2025 SMU Classic
- October 10-11, 2025
- Robson & Lindley Aquatics Center, SMU, Dallas, Texas
- Short Course Yards (25 yards)
- Meet Results
While swimming fast in October has become more popular in recent seasons, the traditional early-season canary of speed for years has been the SMU Classic, and the 2025 edition was no different on day 1.
A format driven by the host team SMU’s former six-lane pool, each of the five participating programs is allowed to bring 8 swimmers and 1 diver. In each event, teams are allowed 1 entry in the A heat and 1 entry in the B heat, and swimmers in each heat are competing against the rest of their heat for points.
This creates an exciting team atmosphere where every performance counts, which along with a tradition of tech suits, often means fast swims in early October.
That included new Meet Records in both the men’s and women’s 50 freestyles.
Women’s Day 1 Recap
Team Standings:
- Louisville – 177
- LSU – 135
- Auburn – 122
- Drury – 108
- SMU – 93
The Cardinals jumped out to an early lead on a quest for their second straight meet title thanks in large part to senior Julia Dennis, the team’s star this season.
She posted a 21.54 in the 50 free, which took more than two-tenths off the old Meet Record of 21.75 set by her former teammate Gabi Albiero in 2023.
That swim is faster than Dennis has ever been before the ACC Championships (and before she’s been most years at the ACC Championships). She wasn’t on the SMU Classic roster last year, but was just 23.51 in her season opener dual meet in early October.
The 3rd-place finisher in the event at last year’s NCAA Championships, she is now the NCAA leader this season ahead of Texas’ Eva Okaro, who won in 21.87 on Friday night in her team’s dual meet against Alabama.
Dennis also anchored Louisville’s winning 400 medley relay in 46.85 and their winning 800 free relay in 1:46.68. Both of those Louisville relays hit NCAA Provisional Standards: the medley finished in 3:31.05 and the free relay in 7:04.74.
That contributed to a five win run to start the meet for the Louisville women, a streak ended when LSU senior Sofia Sartori won the 100 fly in 51.89 – knocking off Louisville’s Caroline Larsen (52.06).
That is the second-best time of Sartori’s career and faster than she swam at last year’s NCAA Championship meet. This is a familiar pattern for her – she was faster on this weekend last year than she was at the team’s mid-season invite, for example. That October 11th 52.48 was a lifetime best at the time.
The Auburn women picked up a pair of individual wins late in the session from Lora Komoroczy in the 100 back in 52.34 and from Kiia Metsakonkola in the 100 breaststroke in 1:01.44.
Men’s Day 1 Recap
- Auburn – 159
- Louisville – 157
- Drury – 111
- LSU – 105
- SMU – 102
The Auburn and Louisville men are locked in a tight battle after day 1 of the meet. That started early in the 400 medley relay, where a 42.07 split from Guy Brooks overcame a small deficit to give the Cardinals the win in 3:06.53. Auburn, which got a 46.17 split from freshman Ivan Tarasov, finished 2nd in 3:07.28.
Both SMU and Louisville were disqualified in that race, but LSU got a 41.22 anchor split from Croatian junior Jere Hribar. He was the swimmer that jumped early (-.08 by the touchpads), but that split was still a harbinger of the rest of the session for him.
He won the 50 free in 19.21, beating Louisville freshman Nikita Sheremet (19.28). Hribar’s swim broke the Meet Record (and Sheremet’s tied it), which was previously held by Vlad Morozov from 2013 in the meet’s heyday.
That is faster than Hribar has ever been this early in the season. He also split 1:34.64 on the leadoff leg of LSU’s runner-up 800 free relay (6:23.24). They finished two seconds behind the winners Auburn (6:21.09).
Aside from him (and diving), the session was mostly Auburn and Louisville trading blows.
Louisville sophomore Gregg Enoch opened the individual racing with a 3:48.20 win in the 400 IM, with his senior teammate Guy Brooks following that with a 1:33.67 in the 200 free. Brooks’ swim was almost a full second faster than he was at this meet last year.
Like the relay, that was a come-from-behind win for Brooks: he trailed Auburn’s Daniel Krichevsky by three tenths going into the last lap, and won by .07.
Out of the diving break (won by SMU’s Luke Sitz), Auburn flipped the script on the nailbiters. Sohib Khaled out-touched Louisville’s Rian Graham 46.68-46.76 for the Tigers’ first win of the meet. Khaled was 47.2 at this meet last year.
Auburn actually had the two fastest swims of that event – with the best coming out of the B heat from Daniel Krichevsky. He posted a 46.47 that ranks him 7th in the NCAA this season.
That was Auburn’s only individual A-Final win of the day, though good performances in the B-Final helped them keep pace in the scoring.
LSU’s Stepan Goncharov won the 100 back in 46.41, and Louisville’s Finley Conklin won the 100 breaststroke in the last individual event in 52.67. Keeping the theme – Conklin’s win was a come-from-behind and a close one over Auburn’s Uros Zivanovic (52.84).
Racing resumes at 10AM Central Time on Saturday.
