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2026 M. NCAA Championships: Day 4 400 Free Relay Analysis – ASU With 3 of The Top 10 Splits

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by Sam Blacker 1

March 28th, 2026 College, News

2026 NCAA DIVISION I MEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Men’s 400 Freestyle Relay — Final

  • NCAA Record: 2:42.15 — Arizona State (Kharun, Chaney, Fabiani, Kulow), (2026)
  • Championship Record: 2:42.30 — Tennessee (Caribe, Taylor, Blackman, Crooks), (2025)
  • American Record: 2:44.31 — NC State (Held, Ress, Molacek, Stewart), (2018)
  • U.S. Open Record: 2:42.15 — Arizona State (Kharun, Chaney, Fabiani, Kulow), (2026)
  • 2025 Champion: Tennessee (Caribe, Taylor, Blackman, Crooks) — 2:42.30
  • 2025 8th/16th Times: 2:46.21/2:48.56

Top 8: 

  1. Arizona State (Kharun, Chaney, Fabiani, Kulow) — 2:42.38
  2. NC State (Fox, McCarty, Williams, Winkler) — 2:43.31
  3. Florida (Dilger, Painter, Buff, Liendo) — 2:44.38
  4. Tennessee — 2:45.09
  5. Michigan — 2:45.85
  6. Texas — 2:45.97
  7. Indiana — 2:46.26
  8. California — 2:46.59

ASU reclaimed the 400 free relay title from Tennessee, with all four legs 41.17 or better. They were pushed closer than expected by an NC State squad which set a new program record behind a 40.15 anchor leg from Kaii Winkler, which held off Josh Liendo on the final leg for Florida.

Texas, playing it safe on the takeovers, were 6th overall but did enough to claim the overall title. Michigan and Tennessee dropped time to dip into the 2:45s, while Cal’s time from the morning heats held up for 8th.

Leadoff Leg

Another time from this morning, Julian Koch‘s 40.71 leadoff for Pitt, also held up as the fastest leadoff leg in the field,with Hubert Kos‘ 41.15 the fastest in the final heat tonight. That was a huge PB for the Texas swimmer, undercutting his best of 43.03 by nearly two seconds, and putting an end to an insane stat – his 100 free was only his third-fastest 100 in yards before tonight.

Ilya Kharun was 0.31 seconds off his best of 40.86 from Big 12s, while Devin Dilger set a new best by 0.04 in 41.86 for Florida, who moved Josh Liendo to the anchor after he led them off at the last three NCAA championships.

Nikita Sheremet was just 42.25 leading off for Louisville after going 41.41 for 12th individually, while Thomas Heilman set a new best of 41.74 leading off for Virginia.

Rank Swimmer Team Reaction Time Split
1 Julian Koch Pittsburgh 0.63 40.71
2 Hubert Kos Texas 0.60 41.15
3 Ilya Kharun ASU 0.62 41.17
4 Brendan Whitfield VT 0.69 41.29
5 Tomas Lukminas Arizona 0.61 41.57
6 Sean Niewold Alabama 0.65 41.66
7 Jerry Fox NC State 0.65 41.70
8 Thomas Heilman Virginia 0.64 41.74
9 Stuart Seymour Northwestern 0.64 41.79
10 Devin Dilger Florida 0.70 41.86
11 Andres Dupont Cabrera Stanford 0.60 41.91
12 Nikoli Blackman Tennessee 0.63 42.02
13 Shane Eckler Notre Dame 0.61 42.11
14 Owen McDonald Indiana 0.56 42.16
15 Nicholas Finch Yale 0.56 42.17
16 Ole Eidam Michigan 0.59 42.18
17 Tomas Navikonis OSU 0.66 42.21
18 Ben Sytsma TAMU 0.67 42.22
19 Nikita Sheremet Louisville 0.70 42.25
20 Martin Wrede California 0.67 42.37
21 Oliver Sogaard-Andersen USC 0.58 42.41
22 Lysander Osman Kentucky 0.68 42.47
22 Gustav Olsson FSU 0.65 42.47
24 Mitchell Schott Princeton 0.69 42.60
25 Sage Sungail SMU 0.68 42.78
26 Luke Bedsole Auburn 0.63 42.79
27 Preston Kessler Navy 0.66 42.98
28 Tane Bidois Georgia 0.66 43.12
29 Stepan Goncharov LSU 0.66 43.24
30 Sean Setzer** UNC 0.67 43.52
31 Francois Malherbe Missouri 0.62 43.65
32 Ben Vorthmann Army 0.61 43.93

