Indiana Men Break American Record in 200 Medley, Loads of New Top 10 Splits

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
• Live Results
• Day 1 Heat Sheets

Indiana finished 5th overall in the 200 medley relay, but they were the first fully American team, and they came in six-hundredths ahead of the former American record in the event.

Top 8:

1. Texas (Modglin, Germonprez, Kos, Guiliano) – 1:20.28
2. Tennessee (Taylor, Houseman, Caribe, Crooks) – 1:20.50
3. California (Seeliger, Okadome, Rose, Alexy) – 1:20.76
4. Arizona State (Vergnes, Dobrzanski, Kharun, Kulow) – 1:20.87
5. Indiana (Barr, Benzing, Brooks, King) – 1:20.92 (American Record)
6. NC State (McCarty, Hoover, Miller, Fox) – 1:21.16
7. Florida State (Herbet, Baravelli, Arkhangelskiy, Bork) – 1:21.60
8. Georgia (Urlando, Pitshugin, Van Renen, Bidois) – 1:22.01

While not every team had an ideal start to the meet, particularly the teams who were disqualified, Indiana set a new American record in the men’s 200 medley relay, touching in 1:20.92 to come in six hundredths ahead of the former record of 1:20.98 set by NC State at last year’s championships.

To show how much faster this event has gotten this year, when NC State broke the record, they finished 3rd overall. Today, Indiana finished 5th, but they would have been 6th if there were no disqualifications.

This year’s Indiana team had two splits that were faster and two that were slower than NC State’s record from last year, with the biggest difference coming in Brian Benzing‘s 22.65 breaststroke split.

Split Comparison

Benzing’s breaststroke was the fastest (legal relay) breaststroke split in the field.

New Top 10 Splits

Where Indiana set a new American Record, there were numerous athletes who found themselves newly on, or moving up the top 10 relay splits of all time.

The biggest splits came from Ilya Kharun and Julian Smith, who will both replace themselves as number one on the all-time split leaderboard.

Yes, the Florida relay was DQd, but Smith and Liendo both have legal legs.

Smith split 22.14 on the breaststroke leg, which was exactly one hundredth faster than he went at the SEC Championships when he split 22.15.

Kharun dropped more than a tenth from his previous best split, touching in 18.78 to improve from the previous number one split of 18.89. He owns more than half of the splits on the list.

Adding to the impact of Kharun’s 18.89 split for ASU, Jonny Kulow anchored their relay in 17.78 to become the 8th fastest performer on this leg in history. The only people who have been faster are Caeleb Dressel and Jordan Crooks.

Quintin McCarty led off NC State’s 6th place relay in 20.24 on the backstroke leg. This earns him a spot on the all-time performer list at 8th overall, jumping Adam Chaney‘s 20.26 from the 2023 SECs.

Gui Caribe Santos and Josh Liendo also found their way onto the top 10 list with their 50 fly splits.  Caribe Santos split 19.05 for Tennessee which is good for the 6th fastest split in history. Liendo went 19.08 to tie Kharun’s 19.08 from the ASU vs Arizona dual meet for 7th fastest.

We also saw a few new top 50 freestyle splits. Jordan Crooks went 17.67 for Tennessee, which earns him another spot on the all time list at 6th place. He also has 4th and 5th.

Chris Guiliano was the final swimmer under 18 seconds on his split, coming in at 17.80, just behind Kulow’s 17.78. This earns him a spot on the list at 9th all time.