Cal Wins First 400 Free Relay Title Since 2011 (Relay Splits)

2021 NCAA MEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

  • When: Wednesday, March 24 – Saturday, March 27, 2021
  • Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center / Greensboro, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
  • Prelims 10 AM/ Finals 6 PM (Local Time)
  • Short course yards (SCY) format
  • Defending champion: Cal (1x) – 2019 results
  • Streaming:
  • Championship Central
  • Psych Sheets
  • Live Results

In our 400 free relay preview article, we noted that the Cal Bears hadn’t won a 400 free relay title since 2011. While the Bears fell short of the overall NCAA championship, they still went out in style, taking their first title in this event in a decade with a time of 2:46.60.

That’s exactly the reverse of what happened in 2019, when Cal took the team title, but Texas won the 400 free relay with one of the fastest times ever to close out the meet. This is now the 7th-straight NCAA Championships where Cal and Texas have finished in the top two spots, with Texas winning five times and Cal twice.

Cal and Texas each put at least one man into every A-final, something that’s rare enough for one school today. We’re not sure if two schools have ever done it before at the same meet, or if so, how long it’s been, but it’s safe to say it is not a regular occurrence, further testifying to just how dominant these two teams were this week.

Back to the relay — Cal’s Ryan Hoffer, the winner in the individual 100 freestyle, had the fastest relay split of the night a 40.86 on Cal’s second leg. Florida’s Kieran Smith (41.27) and Eric Friese (41.45) had the next two fastest splits, while Alabama’s Matt King had the fastest leadoff with a 41.64

Quick Hits

  • The 1650 is normally a race where you see some big differences from seed, but three men today came within 0.4s of their seed time, including champion Bobby Finke (+0.34s), Jack Walker (+0.17s) and Alfonso Mestre (-0.39s).
  • The ACC has been coming around for a while now, and they put four teams into the top eight of the 400 free relay, and had 10 teams in the top 26 in the overall standings, with every school scoring except Boston College and Duke scoring.
  • As of one of our commenters pointed out, Florida’s relays finished 2nd (x3), 3rd, and 4th, and did not have a single senior on a relay leg. Watch out for them to grab a relay title next year.
  • In some ways, Louisville senior Nick Albiero is reminiscent of former Texas swimmer Jack Conger, at least in terms of being a fly/back guy who could also slot in on any relay. And like Conger, Albiero secured his first individual NCAA title in the last individual event of his senior year, winning the 200 fly tonight. Albiero’s win gives the ACC its 3rd-straight title in this event after NC State’s Andreas Vazaios won in 2018 and 2019.
  • Speaking of the 200 fly, a whopping 8 men ended up 1:40 in the event this season, including Shaine Casas, who didn’t even swim this at NCAAs, opting instead for the 200 back. Best we can tell, that’s that highest number of 1:39s ever, with the 4 in 2018 being the previous high.
  • One more note on the 200 fly, you’ve got to give Arizona senior Brooks Fail a lot of credit for gutting out a 1:41.82 in the 200 fly after placing 4th in the 1650 with a 14:31.38 earlier today.

There’s a lot more we can analyze, but it’s been a long couple weeks of racing, so check back over the next few days as we break down the results in more detail. For now, here’s all the relay splits from tonight, sorted in order:

400 Free Relay Splits

Team Swimmer Time Leadoff?
Cal Ryan Hoffer 40.86
Florida Kieran Smith 41.27
Florida Eric Friese 41.45
Texas Drew Kibler 41.63
Alabama Matt King 41.64 Y
NC State Luke Miller 41.68
Michigan River Wright 41.73
Cal Destin Lasco 41.74
Florida Adam Chaney 41.74 Y
Indiana Van Mathias 41.77
Cal Hugo Gonzalez 41.78
Texas Daniel Krueger 41.79 Y
NC State Hunter Tapp 41.79
Louisviille Colton Paulson 41.90
Louisviille Haridi Sameh 41.94 Y
Arizona Noah Reid 42.02
Virginia Tech Antani Ivanov 42.03
Louisviille Michael Eastman 42.05
Louisviille Nick Albiero 42.09
Texas A&M Mark Theall 42.11
Virginia Tech Carles Coll Marti 42.15
Ohio State Paul DeLakis 42.15
Virginia August Lamb 42.18
Alabama Jonathan Berneburg 42.19
Virginia Matt Brownstead 42.20 Y
Stanford Jonny Affeld 42.21
Cal Bjorn Seeliger 42.22 Y
Virginia Tech Blake Manoff 42.22
Ohio State Hunter Armstrong 42.22 Y
Florida State Max McCusker 42.23
Purdue Nikola Acin 42.25 Y
NC State Kacper Stokowski 42.27
MIssouri Jack Dahlgren 42.28
Indiana Tomer Frankel 42.29
MIssouri Danny Kovac 42.29
Virginia Jack Wright 42.30
Texas Chris Staka 42.32
Ohio State Sem Andreis 42.32
Alabama Colston Stogner 42.33
Virginia Tech Youssef Ramadan 42.37 Y
Georgia Javier Acevedo 42.38
Stanford Preston Forst 42.40
Florida Trey Freeman 42.42
Florida State Peter Varjasi 42.46 Y
Texas A&M Koko Bratanov 42.48 Y
Michigan Gus Borges 42.48 Y
Texas Jake Sannem 42.54
Michigan Cam Peel 42.58
Stanford Mason Gonzalez 42.64
Arizona Marin Ercegovic 42.64 Y
Purdue Nick Sherman 42.65
Arizona Ogi Maric 42.66
Georgia Luca Urlando 42.70
Alabama Sam Disette 42.71
Southern Cal Alexei Sancov 42.71
NC State Giovanni Izzo 42.73 Y
Southern Cal Nikola Miljenic 42.77 Y
MIssouri Grant Reed 42.82
Arizona Ryan Perham 42.84
Stanford Luke Maurer 42.88 Y
Florida State Kuba Ksiazek 42.89
Georgia Tech Baturalp Unlu 42.91 Y
Indiana Jack Franzman 42.92 Y
Georgia Zach Hils 42.93 Y
Virginia Will Cole 43.03
Southern Cal Max Saunders 43.04
Texas A&M Carter Nelson 43.10
Florida State Mason Herbert 43.19
Purdue Trent Pellini 43.23
Southern Cal Bill Cruz 43.27
Georgia Tech Caio Pumputis 43.28
Purdue Ryan Lawrence 43.29
Indiana Brendan Burns 43.40
MIssouri Ben Patton 43.43 Y
Georgia Tech Austin Daniel 43.49
Georgia Dillon Downing 43.50
Ohio State Justin Fleagle 43.71
Texas A&M Elijah Sohn 43.76
Georgia Tech Justin Alderson 44.24

 

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Swimswammer
3 years ago

Stanford 9th with 3 freshmen on the 4×100👀

Whoa
3 years ago

Don’t hold your breath on BC scoring…

BearlyBreathing
3 years ago

Thank you SwimSwam. Still waiting on the live results and it’s really harshing my mellow. Really dont understand the delay.

bodybyfood
3 years ago

Harsh dude! Live results aren’t showing the 400 Free Relay results and your post
of relay splits left off all the Texas swimmers!

Jacki
Reply to  bodybyfood
3 years ago

Those safe starts really bit into the Texas splits.

bodybyfood
Reply to  Robert Gibbs
3 years ago

Thanks! Appreciate it, and enjoyed the article.

Last edited 3 years ago by bodybyfood

About Robert Gibbs