It was a packed week in the NCAA. The Division I and II teams are in the heart of the dual meet season, and the action is quickly picking up in Division III. The biggest matchup was ASU vs. NC State, which produced school records, fast swims by freshmen, and some of the fastest pre-November 50 freestyle times we’ve seen.
There were also plenty of upsets this weekend
The Fastest Early-Season 50 Freestyles In NCAA History
Over the past several seasons, we’ve been tracking the early season speed in the men’s 50 freestyle—an event that has gotten ridiculously fast at Division I NCAAs (it’s taken 19.04 to get a second swim the last two seasons).
At the start of the 2022-23 NCAA season, then-sophomore Jordan Crooks dropped a 19.36 in a dual meet. It tied him for the third-fastest 50 freestyle time before Nov. 1, dating as far back as the 2007-08 season. Caeleb Dressel owned the fastest pre-November swim, 19.10 from the 2017 All-Florida Invite.
Those rankings changed in the last two weeks of October; not only did Crooks slice .01 off his season-best, but Josh Liendo and Bjorn Seeliger notched 19.27 and 19.29, respectively. The next season, Jack Dolan took over the rankings, establishing a 19.02 as the fastest swim we’d seen before November.
This season, the rankings have been upended again. We’ve seen three sub-19 second yards swims before November. A year ago, we’d never had any, and now Ilya Kharun, Quintin McCarty, and Jonny Kulow have blown through the barrier.
Fastest Performers Prior To Nov. 1, Men’s 50 Free (SCY)
Note: data from USA Swimming through 2004-05 season, no converted times
- Ilya Kharun (ASU), 18.59 — 2024 ASU vs. NC State (Oct. 25)
- Quintin McCarty (NC State), 18.91 — 2024 ASU vs. NC State (Oct. 25)
- Jonny Kulow (ASU), 18.95 — 2024 ASU vs. NC State (Oct. 25)
- Jack Dolan (ASU), 19.02 — 2023 ASU vs. NC State (Oct. 20)
- Jordan Crooks (Tennessee), 19.07 — 2024 Tennessee vs. Louisville (Oct. 24)
- Caeleb Dressel (Florida), 19.10 — 2017 All Florida Invite (Sept. 22)
- Danny Kruger (Texas), 19.16 — 2020 Texas First Chance Invite (Oct. 16)
- Josh Liendo (Florida), 19.27 — 2023 Florida vs. Florida (Oct. 21)
- Bjorn Seeliger (Cal), 19.29 — 2022 Cal vs. Utah (Oct. 12)
- Chris Guiliano (Notre Dame), 19.35 — 2023 ND vs. Pitt vs. PSU (Oct .21)
The dramatic turnover we’ve seen culminated in Ilya Kharun, Quintin McCarty, and Jonny Kulow swimming the first pre-November 18-point 50 freestyles we’ve ever seen at the same meet. It’s a testament to the radical shift in training philosophy that’s happening in the NCAA. The Sun Devils have been at the helm of that charge, so it’s fitting that ASU swimmers hold three of the top five places.
This isn’t just a Division I thing; this past weekend at the MIT men’s season-opener against Harvard, fifth-year Tobe Obochi dropped a 20.30 50 freestyle (and a 45.39 100 free) to lead the division this season. David Bajwa (20.40), Casey Jacobs (20.48), Dylan Yin (20.58), and Jonathan Tang (20.59) are sub-20 already as well.
It’s a sharp drop from the end of October 2023, both for Obochi and the overall speed of the division. At this point last season, Emil Lasida owned Division III’s top time in 20.58—three men are already faster than that. Obochi was fourth with a 20.78, and went on to swim a lifetime best 19.66 at Division III NCAAs, tying for 8th fastest in DIII history, per USA Swimming. Oliver Smith owns the DIII record at 19.37.
Division II saw a similar phenomenon last season but has regressed this year as many of their top sprinters—Lamar Taylor, Jack Henderson, Kyle Micallef—have graduated or are using their final year of eligibility at a DI program.
Smells Like Upset Season
The leaves are changing, records are falling, and suddenly the dual meet upsets are coming fast and furious. IT began in earnest last week when DIII NYU took down DI Fordham, and this week, we had three more meets where the lower-ranked or lower-division team came out on top.
On the cross-divisional upset front, Division II powerhouse Tampa, which houses the defending men’s NCAA champions, took down the Florida men and women. The Tampa men won 11 events and the women came from behind in the last relay to win the event and the meet. The meet was a late addition to the schedule for Florida, which primarily sent swimmers who did not race at the SCM dual against Virginia. Still, it’s a significant accomplishment for Tampa, which has surely gained confidence for their title defense from a victory with a Division I program with significant NCAA aspirations of their own.
At their season-opening tri-meet with local Division I teams Harvard and Northeastern, the MIT women posted several Division III leading times as they fell to the Crimson but beat the Huskies by 49 points. Alex Turvey (50 free, 23.74), Ella Roberson (100 free, 51.57/200 free, 1:52.64), and Kate Augustyn (200 back, 2:03.96) posted DIII leading times, as did freshman and U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier Sara Bernard, who won the 100 breast (1:04.03) and 200 breast (2:16.67) to soar to the top of the division rankings in her first collegiate meet.
In a matchup between Division I teams, Louisville took down Tennessee on both the women’s and men’s sides. The women’s meet came down to the final relay as the Cardinals battled back from an early deficit to win the relay and the meet over a Mona McSharry-less Tennessee team. There was a bigger gap on the men’s side as Tennessee’s sprint stars could not overcome Louisville’s more evenly-balanced roster, even as they clocked the season’s first sub-2:50 400 free relay.