Rolling Splits

ASU had all three swimmers in the top ten splits with Jonny Kulow, Remi Fabiani, and Adam Chaney all splitting sub-41. Kulow was a hundredth faster than his 40.08 from Big Tens and 0.14 seconds slower than his 39.93 from last year.

NC State had three swimmers in the top 11, with Kaii Winkler throwing down a blistering 40.15 having only been 41.60 individually earlier today. When normalising for reaction times, he was the fastest man in the field. Quintin McCarty (40.55) and Hudson Williams (40.91) helped the Wolfpack to a new school record of 2:43.31.

Texas played it safe on the starts, as was to be expected with Florida 35.5 points behind at the start of the race. Their combined addup was 0.93 seconds, the slowest in the field and the only team to be above 0.8 seconds.

Michigan got a phenomenal split from Jack Wilkening in his final ever college race, with the senior splitting 40.79. That was 0.84 seconds faster than he was at Big Tens and 1.45 seconds faster than at 2025 NCAAs, and comes after he set a huge new program record of 43.98 leading off the 400 medley relay last night. Antoine Sauve (41.43) and Tyler Ray (41.45) were also under 41.5 for the Wolverines as they shattered their school record in 2:45.85 for 5th.

Indiana had a pair of 41.0s from Mikkel Lee and Dylan Smiley, while Josh Liendo was just 40.38 for Florida having won the individual 100 free in 39.91 earlier this evening.

Jere Hribar had a rapid 40.39 split for LSU, half a second off the 39.84 he split at SECs, while Maximus Williamson was slightly slower than his 400 medley relay anchor of 40.66, but his 41.02 was still good for the 14th-fastest split overall.

Warner Russ (41.75) and Will Hayon (41.86) were well under their respective PBs of 42.48 and 42.53, while Evan Petty (41.23) was a full second under his best of 42.25. Alex Painter was a hundredth slower than on the 400 medley last night in 41.00, nearly a second quicker than he was individually today.

Patrick Dinu backed up his Princeton program record of 41.30 in the individual 100 earlier in the morning session with a blistering 40.67 split to anchor the Tigers to a new Ivy League record of 2:48.13.

**Louis Dramm appeared to break 41 seconds in the morning with a split of 40.83 for UNC, but it looks like the timing pad did not register leadoff Sean Setzer‘s touch so in reality this was slower, although we do not know by how much.

Ruard van Renen was 41.24 for Georgia, but they were DQed for an early takeoff from anchor Kris Mihaylov.

