2026 M. NCAA Championships: Day 3 400 Medley Relay Analysis – A Trio of Historic Fly Splits

2026 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships

• Dates: Wednesday, March 25–Saturday, March 28
• Location: McAuley Aquatic Center, Atlanta, GA
• Defending Champions: Texas (1x)
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• Preview Index
• Live Stream
• Live Results
• Live Recaps
  • Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

Men’s 400 Medley Relay — Final

• NCAA Record: 2:55.66 – Florida (Marshall, Smith, Liendo, Painter), 2025
• Championship Record: 2:56.10 – Florida (Marshall, Smith, Liendo, Painter), 2025
• American Record: 3:00.34 – Texas (Modglin, Germonprez, Gould, Taylor). 2025
• U.S. Open Record: 2:55.66 – Florida (Marshall, Smith, Liendo, Painter), 2025
• 2025 Champion: Florida (Marshall, Smith, Liendo, Painter) – 2:56.10
• 2025 8th/16th Times: 3:01.19/3:04.14

Top 8: 

1. Arizona State (Chaney, Dobrzanski, Kharun, Fabiani) — 2:56.79
2. Texas (Modglin, Germonprez, Kos, Taylor) — 2:57.22
3. Florida (Marshall, de Groot, Liendo, Painter) — 2:57.54
4. Michigan — 2:58.53
5. Indiana — 2:59.96
6. Tennessee — 3:00.34
7. California — 3:00.41
8. Virginia — 3:00.55

ASU won their third relay of the meet, as Remi Fabiani stormed home in 40.24 to overhaul Florida and Texas. The Sun Devils set a new Big 12 record and swam the #3 time in history, behind only the 2:55.66 and 2:56.10 swims from Florida last year. Josh Liendo, Hubert Kos, and Ilya Kharun swam top-ten fly splits, as we capped off the penultimate day in Atlanta with a bang.

Michigan demolished their school record of 3:00.15 from last month, and had a huge school record from Jack Wilkening on the leadoff as he split 43.98. Indiana also dipped under 3:00, with Tennessee, Cal, and Virginia rounding out the top eight.

Backstroke Leg

Will Modglin swam his fastest 100 back since going 43.26 at midseason, and was three-tenths faster than he was to take 4th in the individual event earlier in the session. Adam Chaney set his second new best in two hours as he went 43.64, lowering the 43.75 he swam for 3rd individually.

Ruard van Renen swam his slowest 100 back of the day in 43.75 – some achievement to be able to say that – and Jack Wilkening lowered his Michigan record from the morning by 0.71 seconds.

Jonny Marshall rebounded from a rough prelims swim individually to go 44.09, which would have made the ‘A’ final, whereas he placed 19th, Jonny Crush was 44.33 for his third sub-44.5 swim today, with Ulises Saravia and Mira Knedla setting new best times of 44.39 and 44.40 respectively. Lysander Osman of Kentucky was seven tenths slower than his individual swim, with both coming in the morning session.

Breaststroke Leg

Nate Germonprez and Yamato Okadome had the fastest breaststroke splits, as they did on the 200 medley relay on the first day. Germonprez had the edge here for the first time this meet, after Okadome outsplit him in the 200 medley relay and beat Germonprez into 3rd in the 100 breast final.

Koen de Groot, Alexei Avakov, and Luka Mladenovic were all 50.0, although it may be surprising that U.S. swimmer Avakov has the fastest LCM 100 breast of that trio, despite the other two being better known internationally. Andy Dobrzanski rebounded from a pair of rough individual swims in breaststroke to split 50.28, good for 6th overall.

Josh Staples lowered his best-ever split by 0.39 seconds to go 50.46 for Northwestern this morning, and has taken an entirely different tack this season after swimming the 500 free and the mile at 2025 NCAAs. Yes, this is a 4:13 500 freestyler splitting 50.4 on breaststroke.

Gabe Nunziata was 50.85 for Tennessee, and has quietly had a great first NCAA meet after making the ‘A’ final in 200 breaststroke and scoring in the 100.

Butterfly Leg

This was the most impressive leg of the four, as we had four of the 11 fastest splits in history. Josh Liendo swam the #2 time, behind only his 42.12 from 2025 SECs and ahead of his 42.46 from 2025 NCAAs. Hubert Kos was 42.52 for the #4 split ever, and hit the halfway point in 19.37 – almost exactly the same time as his 50 fly split (19.30) on the 200 medley relay on day 1.

Ilya Kharun was 42.63 to lower his best-ever split of 42.80, but fell one place in both the performances and performers all-time rankings. Thomas Heilman, who swam on Virginia’s near-American-record-setting relay this morning (they were just 0.21 seconds away and had a 51.87 breaststroke split), was 42.97.

Tyler Ray was 43.17 to underline his credentials as one of the best flyers in NCAA history, and Logan Robinson delivered a huge split of 43.45 for FSU, which was a big reason for their 9th-place finish which put 18 points on the board – having only scored 7 up to that point in the meet.

Nick Finch was 43.85 for what would have been the 8th-fastest split, but was DQed for a reaction time of -0.04, outside the -0.03 tolerance allowed.

Freestyle Leg

Remi Fabiani had a huge swim for ASU, nearly matching the 40.00 he split on the Sun Devil’s 400 free relay at Big 12s. His 40.24 was the fastest in the field, a full three-quarters of a second ahead of Florida’s Alex Painter, and 1.2 seconds ahead of Texas’ Camden Taylor, which proved crucial in the title battle.

Gui Caribe was 40.31 for Tennessee as they finished 6th overall, as the next seven fastest splits after Fabiani all came from the morning heats. Only Fabiani and Painter broke 41 seconds in the fastest heat this evening.

Maximus Williamson was 40.66 for Virginia as they finished 8th in a new school record, a good sign for his 200 IM tomorrow after winning the 200 free yesterday. He scratched the 50 free this morning to go all-in on this relay.

Tomas Lukminas was 40.78 for Arizona and could make some noise as the #10 seed in the individual 100 free tomorrow, while Cade Duncan was 40.97 to sit just off the 40.94 he split at Big Tens. Nikita Sheremet was 40.92 for Louisville, continuing his fantastic freshman season.

Eight swimmers broke 41 seconds, with a further 16 under 42 seconds. Tylor Kim‘s split was huge for 22nd-place Penn State – he was 41.57 here, having been just 42.67 at Big Tens.

Kentucky’s Falemana Tuufui had the slowest split in 42.86, 1.21 seconds slower than at SECs, having split 17.91 on the 200 medley relay on day 1.