany were well ahead of NCAA record pace, and put on a show for the fans at the McAuley Aquatic Center in the first race of the week.

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The difference in the end was the kick of Jaouadi, who had a wave of white water following the freshman on the final length of the pool. The Tunisia native closed in a blistering 22.73, passing the two-time defending champion after consistently holding 50 splits in the 25 to 26 second range throughout the race.

Jaouadi not only knocked off the back-to-back champion, but set a new fastest time in history in 14:10.03, smashing Bobby Finke’s iconic NCAA record time of 14:12.08.

Before tonight only Finke had broken the 14 minute and 20 second barrier, Jaouadi and Sarkany annihilated that mark, with Sarkany stopping the clock in 14:12.20.

If the mile is any indication of what is to come it should be a fun week of racing in Atlanta. In just three events there was an NCAA record in the mile, the second fastest time in history in the 200 medley relay, and an intense battle in the 800 freestyle relay.

After a consistent night of swimming Indiana and Florida are tied for the lead with 86 total points, with Texas close behind at 72.

After setting a new NCAA record at the SEC championships the target was on Florida’s back in the 200 medley relay. Despite a fiery anchor leg from Josh Liendo, it was too little too late for the Gators as Arizona State was the strongest squad in the water.

Adam Chaney, Andy Dobrzanski, Ilya Kharun, and Johnny Kulow won the NCAA title in 1:20.07, dropping a half second off of their season best.

Florida followed closely to secure national runner-up in 1:20.16, thirteen one-hundredths of a second off of their national record. Texas secured third in 1:20.46. Will Modglin, Nate Germonprez, Hubert Kos, and Garrett Gould were the leaders at the 100 mark before Arizona State and Florida put together impressive back halves.

Indiana placed fourth dropping almost a second from their season best. The fastest times from this morning came from NC State and Tennessee. The Wolfpack dropped a second and a half to swim a 1:21.23. The quartet of McCarty, Diehl, Hayes, and Salls moved into fifth overall while the Volunteers, runners-up in this event from 2025, dropped four tenths of a second to go 1:22.05 and place ninth.

Cal, Michigan and Kentucky rounded out the top eight with LSU falling to tenth after being seeded four coming into the week.

The Texas Longhorns grabbed their first NCAA win in the 800 freestyle relay. The team from Austin entered the week as the top seed and dropped almost a half second off of their entry time to win the national title by over five tenths of a second.

Rafael Fente-Damers, Camden Taylor, Rex Maurer, and Baylor Nelson stopped the clock in 6:05.82, putting together the most complete swim from start to finish. The Longhorns were consistent, with splits ranging from Maurer’s 1:30.76 to Fente-Damers’ 1:32.72 on lead off.

Stanford dropped a second to out-touch Ohio State by one-hundredth of a second to finish second. Henry McFadden had enough juice at the end to pass up the Buckeyes and secure two extra points for the Cardinal.

The fastest time from this morning belonged to the team from Virginia, who broke their own school record in 6:06.85 to move all the way up into fourth place. The Cavaliers squad featured two freshmen and one sophomore, which is promising for upcoming years. Maximus Williamson and US Olympian Thomas Heilman were the two top recruits in last year’s cycle.

NC State, Indiana, Michigan, and Arizona State added four more top eight finishes placing fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth.

Tennessee redshirt freshman Koby Bujak-Upton threw down a massive 1:29.79 leading off the Vols 800 freestyle relay this morning. Already the top seed in the 200 freestyle, Bujak-Upton dropped nearly a second from the personal best he entered the week with. He will be one to keep an eye on in the individual 200 freestyle.

Similar to the women’s meet, consolation finals will not be swum at NCAAs. Traditionally, swimmers who placed ninth through 16th would swim again at night.

This decision has received a lot of pushback following the Women’s NCAA championships last week. Fans in Atlanta were “booing” when consolation finals were mentioned in the venue last Wednesday.

This year, athletes will be locked into place when they finish between ninth and 16th in prelims. Whoever places in the top eight will compete for the NCAA title during the championship final, contested in the evening.

This means points are now scored in the morning and more information is available leading into each night’s finals session.

Additionally, relays will swim only once, so any team can move up into any place, whether teams swim in the morning or are seeded within the top eight and compete at night.

The overall scoring hasn’t changed, with individual events being scored from 20-17-16-15-14-13-12-11 for the top eight finishers and 9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 for ninth through 16th. Relays are worth double, with 40 massive points going to the NCAA champion.

Preliminaries: 10:00 am ET, Finals 6:00 pm ET Live results

  • 100-yard butterfly

  • 400-yard individual medley

  • 200-yard freestyle

  • 100-yard breaststroke

  • 200-yard freestyle relay

  • One-meter diving

Thursday’s competition can be streamed on ESPN+.

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