2025 Texas Hall of Fame Invitational
- November 18-21, 2025
- Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, Austin, TX
- 11:00 am ET swimming prelims/11:30 am diving prelims/7:00 pm ET finals (Tuesday exception: 5 pm ET relay timed finals)
- Championship Format
- SCY
- Live Results
- Results on Meet Mobile as “Texas Hall of Fame Swimming Invite”
- Live Recaps
Baylor Nelson has been at Texas for just a few months and he is making the most of his training with the best IM group in the world right now, dropping three seconds in the 400 IM final to become the 7th fastest performer in history with his 3:34.83.
Men’s 400 IM — Finals
- NCAA Standard — 3:46.19
- 2025 Invite Time — 3:41.61
Top 8 Finishers:
- Baylor Nelson (TEX)- 3:34.83
- Cooper Lucas (TEX)- 3:35.28
- Joshua Staples (NU)- 3:40.05
- Dominik Mark Torok (WISC)- 3:40.21
- Rex Maurer (TEX)- 3:40.58
- Munzy Kabbara (TA&M)- 3:42.59
- Sanberk Yigit Oktar (USC)- 3:44.11
- Krzysztof Chmielewski (USC)- 3:46.97
Nelson transferred to Texas after spending three years at Texas A&M. In 2022, he was SwimSwam’s top ranked recruit in the class of 2022, but after he saw a three second drop in his freshman year at A&M in the 400 IM, he stagnated in the event.
At last year’s NCAA Championships, he finished 7th, touching in 3:39.84 after he swam right on his best time at SECs. Texas sophomore Rex Maurer won the event in 3:34.00
The Texas IM group boasts the best IMers in the world, including both 400 IM World Record holders Leon Marchand and Summer McIntosh. Head Coach Bob Bowman has a history of building incredibly strong IM swimmers and of the top 10 400 IMers SCY in history, eight of them have been coached by Bowman.
Top 10 Performers in History
- Leon Marchand — 3:28.82 (2023 NCAA Championships)
- Hugo Gonzalez de Oliviera — 3:32.88 (2022 NCAA Championships)
- Chase Kalisz — 3:33.42 (2017 NCAA Championships)
- Carson Foster — 3:33.79 (2022 NCAA Championships)
- Rex Maurer — 3:34.00 (2025 NCAA Championships)
- Shaine Casas — 3:34.09 (2025 Eddie Reese Showdown)
- Baylor Nelson — 3:34.83 (2025 Texas Hall of Fame Invite)
- Tristan Jankovics — 3:34.98 (2025 NCAA Championships)
- David Schlicht — 3:35.27 (2024 NCAA Championships)
- Cooper Lucas — 3:35.28 (2025 Texas Hall of Fame Invite)
Nelson came into college at 3:41.59, which he swam in March of 2022. He dropped under 3:40 as a freshman for the first time, swimming 3:38.11 at the NCAA Championships in 2023 to finish 10th overall for the Aggies.
His previous lifetime best in the event came from the 2024 NCAA Championships as a sophomore, when he dropped half-a-second to swim 3:37.46 and finish 3rd overall behind Leon Marchand and David Schlicht both from ASU.
Last year, he matched that time almost exactly, swimming 3:37.47 in the final at the SEC Championships to come in about two seconds behind now teammate Rex Maurer. At NCAAs, he swam 3:38.42 in prelims and 3:39.84 in finals.
Overall, he had only dropped half-a-second since 2023 until he dropped three seconds last night to set the top time in the country this season.
Nelson’s Top Times From Every Season
His three second drop was not from a dramatic improvement in any one stroke, all four of his splits were faster than he swam at the 2024 NCAAs with the biggest improvement coming from the butterfly where he was about a second faster. He was also eight tenths faster on the backstroke and half-a-second faster on the breaststroke. His freestyle saw the smallest improvement at just two tenths faster.
| Previous Best (2024 NCAA Championships) |
New Best (2025 Hall of Fame Invite)
|
|
| Fly | 49.76 | 48.7 |
| Back | 54.66 | 53.83 |
| Breast | 1:01.19 | 1:00.62 |
| Free | 51.85 | 51.68 |
| Final Time | 3:37.46 | 3:34.83 |
Nelson is not the only A&M transfer who has been performing well at the Hall of Fame Invite. Sophomore Jacob Wimberly won the men’s 200 freestyle at the meet with a full second drop from his previous best, touching in 1:31.51 to take the event by nearly a second.
His previous best came from last year’s SEC Championships, when he swam 1:32.86 to finish 13th overall. He missed earning an invite in the event by six tenths with the final spot going to 1:32.27.
Wimberly now leads the country in the event with Georgia’s Tomas Koski coming in just behind him at 1:31.68.
SwimMAC Carolina Shark 1 OG represent
Bowman magic
Funny thing is I thought David Johnston might break the US record when he was with us at TST. He had dramatic weaknesses on all four stroke, which we were fixing when he went to worlds and surprised even himself in first after prelims. But notice how he’s not even mentioned in this list. I really don’t think I was wrong, but his focus on free paid off nicely with an Olympic berth in the mile. Probably one of the most gifted swimmers ever, but required even more attention to stroke perfection.
Since when was this about DJ
Absolutely nobody thought David Johnston was going to break the US record.
43.37 🙏
😭
4:12
Jankovics is the only guy in the top 10 with no relation to Bob at all. Is there any other event like this where a coach dominated the all time performers list?
The only one off the top of the dome might be Baurele back in the day with the women’s 200/500 frees in a pre-Ledecky top 10? They had : Schmitt, Scroggy, Romano, McDermott, MacLean, Vreeland etc – however, I doubt that even compares to this.
Surely there’s way more, though- Fun article to come perhaps ? 👀
It is ridiculous how someone splits those times.
Fast swim.
Was sitting behind TAMU at NCs last year. You could see the look on his face, he could not wait to get out of College Station. Glad the transfer worked out! Must be tough for Blaire and Co. on the other side of the pool deck…..