2025 M. NCAA Previews: Team Battle On Full Display In Men’s 1650 Freestyle

2025 Men’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships

• March 26-29, 2025
• Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Center, Federal Way, Washington
• Short Course Yards (25 yards)
• SwimSwam Pick’Em Contest
• SwimSwam Preview Index
• Psych Sheet

Men’s 1650 Freestyle — By The Numbers 

• NCAA Record: 14:12.08 — Bobby Finke, Florida (2020)
• Championship Record: 14:12.52 — Bobby Finke, Florida (2021)
• American Record: 14:12.08 — Bobby Finke, Florida (2020)
• U.S. Open Record: 14:12.08 — Bobby Finke, Florida (2020)
• 2024 Champion: Zalan Sarkany, Arizona State — 14:30.57

NCAA Team Title Contenders Duke It Out 

All three of the main contenders for this year’s title—Texas, Indiana, and Cal—aim to make a statement on the last night of the meet with a finals-opening win in the 1650 freestyle. After swimming consistently fast throughout the season, the Longhorns are projected to pick up big points in this event as they are seeded highly on the psych sheet. That’s true in many events and in this one, it’s David Johnston and Rex Maurer hoping to engineer a Texas 1-2 finish. 

Johnston returned to NCAA action this season after an Olympic redshirt season and a Paris berth. He’s improved his 1650 free placement at each of his three NCAA Championships, going from 7th in 2021 to 5th in 2022, then fourth in 2023. He’s in a strong position to continue that trend this season. After becoming the SEC champion in a lifetime best 14:26.00, Johnston leads the psych sheet by 3.74 seconds with a time that would’ve won NCAAs the last two years. 

Maurer, Johnston’s sophomore teammate, has reached another level of his career this season. The move from Stanford to Texas has worked for him; he ripped an American record in the 500 freestyle at midseason and has vaulted up the all-time rankings in multiple events. Maurer did not swim the 1650 freestyle in a Cardinal cap so his time has improved from a 14:54.71 at the 2022 Winter Juniors to a 14:30.47 at the Texas Hall of Fame Invitational. That marks a 24.24-second drop for Maurer and puts him on the cusp of breaking the 14:30 barrier; he also out-split Bobby Finke’s NCAA record pace over the final 250 yards. 

Maurer looked largely unrested at the SEC Championships but still walked away with two event titles and a third-place finish in the 1650 freestyle (14:32.78). Like many of the Longhorns, his focus is fixed on peaking for NCAAs, where he aims to make a triumphant return after a disappointing outing his freshman season. 

The 1650 freestyle has been one of California’s few weaknesses in recent seasons. The team has rectified that this year by adding Olympian Lucas Henveaux back to the roster. Henveaux saw major improvements during his stint with the Bears and continued to improve in the interim, making him an even more valuable prospect than he was when he was first on the roster. 

Lucas Henveaux (photo: Jack Spitser)

Henveaux threw down a lifetime best 14:29.74 at Cal’s dual against Stanford in January, which shot him to the top of the NCAA rankings at the time. He did not break 14:40 at the ACC Championships, instead taking this with a 14:40.09. His swim at ACCs was only his fourth time swimming the race, and it feels like if there’s a wildcard in this race, it’s him. He placed 9th in the 1650 freestyle at the 2024 NCAA Championships in his second time swimming the event.

Indiana made distance freestyle moves of its own in the offseason, adding the reigning 1650 freestyle champion, Zalan Sarkany, to the Hoosier ranks. This was an important pick up for Indiana among the high-powered names the team added this year as similarly to Cal, Indiana has lacked 1650 freestyle points in recent years. The last time they scored in this event was in 2022. 

Sarkany’s best event in the yards pool is the 1650 freestyle and adding the defending champion in the event does a lot to mitigate ceding many points to Indiana’s rivals in the team race. The Indiana women swam well at their NCAA Championships, which could indicate big things to come for the men. Sarkany easily won the 1650 freestyle at the Big Ten Championships in 14:38.01 which secured him the 7th seed and an outside lane in the top heat at NCAAs. 

Sarkany won his NCAA title in 14:30.57 but has been as fast as 14:23.01, which makes him the 6th fastest performer in history and the fastest in this field. Johnston’s 14:26.00 ranks him 13th, the next best among these contenders.

The Rest Of The Top Heat 

Of course, it won’t just be swimmers from teams involved in the title hunt in the final heat of the 1650 freestyle. Kentucky’s Levi Sandidge, NC State’s Owen Lloyd, Yale’s Noah Millard, and Stanford’s Liam Custer have also earned a lane in the fastest-timed final. 

Sandidge interrupted a Longhorn 1-2 finish at the SEC Championships, swimming a lifetime best 14:30.61 to outpace Maurer by over two seconds. Now a junior, Sandidge won the 1650 freestyle SEC title as a freshman. The conference meet is where he’s had his best performances in the mile over the last two seasons; he placed 6th at NCAAs in 2023 then didn’t score last season. He’ll be aiming for a return to the top 8 but to achieve that goal, he won’t be able to gain too much from his seed time as the field’s been reinvigorated after a quiet 2023-24. 

Millard has been part of the crew injecting energy into this event this season. He was an Olympic redshirt last season but turned heads two years ago with a 4:10.62 at the Ivy League Championships. Millard has been lighting it up since his return to the Bulldogs in the 200/500/1650 freestyle, including dropping a 14:33.47 at the Ohio State Invitational. At last month’s Ivy League Championships, he backed that up with a 14:34.72 after swimming lifetime bests in the 200/500 freestyle. 

