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
Last week, we looked at the pick’ems from the women’s meet and what you predicted for the races. The men’s responses look very different from the women’s meet, and it seems like you all think many of the races will be very close.
Here are some of the biggest favorites and closest races according to you.
Individual Events
Biggest Individual Favorite: Rex Maurer, 400 IM
The individual event with the most consensus for the champion was the 400 IM. 94.8% of you, or 496 voters picked Rex Maurer to win the event. The rest of the votes were split between Tristan Jankovics, Baylor Nelson, and David Johnston.
The rest of the votes represent the trend that occurred across most of the men’s events. While there were frequently overall favorites for first, the 2nd-4th place votes were generally much closer and had far less agreement.
In the 400 IM, 2nd place went to Tristan Jancovics with 43% of the vote or 224 votes. Baylor Nelson had the 2nd most votes at 33.9% or 177 votes.
The interesting thing is that when it came to the third place vote, Jake Magahey actually received the most votes for 3rd at 38.4% or 148 votes compared to Nelson’s 26.1% or 136 votes.
Closest Race: 100 Free, Jordan Crooks
The “closest race” for first, according to you, is the men’s 100 freestyle. Jordan Crooks came out just on top of your rankings at 48.2% or 255 total votes. Josh Liendo is just behind him at 47.5 or 250 votes. Jack Alexy (21), and Chris Guliano (3) also received votes in this position.
2nd place was also close with 42.5% choosing Crooks and 40.8% choosing Liendo. Jack Alexy also climbed into these rankings with 13.6% of respondents choosing him for 2nd.
Least Consensus: Men’s 200 IM, Julian Smith
While the 100 free was the closest when it came to the top 2, there was a pretty clear consensus between voters about which two athletes will take those positions. The men’s 200 IM is almost as close as the 100 free, but responders were torn between four athletes, rather than two.
33.1% of voters, or 176 people, voted for Florida’s Julian Smith to take the title. Destin Lasco from Cal received the 2nd most votes at 27.4%. Hubert Kos received the 3rd most votes at 20.9% and Owen McDonald got 17.3%.
The 2nd place position had a similar separation of votes for the same four swimmers, but with far less for Lasco. Despite receiving the 2nd most votes for 1st place, he is way behind the other three in the 2nd place position.
Owen McDonald is the favorite for 2nd, earning 30.6% of the vote and 163 votes, just six more votes than Hubert Kos in 2nd at 29.5% and 157 votes. Julian Smith was next with 28.2% and 150 votes. Lasco was way behind in 4th with only 7.5%.
The 3rd place graph is similar with agreement about the top three swimmers, but with more athletes coming into the mix. Still, we ended with Kos receiving the most votes (31.2%) McDonald was 2nd (29.1%), and Smith was 3rd (22%).
At 4th place the graph gets really crazy. With 14 athletes receiving at least one vote for the position. Gal Groumi from Michigan was the slight favorite for 4th with 19% of the vote.
Relay Breakdown
Favorite Relay: 400 Medley Relay, Florida
While the individual events showed more contention between the places, the relays did not have the same issue. All five relays have clear favorites. The relay that received the most votes was Florida’s 400 medley relay, which received 98.7% or 524 votes. Texas and Tennessee each received two votes and Indiana, Cal, and Arizona State all received 1 vote.
Texas is the favorite to finish 2nd, getting 57% of the vote, ahead of Tennessee at 19.9% and Indiana at 14.3%.
Indiana has a slight lead for 3rd with 33.3% of the vote over Texas at 29%. Tennessee sits just behind at 21.7%.
Closest Relay: 200 Medley Relay, Florida
Florida has the favorite relay and they also have the closest relay. The 200 medley relay received the least amount of votes for 1st with Florida taking the lead with 59.1% of the vote or 318 votes. Tennessee sits behind them in 3rd at 34.4%
Tennessee received the most votes for 2nd with 45.5% of the vote to Florida’s 24.4% and Texas’ 21.9%
Texas is your pick for 3rd with 40% of the vote to come in ahead of ASU (22.1%), Tennessee (14.3%), Florida (13%), and Cal (7.1%).
Fun article!