Rank Swimmer Team Reaction Time Split
1 Jonny Kulow ASU 0.05 40.07
2 Kaii Winkler NC State 0.18 40.15
3 Remi Fabiani ASU 0.16 40.29
4 Josh Liendo Florida 0.17 40.38
5 Jere Hribar LSU 0.17 40.39
6 Gui Caribe Tennessee 0.29 40.44
7 Quintin McCarty NC State 0.35 40.55
8 Patrick Dinu Princeton 0.09 40.67
9 Jack Wilkening Michigan 0.21 40.79
19 Adam Chaney ASU 0.27 40.85
11 Hudson Williams NC State 0.20 40.91
12 Alexander Painter Florida 0.13 41.00
12 Mikkel Lee Indiana 0.14 41.00
14 Maximus Williamson Virginia 0.28 41.02
15 Dylan Smiley Indiana 0.19 41.11
16 Scotty Buff Florida 0.27 41.14
17 Pedro Sansone Tennessee 0.25 41.16
18 Evan Petty California 0.22 41.23
18 Cade Duncan Northwestern 0.34 41.23
20 Rafael Fente-Damers Texas 0.28 41.24
20 Ruard van Renen Georgia 0.16 41.24
22 Lucca Battaglini California 0.25 41.30
23 Henry McFadden Stanford 0.21 41.36
24 Ralph Daleiden Ciuferri Arizona 0.22 41.39
24 Guy Brooks Louisville 0.18 41.39
26 Antoine Sauve Michigan 0.16 41.43
27 Tyler Ray Michigan 0.27 41.45
28 Koby Bujak-Upton Tennessee 0.13 41.47
29 Max Wilson FSU 0.11 41.66
30 Keaton Jones California 0.32 41.69
31 Kyle Peck Texas 0.35 41.74
32 Warner Russ Auburn 0.03 41.75
32 Johnny Crush Army 0.15 41.75
34 Ben Scholl TAMU 0.18 41.83
34 Tomas Koski Georgia 0.26 41.83
36 Garrett Gould Texas 0.30 41.84
37 Will Hayon VT 0.20 41.86
38 Jack Aikins Virginia 0.30 41.93
39 Merlin Belmon Pittsburgh 0.14 41.95
40 Daniel Krichevsky Auburn 0.27 41.96
41 Mira Knedla Indiana 0.38 41.99
42 David King Virginia 0.21 42.04
43 Jonathan Hoole Alabama 0.13 42.05
44 Aidan Musso Louisville 0.14 42.10
45 Kalle Makinen Auburn 0.28 42.14
46 Jonathan Tan Stanford 0.08 42.15
46 Cornelius Jahn OSU 0.32 42.15
48 Alan Vergine Pittsburgh 0.21 42.17
49 Francis Brennan SMU 0.26 42.19
49 Eli Likins SMU 0.09 42.19
51 Alejandro Michelena TAMU 0.08 42.20
52 Orion Henderson Arizona 0.04 42.21
52 Ben Denman-Grimm Navy -0.01 42.21
54 Harold Lockhart SMU 0.18 42.24
55 Simon Meubry LSU 0.37 42.25
56 Michal Chmielewski USC 0.14 42.26
57 Logan Noguchi Princeton 0.20 42.27
58 Oliver Kos Northwestern 0.24 42.28
58 Thomas Hadji Army 0.23 42.28
60 Rian Graham Louisville 0.11 42.30
60 Evan Fentress OSU 0.18 42.30
62 Zarek Wilson Alabama 0.29 42.31
63 Luke Nebrich Missouri 0.12 42.32
64 James Allison Pittsburgh 0.18 42.34
65 Rafael Gu Stanford 0.14 42.36
66 Tanish Mathew VT 0.12 42.4
67 Javier Nunez VT 0.19 42.41
67 Falemana Tuufui Kentucky 0.29 42.41
69 Connor Schuster Northwestern 0.19 42.42
70 Tim Korstanje Alabama 0.20 42.45
71 Justin Peresse Kentucky 0.21 42.47
72 Rasmus Hanson OSU 0.04 42.48
72 Jake Wang Yale 0.14 42.48
74 Jakey Hutchinson Arizona 0.12 42.49
75 Jeremy Kelly Notre Dame 0.14 42.50
76 Nate Hohm UNC 0.08 42.53
77 Deniel Nankov Yale 0.13 42.57
78 Jake Tarara Princeton 0.21 42.59
79 Tommy Janton Notre Dame 0.00 42.60
79 AJ Terry Kentucky 0.26 42.60
81 Andrew Rich FSU 0.11 42.63
82 Marcus Reyes-Gentry Notre Dame 0.25 42.72
83 Noah Millard Yale 0.18 42.77
84 Diggory Dillingham LSU 0.14 42.84
85 Jan Bialecki USC 0.22 42.86
86 Velis Makrygiannis USC 0.25 42.95
87 Martin Kartavi UNC 0.16 42.98
88 Dean Jones Navy 0.06 43.04
89 Kohen Rankin Army 0.05 43.05
90 Ethan Vance Missouri 0.18 43.06
91 Logan Brown TAMU 0.07 43.30
92 Darden Tate Missouri 0.10 43.36
93 Lachlan Andrew Navy 0.07 43.76
** Louis Dramm UNC – 40.83
*DQ Logan Robinson FSU -0.04 41.49
*DQ Kris Mihaylov Georgia -0.04 42.18

 

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Acc swammer
2 months ago

2:39 is coming soon.

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