Florida Men Beat SEC Record by Over a Second in 800 Free Relay

by Emma Edmund 3

February 15th, 2022 College, News, Records, SEC

2022 SEC SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Ben Dornan contributed reporting.

The Florida men broke the SEC record in the 800 free relay, swimming a 6:08.00.

The previous record was set by Florida back in 2019 at 6:09.14. Kieran Smith, Trey Freeman, Oskar Lindholm, and Alfonso Mestre broke the record at the 2022 SEC Championships.

2022 Florida Men (SEC Champs) 2019 Florida Men (NCAA Champs)
Kieran Smith: 1:30.42 Khader Baqlah: 1:32.32
Trey Freeman: 1:31.96 Kieran Smith: 1:31.64
Oskar Lindholm: 1:32.29 Trey Freeman: 1:33.58
Alfonso Mestre: 1:33.33 Maxime Rooney: 1:31.60
Total: 6:08.00 Total: 6:09.14

Smith and Freeman were the only two swimmers on both relays, but they were both over a second faster in 2022 than they were in 2019.

The 2022 relay would’ve won 2nd at NCAAs last year, behind Texas’ 6:07.25. It is also well under their 2021 NCAAs time of 6:10.91, which earned the Gators fourth.

With this time, the Florida men also got a meet record (previously 6:09.91, Florida), a pool record (previously 6:12.18, Florida), and a school record (previously 6:09.14).

Lindholm, a freshman, made an impressive SEC championship debut, proving he can compete on the same wavelength in America as he has in Denmark (European SCM Championships swimmer, 11-time Nordic Junior Championships medalist).

Smith’s split, 1:30.42, was the fastest of all the swimmers. His time puts him within striking distance of his own SEC and Florida record, 1:29.48, and Dean Farris’ NCAA record of 1:29.15.

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Slower Than You
2 years ago

I think you confused the Mestre brothers, didn’t Alberto swim the medley?

Joel Lin
2 years ago

What an incredible talent Kieran Smith is; that 1:30.4 looked so smooth the time at the end seemed like an optical illusion. He just hydroplanes on the surface.