2024 NCAA Men’s Championships: Day 3 Relay Analysis – Leon’s 48.73 BR Leads Top Medley Splits

2024 MEN’S NCAA SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• March 27-30, 2024
• IUPUI Natatorium, Indianapolis, Indiana
• Short Course Yards (25 yards)
• Meet Central
• Official Psych Sheets
• SwimSwam Preview Index
• SwimSwam Pick ‘Ems Contest
• How to Watch
• Live Results
• Day 1 Finals Live Recap
• Day 2 Prelims Live Recap | Day 2 Finals Live Recap
• Day 3 Prelims Live Recap | Day 3 Finals Live Recap

TEAM SCORES THRU DAY 3

1. Arizona State — 343
2. Cal — 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 State — 65
16. Texas A&M — 62
17. Alabama — 50
18. SMU / Virginia — 41
19. —
20. Florida State — 34
21. Minnesota — 28
22. Miami (FL) — 21
23. Missouri / Arizona — 19
24. —
25. Towson — 17
26. Pitt — 15
27. LSU — 11
28. USC / UNC — 9
29. Penn St — 8
30. BYU — 7
31. Utah — 6
32. Purdue — 5
33. George Washington — 1

Sourced from Sophie Kaufman.

400 YARD MEDLEY RELAY — TIMED FINAL

• NCAA Record: 2:58.32 — Florida (A. Chaney, D. Hillis, J. Liendo, M. McDuff), 2023
• Meet Record: 2:58.32 — Florida (A. Chaney, D. Hillis, J. Liendo, M. McDuff), 2023
• American Record: 3:01.51 — Cal (R. Murphy, C. Hoppe, M. Josa, M. Jensen), 2017
• U.S. Open Record: 2:58.32 — Florida (A. Chaney, D. Hillis, J. Liendo, M. McDuff), 2023
• Pool Record: 2:59.22 — Texas (J. Shebat, W. Licon, J. Schooling, J. Conger), 2017
• 2023 Champion: 2:58.32 — Florida (A. Chaney, D. Hillis, J. Liendo, M. McDuff)

Top 8:

1. Arizona State (ASU) – 2:57.32 *NCAA, American, U.S. Open, & Pool Records*
2. California (Cal) – 2:58.30
3. NC State – 2:59.71
4. Indiana – 3:00.20
5. Stanford & Tennessee – 3:01.97
6. –
7. Virginia Tech – 3:02.34
8. Texas – 3:02.44

Tonight’s men’s 400 medley relay finals were quite eventful, to say the least. Arizona State popped off and won their first-ever NCAA relay title in NCAA record-fashion this evening at 2:57.32. Runner-up California also swam under the NCAA record by 0.02s, marking in 2:58.30.

At the same time, three relays, including top-three team battle contender Florida, were plagued with early take-off disqualifications.

NC State’s Kacper Stokowski led the 100 backstroke splits at 43.57, which would have won the individual final by 0.29s, where he placed second. Florida’s Adam Chaney led off with the second-fastest split at 44.02, despite his relay being disqualified. Both Cal’s Destin Lasco (44.13) and Texas’ Will Modglin (44.32) had also split faster than individual final champion Indiana’s Brendan Burns (44.43).

Leon Marchand pulled through for ASU with the fastest flying 100 breast split ever at 48.73, taking down his previous unofficial record split of 49.23 from last year. Newly-minted event NCAA record-holder Liam Bell of Cal swam another sub-50 time, punching the 4th-fastest relay split in history at 49.70.

Notably, Florida used Julian Smith on breaststroke (50.41). In combination with his 100 free scratch, that means he will swim 5 relays for the Gators this week. This compounds the pain of the DQ because Smith, who is swimming well this week, was within scoring reach in the 100 free.

Auburn’s breaststroker, Henry Bethel flew off with an illegal -0.13 reaction time (51.26), negating a relay that would have placed 13th.

ALL-TIME TOP 5 FLYING START 100 BREAST PERFORMERS

Unofficially, Florida’s Josh Liendo put up the fastest 100 fly relay split in history at 42.56, the first man to split sub-43 on a relay. Ilya Kharun was another swimmer to crack the top five relay splits ever, hitting 43.44 for ASU.

Georgia’s butterfly leg Bradley Dunham was just over the legal reaction time allowance (-0.04s, 45.54), which would have placed the Bulldogs in 16th.

ALL-TIME TOP 5 FLYING START 100 FLY PERFORMERS

Cal’s Bjorn Seeliger positioned himself 5th all-time in history with his 40.30 relay split on the freestyle leg, with Notre Dame’s Chris Guiliano (40.43) and ASU’s Jonny Kulow (40.54) not too far off him.

Florida anchor, Macguire McDuff, jumped early (-0.05 reaction), unfortunately disqualifying what could have been a 2nd-place relay. McDuff’s unofficial split was 40.53, even with the top three legal splits of the field.

ALL-TIME TOP 5 FLYING START 100 FREE PERFORMERS

NOTE:
*The Florida, Auburn, and Georgia relays were disqualified for early takeoffs.
**Disqualified swimmers.