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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A second longstanding 2018 Caeleb Dressel record has gone down.
This time it was in the 100 fly, where Florida’s Josh Liendo broke the former Gator’s NCAA record mark by clocking a time of 42.54 during Thursday morning’s heats session. He shaved 0.26 seconds off Dressel’s previous mark of 42.80 set at the 2018 NCAA championships.
The 100 fly heats were fast across the board, as Liendo wasn’t the only swimmer to break 43 seconds. In heat two, Hubert Kos significantly outperformed his seed time of 45.82 to go 42.97, making him the third-fastest performer ever and the second swimmer to break 43 seconds in the event (as he recorded his time before Liendo did).
Also making a mark was Michigan’s Tyler Ray, whose 43.32 makes him the fifth-fastest performer of all-time and rewrites his previous Big Ten record time of 43.83.
All-Time Top Performers, Men’s 100-Yard Butterfly
- Josh Liendo, Florida — 42.54 (2026)
- Caeleb Dressel, Florida — 42.80 (2018)
- Hubert Kos, Texas — 42.97 (2026)
- Youssef Ramadan, Virginia Tech — 43.15 (2023)
- Tyler Ray, Michigan — 43.32 (2026)
Both Liendo and Kos opened faster than Dressel, with Kos putting up a blistering 19.67 from half. However, Liendo had both swimmers beat on the back half, splitting 0.23 seconds faster than Dressel in his closing lap.
Split Comparison:
| Josh Liendo, 2026 NCAA Championships | Hubert Kos, 2026 NCAA Championships | Caeleb Dressel, 2026 NCAA Championships | |
| 50y | 19.96 | 19.67 | 19.99 |
| 100y | 22.58 | 23.30 | 22.81 |
| Total | 42.54 | 42.97 | 42.80 |
Liendo saw significant improvement from his personal best time of 43.06, which he clocked at both 2025 NCAAs and the 2026 SEC Championships. He is the two-time defending NCAA champion in the event. Meanwhile, Kos is racing the 100 fly at NCAAs for the first time in his career, opting for the event over the 200 IM. He came into this year’s NCAAs having been as fast as 44.05.
With Liendo breaking Dressel’s NCAA record and Florida’s Ahmed Jaoaudi taking down Bobby Finke’s mark in the 1650 free Wednesday night, both NCAA records set at the championships so far have involved Gators beating the marks of UF alumni.
I think there are now only 4 ncaa men’s records held by Americans the 50 and 200 fr along with the 100br and 200 fly
It’s Marchand, Jaouadi, KOs, and Liendo right? then Dressel, Luke, Luca, and Julian. It’s just that Marchand and KOs are too powerful
I think Crooks too for non Americans
oh my bad
Makes you wonder how fast Caeleb could’ve gone if he was 23 and not 21 his senior year of college
41 😮
Per 25:
4 strokes
4 strokes
4 strokes
5 strokes
First 75, breathed one down one up
Last 25 no breath
So dude breathed a total of 6 strokes and 3 turns for the whole 100
imagine he does a Gretchen and goes like 41.5 in finals
It would have to be 40.9
Nah even Gretchen is “only” like 1.5 ish seconds faster than the likes of MacNeil, Douglass, Huske, Curzan. If you assume 2018 Caeleb = 2023 MacNeil then it’ll be like 41.3 = 46.9
Also 1.5 for 15%slower time is like 1.3 for men’s time , so Liendo “just” needs to go 41.5
Which is impossible so this just some math for ya
correct the rules ….4 stocks per……such a joke this is not swimming
What?
Maybe the commenter is suggesting that, in their opinion, swimmers should not be able to kick so far off each wall and take so few strokes per length (“stocks per” = strokes per length, and “correct the rules” = advocating for shortening the distance swimmers are allowed to kick off each wall)?
Why are they allowed to kick 15 meters underwater in a yard pool? Shouldn’t it be 15 yards instead? Why are they combining different measuring units for a race being held in yards?
Because 1) it would be weird to have two different underwater timings and 2) a whole other set of markers on the pool.
As a non American It’s not something I had ever thought of before but it absolutely makes no sense to use metric measurements like that.
I often thought of it as a non American. I thought 15 metres is a LOT of a 25 yard pool.
Oh wow. You are not wrong.
I remember back around Liendo’s freshman year (iirc shortly into his first semester?) there was a swimswam podcast interview where he said he was going for all 3 of Dressel’s records, even though he didn’t have a full understanding of how fast they were because he wasn’t used to yards yet. And I remember the general sentiment from the comments being along the lines of “whatever, we’ll see”. Feels good to see him back all that hype up with this statement swim
I found the article. Here’s some comments that seem funny now:
https://swimswam.com/world-champ-medalist-josh-liendo-aiming-for-dressels-scy-records-at-florida/#comment-1120995
https://swimswam.com/world-champ-medalist-josh-liendo-aiming-for-dressels-scy-records-at-florida/#comment-1120939
https://swimswam.com/world-champ-medalist-josh-liendo-aiming-for-dressels-scy-records-at-florida/#comment-1120929
Although most of them are just pointing out how unreachable 17.63 was which still seems to hold
After his 47.7 WR in the short course, we were imagining a 42 in the yards pool…but damn.
What a swim!
Kos opted for the 100 fly instead of the 200 IM not 100 back
:((((((((9 totally get it tho but I was really looking forward to a 2 IM from him