Based on our September power rankings, the ASU men beating NC State this past weekend is an upset—we ranked the Sun Devils seventh and the Wolfpack fifth to open the season. I don’t think that’s enough of a gap to elicit the stunned feeling I think a true upset bring, but it’s certainly a statement by the ASU men. Kharun has been a star for them in the early goings of this season, and just as importantly, their relays are still firing—they lead the league in four of the five and have four NCAA ‘A’ cuts. To truly be in the title hunt, ASU needs the guys who held depth roles last season to step up and score points, but keeping their relays at the top of the league is crucial to maintaining their place in the top tier of NCAA teams.
More Notable Results
Anything You Can Do…: “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)” was originally written for the climactic sharpshooting match between Annie Oakley and Frank Butler in Annie Get Your Gun. But it also applies to the back and forth between Kharun and Luca Urlando this season as they constantly one-up each other in the butterfly events. Urlando controlled the 100/200 fly top times over the last few weeks in 44.16/1:39.03. But Kharun fired back this past weekend with a personal best of 43.95 and a 1:38.74.
Kharun’s 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly times are Sun Devil program records. He added a 19.31 50 fly split to his meet, giving him five entries on the top-10 50 fly split performances in NCAA history.
The ASU women also took down school records while racing the Wolfpack. The 200 medley relay of Miriam Sheehan, Iza Adame, Julia Ulmann, and Caroline Bentz broke the school record for the second time this month, swimming 1:36.17. Bentz later led off the 400 free relay with a new school record of 48.30.
The Developing Race For The Women’s 100 Back: There’s a lingering question about what Gretchen Walsh and Claire Curzan will swim at NCAAs. Either will be the favorite in the women’s 100 backstroke if they enter, but neither have raced the event in yards yet as Virginia’s only had an off-event dual and an SCM battle with Florida. With Katharine Berkoff–the other heavy favorite in this event the past few seasons–graduated, the picture in the event has taken on an interesting shape.
Even without Berkoff, NC State has asserted themselves in this race. The Wolfpack duo of Leah Shackley and Kennedy Noble have asserted their claim early, with Shackley blazing a 50.40 this past weekend, which would’ve finished second at NCAAs last year. Noble sits third at 50.82 and is the experienced hand in this event’s current shape, as sophomores Emma Kern and Miranda Grana are next fastest at 51.49 and 51.62. Kern was just off her PB with that time and Grana, who transferred to Indiana from Texas A&M, went faster at an October dual than at 2024 NCAAs.
DIII Heating Up: MIT’s Jason Wang joined his teammates by posting a division-leading 1:51.26 in the men’s 200 IM. But even outside the Engineers, some of the division’s powerhouse are beginning to assert control over the division early in the season.
MIT earned their nine division-leading times from six swimmers, and Emory follows closely behind with five swimmers contributing six top times during their dual meet with Sewanee.
Three returning Emory’s NCAA championship team members added their names to the top of the rankings this weekend, joining Crow Thorsen and Zachary Spicer who already sat atop the league in one event each. Henri Bonnault and Liyang Sun have taken over the breaststrokes: they sit 1-2 in the 100 breaststroke as Bonnault clocked 55.31, two-hundredths ahead of Sun, while Sun leads the 200 breast in 2:02.40. Jeff Nichols leads the butterfly events after posting 47.95/1:49.20 in the 100/200 fly.
Emory leads the 200 fly on both the men’s and women’s side as Elodie Mitchell swam 2:03.25 for the Eagles. Her teammate Allison Greenway joined her at the top of the division with a 2:03.89 in the 200 IM, and NYU’s Zeynep Tokuz leads a Violets’ 1-2 ranking in the 400 IM with a 4:34.31.
Odds and Ends
- There were a couple of men’s dual meets decided by two points this week. Georgetown edged out Villanova 151-149, and the Purdue men beat Missouri by the same margin. That win gave Purdue their first co-ed dual meet sweep on the road since 2019.
- Pace Clark has been appointed the Head Coach for Delta State University after Dan’l Murray departed at the beginning of the season after 14 years at the post.
- Six swimmers have earned individual NCAA ‘A’ cuts already, and the relay ‘A’ cuts are up dramatically from last season. The ASU men lead the league in four of the relays with time under all four ‘A’ standards.
- The NCAA released a Q&A detailing some specifics of the House vs. NCAA settlement.
Always too much emphasis and hype over early season times and dual meet results. Let’s see what happens when it counts.
Both of the NCAA Champion teams swam super fast at the beginning of last season. HTH. Sorry you hate fast swimming.
Great article, Sophie. Thanks.
Swimmers will continue swimming faster times. The reasons are many including but not limited to; The psychology of barrier gaping, bigger and stronger athletes, more innovative coaching, facility and rule adjustments favorable to improvements, nutrition, drag reduction systems, etc. At some point timing systems will probably be calibrated accurately to measure 1/10,000 of a second. The barrier for stalling of time drops is practically non existent. Also water density plays a part in fluid dynamics – just a thought. What is the “limit” for a 100 meter race? We know it will always simply be faster!
The timing systems can be more accurate than a 100th of a second. The reason they don’t is because of slight discrepancies that can occur in the length of the pool when it warms up and expands, then cools and contracts. As well as very slight differences in the thickness of touchpads.
One lane could be ever so slightly shorter than the lane next to it, so timing to a 1000th of a second or more could be affected by the possible .5mm difference in the pool lengths.