2026 M. NCAA Division I Championship: Day 1 200 Medley Relay Analysis – Four 17-point Anchors

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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  • Prelims: Day 1
  • Finals: Day 1

Men’s 200 Medley Relay — Final Heat

• NCAA Record: 1:20.03 – Florida (Marshall, de Groot, Buff, Liendo), 2026
• Championship Record: 1:20.15 – Florida (Chaney, Smith, Liendo, McDuff), 2024
• American Record: 1:20.92 – Indiana (Barr, Benzing, Brooks, King), 2025
• U.S. Open Record: 1:20.03 – Florida (Marshall, de Groot, Buff, Liendo), 2026
• Defending Champion: Texas (Modglin, Germonprez, Kos, Guiliano) – 1:20.28
• 2025 8th/16th Place Times: 1:22.01/1:23.59

Top 8:

1. Arizona State (Chaney, Dobrzanski, Kharun, Kulow) — 1:20.08
2. Florida (Marshall, de Groot, Buff, Liendo) — 1:20.16
3. Texas (Modglin, Germonprez, Kos, Gould) — 1:20.46
4. Indiana — 1:21.12
5. NC State — 1:21.23
6. California — 1:21.58
7. Michigan — 1:21.64
8. Kentucky — 1:22.00

ASU roared home on the second half of this race behind Ilya Kharun and Jonny Kulow to set a new meet record and take the first relay win of the meet, with Florida less than a tenth of a second behind. They had the fastest fly leg and 4th-fastest free leg, as well as the 5th-fastest leadoff courtey of Adam Chaney.

Josh Liendo was the fastest freestyler as he nearly ran down Kulow in 17.58, but just ran out of pool. The Gators had the joint-2nd fastest fly leg from Scotty Buff, and had the fastest back half of any team in 36.64, 0.04 seconds faster than ASU’s 36.68.

Army were DQed for a -0.06 reaction from their anchor leg, but had top-three splits on both back (Jonny Crush) and breast (Kohen Rankin).

Reaction times down to -0.03 seconds are allowed, as the timing equipment has a tolerance of 0.03 seconds.

Backstroke Leg

We had five swimmers 20.30 or better, but no one under 20.19 on the leadoff leg. Will Modglin was a hundredth faster than Ruard van Renen, but the Texas swimmer was nearly two tenths of a second of the 20.00 he swam at midseason, and slower than the 20.08 he swam at SECs.

Jonny Crush threw down a rapid 20.25 to rank in the top ten performers all-time, but it would ultimately count for nothing as Army were DQed on their final exchange. Lysander Osman was 20-low again in 20.30 after swimming 20.21 at SECs, as Kentucky continues to show out this season. Overall, 21 men were under 21 seconds on the backstroke leg.

Breaststroke Leg

Yamato Okadome and Nate Germonprez vaulted to #4 and #5 all-time with their splits tonight, as the only swimmers under 22.50. Okadome knocked 0.34 seconds off the 22.69 he swam at ACCs while Germonprez was a tenth faster than the 22.49 he split at SECs.

Kohen Rankin‘s split from this moring stood up as the third-fastest overall, the same position as teammate Jonny Crush on the backstroke leg. Indiana’s Travis Gulledge was a tenth slower than the 22.63 he swam at Big Tens, with only eight swimmers breaking 23 seconds.

Butterfly Leg

Ilya Kharun blazed the #2 split of all time on the fly leg for eventual winners ASU, but was closely followed by Michigan’s Tyler Ray and Florida’s Scotty Buff, both of whom set best-ever splits and now move into the top-ten all-time. Hubert Kos was the 4th-fastest split, 0.05 seconds ahead of Brazilian and Tennessee Sprinter Gui Caribe, who was off his best of 19.06.

Owen McDonald set a best-ever split of 19.77, faster than the 20.12 he swam at Big Tens, and 17 men were under 20 seconds. Yale’s Nick Finch timed his takeover perfectly with a rection time of 0.00, but the Bulldogs ended up finishing 17th, just 0.09 seconds outside the points.

Freestyle Leg

We saw a stunning four splits under 18 seconds on the anchor leg, all of which came in the final heat. Josh Liendo stayed as the #3 swimmer all-time behind Caeleb Dressel and Jordan Crooks by matching the 17.58 he swam at SECs, while Jere Hribar was 0.37 seconds off the 17.59 he split behind Liendo last month which ranked him at #4.

Kentucky’s Falemana Tuufui was two tenths faster than the 18.11 he swam at SECs, going 17.91 to ranks as the fastest freshman ever on a 50 free split. The wildcats finished 8th overall in the event, and sat 3rd in the standings after the first two events.

Jonny Kulow was the final member of the quartet, splitting 17.98 to stay ahead of Liendo as ASU set a new meet record. Nikita Sheremet and Drew Salls were just off the 18-second barrier this morning in 18.06 and 18.13, with four swimmers under 18.00 but only a further four under 18.50.

Overall there were 25 swimmers under 19 seconds, 21 18-points and 4 17-points. The slowest swimmer on this leg, Michigan’s Ole Eidam, was 0.07 seconds slower than Tyler Ray was on butterfly for the Wolverines, but they still set a new school record of 1:21.64.

Cal anchor Martin Wrede missed his turn, hitting halfway in 8.41 but only coming home in 10.34 as he split 18.75. The half a second or so that cost would have moved the Golden Bears up two places to 4th, ahead of Indiana and NC State.