2025 SMU Classic
- October 10-11, 2025
- Robson & Lindley Aquatics Center, SMU, Dallas, Texas
- Short Course Yards (25 yards)
- Meet Results (Days 1+2)
- Day 1 Recap
The Louisville men came back from a small deficit to win their second SMU Classic title in three years, while the Louisville women rode another hot day from senior Julia Dennis to their second-consecutive meet title, running away from the field on Saturday in Dallas.
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. Each swimmer can swim 6 events at the meet.
Women’s Recap
Team Scores:
- Louisville – 358
- LSU – 278
- Auburn – 248
- Drury – 210
- SMU – 207
After winning all three races she swam on day 1 and breaking a Meet Record in the 50 free, Louisville’s Julia Dennis performed again on day 2 of the meet in Dallas.
That included two pool and two meet records on Saturday. Individually, she won the 100 free by more than half-a-second in 47.52, which breaks the Pool Record of former NCAA Champion Mallory Comerford, another Louisville Cardinal, from 2018. She swam 47.57 that year en route to an NCAA runner-up finish in the 100 free.
For Dennis, one of the top sprinters in the NCAA this season, that is the fastest time of her career outside of last season’s ACC and NCAA Championships. Her teammate Caroline Larsen won the B-Final in 47.95, the second-best time of the day.
That wasn’t her only big swim of the day. She split 21.27 on the freestyle anchor leg and combined with freshman Julie Mishler (back – 24.38), sophomore Caroline Larsen (breast – 26.96), and fellow senior Ella Welch (fly – 23.22) combined for a 1:35.83 in the 200 medley relay. That breaks FIU’s Pool Record from last year’s AAC Championship meet and destroys the Meet Record of 1:37.02 done by USC in 2023.
It also ranks the Cardinals 3rd in the NCAA this season behind Alabama (1:34.59) and Texas (1:34.94), two teams that raced on Friday night.
Dennis and the same crew finished the meet in the 200 free relay with another emphatic win. The group of Larsen (21.85), Dennis (21.43), Mishler (22.00), and Welch (22.21) combined to swim 1:27.49, breaking the team’s own Meet Record from 2017. The team returns three of four legs from their NCAA runner-up relay last season, with the rookie Mishler taking over for the 5th-year Albiero. Larsen, for her part, is already almost as fast as she was at the NCAA Championships (21.85 vs. 21.80).
That time is a nation-leader ahead of Virginia (1:27.62).
Auburn finished 2nd in that relay in 1:29.16 on Saturday, including a 21.64 split from Hungarian sophomore Lora Komoroczy. She also had the fastest backstroke split of the field in the 200 medley relay with a 24.04.
While the Louisville women again dominated the day, LSU’s Sofia Sartori picked up two more individual wins on Saturday after winning the 100 fly on Friday.
The Italian senior won the 200 back in 1:54.22 by a second-and-a-half and came back a few races later to dominate the 200 fly in 1:54.73, more than four seconds clear of the field. That time in the 200 back was a new lifetime best, taking .13 seconds off her time from last year’s SEC Championship performance.
Her big season kickoff came after a good summer where she went a best time in the 100 fly in long course and her first best time in the 200 fly in long course since 2019.
Otherwise, the Louisville women won out the day. Kim Herkle won the 200 breaststroke (2:10.53) and 200 IM (1:59.79) to join Sartori as a triple individual winner at the meet after winning the 400 IM (4:13.72) on Friday. Sophomore Daria Golovaty (4:44.89) dominated the 500 free by over four seconds, and diver Sammantha Helmboldt finished a sweep of the diving events by winning on 1-meter.
Men’s Recap
Team Scores:
- Louisville – 313
- Auburn – 304
- LSU – 240
- Drury – 223
- SMU – 221
Auburn came into Saturday’s session leading Louisville by 2 points, and early on they looked prepared to cement that position.
They opened up the session with a win in the 200 medley relay, led by Sohib Khaled‘s 20.11 butterfly split and freshman Ivan Tarasov‘s 21.42 backstroke split.
Louisville finished 2nd in 1:24.68, including an 18.92 anchor split from freshman Nikita Sheremet, while LSU was 3rd in 1:26.77 including an 18.52 anchor split from 50 free winner Jere Hribar.
The Cardinals, in fact, were locked out of wins in the first three events, with Jovan Lekic of LSU winning the 500 free by almost five seconds in 4:16.96, and Auburn’s Maston Ballew winning the 200 breaststroke in 1:55.77.
But B-Final wins mean almost as much as A-Final wins in this format, and Louisville picked up both of those in the 500 free and 200 breast to keep pace (including a 4:18.30 from Oscar Isberg in the 500 free B-Final, faster than Louisville’s A-Final entry Gregg Enoch).
But the Cardinals got back on top in the 200 backstroke when Jackson Millard won in 1:41.39, a new lifetime best. That’s faster than his previous best from the 2024 NCAA Championship meet.
SMU freshman Andy Baklanov, one of the Mustangs’ better recruits in recent years, won the B-Final in 1:43.81, the best time of his young college career so far.
Hribar played spoiler again in the 100 free, winning in 42.24, but Louisville beat Auburn in both the A-and-B finals to extend their lead over Auburn at that point. That included a 42.99 from Guy Brooks and a 43.17 from freshman Nikita Sheremet.
The Cardinals won both finals, with the two fastest times of the day, in the 200 fly, with Enoch winning the A in 1:44.58 and Rian Graham winning the B in 1:44.75, which all-but-sealed the meet title for the Cardinals, barring a disaster.
Jackson Millard ended the individual racing for the men with a 1:44.79 win in the 200 IM, a second ahead of Auburn’s Danny Schmidt.
LSU, led by a 19.36 leadoff from Hribar, closed the meet with another win in the 200 free relay. Freshman Simon Meubry held off Auburn’s Warner Russ (19.71 v. 19.49) for the narrow win. Louisville was just behind them in 1:18.58.
NCAA Division II superpower Drury swam 1:19.84 in that closing relay, including a 19.26 rolling split from Lucas Minuer, beating out SMU for 4th place in the event. That’s the #2 D2 invite in the country so far this season.
With all the recruiting news at this time of year it might be the time to point out that Dennis was not even picked as best of the rest recruit in the class of 2022.
Dennis was a B finalist in the 50 at NCAAs her freshman year, an A finalist in in the 50 her sophomore year, and made the A final in the 50 and the 100 last year, along with having some of the very best relay splits at the meet.
Matching with the right coach, the right swimming program, and the right school is much more than just numbers.
For sure. I always wonder how many talents are hidden in places like Mississippi that just don’t get the opportunity to shine. If I was a coach with a 30 swimmer roster, I might take a leap once every other year on a good rural swimmer with high athleticism and maybe limited range or played a couple of different sports.
Julia would’ve been right on the edge of that BOTR. She’s one we considered, she just happens to be in a class with a lot of really good sprinters. If she was a 2023, she probably would’ve been in.