Owen Lloyd (photo: Jack Spitser)

Two years ago, Millard did not transition well from Ivies to NCAAs, falling out of scoring position in the 500 freestyle. But if he’s learned from that experience, he could put some big points on the board for Yale. He won’t be the team’s only swimmer at the meet with year either; the Bulldogs qualified another swimmer (Nicholas Finch) individually, plus relays.

Owen Lloyd had one of the best stories of this year’s conference championship season. He rebounded from a tough disqualification for his post-mile winning celebration a year ago, swimming a lifetime best 14:31.64 and finally standing on top of the ACC podium.

That effort may have been the culmination of years of work, but Lloyd’s season isn’t over yet. His swim landed him the 5th seed at NCAAs, exactly the placement Lloyd earned last season, improving from 11th the year before. In 2023, Lloyd’s 11th place time was a lifetime best 14:46.16. He’s dropped 14.52 seconds over those two years and the big question will be if he’s saved anything for NCAAs or whether his focus was that redemptive title in Greensboro. 

Finally, Stanford’s Custer has been quietly chugging along this season. He was a big pick-up for the Cardinal as a recruit and it seems like he’s finally in a position to contribute his first NCAA points for Stanford. Custer touched second at the ACC Championships, breaking 14:40 for the first time in four years and swimming a lifetime best 14:36.44. The swim cut 1.42 seconds off the lifetime best he swam before arriving at university. It was a big moment for him he’ll be hoping to translate to a successful second NCAA appearance. Last year, Custer finished 30th in this event. 

Could A Win Come From The Early Heats? 

All timed finals of the mile will swim in the afternoon between prelims and finals except the last heat, which features the top 8 seeds. While the final eight swimmers will be well aware of what’s already been done, the format forces us to consider whether the top 8 will slip up and a swimmer from the early heats will win the day.

It doesn’t seem likely this season given the seed times. But, if you’re scanning the psych sheet looking to see if anyone could move up into All-American status from the morning there are a couple of strong candidates including former champion Will Gallant. The NC State swimmer won this race in 2023, breaking the 14:30 barrier with a 14:28.94 and leading a 1-2 finish for the Wolfpack. Gallant has been quiet this season since returning from his Olympic redshirt season—he owns a season-best 14:48.80 that ranks 29th on the psych sheet. However, someone with a sub-14:30 lifetime best is always a person to keep an eye on at NCAAs. 

Daniel Matheson (photo: Jack Spitser)

In a similar vein, three-time top-8 finisher Jack Hoagland is second from last on the psych sheet. Hoagland is in his final year at SMU and was part of an incredibly successful 2024 NCAA Championship team for the Mustangs, where Hoagland was a three-time ‘A’ finalist. His lifetime best in the mile, 14:31.83, comes from the 2021 ACC Championships. He brings a season-best of 15:01.06 into NCAAs this year but has broken 14:40 in his last three NCAA appearances. So, even if he doesn’t crack the top 8, it seems like he’s got a lot of room to move up. 

Oh, you need more swimmers to watch from the early heats? 

Well, Arizona State’s Daniel Matheson is another strong contender to break into the top eight. He’s sitting 10th overall after a lifetime best 14:43.46 at the Wolfpack Elite Invitational. Matheson won the Big XII Championship in the event too (14:46.53) and aims to move up from 11th last season. Arizona State’s sprint group has been attracting a lot of attention this season as their relays excel. But, Matheson is a solid bet to pick up points for the Sun Devils in this event as they aim to back up their 2024 title by maintaining a spot in the top 5 programs. 

Around Matheson’s entry at 11th is where you start seeing teams join Texas with multiple swimmers in scoring position. NC State has Lance Norris 9th (14:38.69) and Kentucky’s Carson Hick is 11th (14:43.70). Norris in particular has potential to move up; last year, he dropped ten seconds from midseason to NCAAs and has already swum a lifetime best at this season’s Wolfpack Elite Invitational.

Meanwhile, last year’s runner-up Giovanni Linscheer is seeded 15th (14:45.25), while 7th-place Bar Soloveychik and 9th-place Charlie Clark are seeded 27th and 20th, respectively. Florida’s distance group, including Linscheer, is an interesting case. The Gators are known as a powerhouse freestyle program and have routinely flexed their distance freestyle depth at the conference and national level. But this year, Linscheer is the team’s highest seed, with Jake Mitchell tied for 20th, Josh Parent at 25th (14:48.46), Oskar Lindholm 32nd (14:56.64), and Eric Brown 33rd (14:56.84). Will the Gators explode in Federal Way or can they not rely on this event as a massive points boost anymore? 

SwimSwam Picks 

Dark Horse: Tomas Koski, Georgia — The makeup of this event required us to scan further down the psych sheet than we typically do in these previews, which has eaten into the potential dark horse candidates. But, if you need one more reason to tune into the afternoon session, we submit Georgia’s Tomas Koski. The sophomore has carved his niche in the 200/500 freestyle and swam lifetime bests in both at the SEC Championships that put him in NCAA scoring range. After SECs, Koski swam the 1650 free at Georgia’s Last Chance Meet. It was unsurprising to see him pop a lifetime best (14:47.73) after the strides he’s made in freestyle since arriving in Athens. However, it was a bit of a surprise to see that time motivated him to enter the event at NCAAs rather than the 100 freestyle. But, the 100 free is a crowded and chaotic event. Koski must feel he’s in a better position to score in this race, and it makes us wonder if he feels he’s got a better swim in the tank that will push him up from his 22nd seed.