Georgia Men Top UNCW In First Dual Meet of 2026 Season, Luca Urlando Swims 200 Free, 200 Back

UNCW vs UGA (Men Only)

• September 13, 2025
• Wilmington, NC
• SCY (25 Yards)
• Scores
  • UGA 224.5 — UNCW 73.5
• Results: Available on Meet Mobile “UNCW vs UGA”

We are off to the races with the 2025-26 college season, and the first meet featured the Georgia Bulldogs getting off to a very strong start with a dominant victory over the UNCW men’s team, winning every event.

Worlds gold medalist Luca Urlando won two events for the Bulldogs, and swam on 1st place relays for the team. He started by anchoring the “400 yard IM relay”, which appears to be an event where each athlete swam a 100 yard IM for their leg, in 48.25. This was the fastest split in the field, and he was joined by Drew Hitchcock (49.72), Finn Wendland (50.37), and Sam Powe (51.03) to swim 3:19.37 for the win by almost four seconds over the UGA ‘B’ team.

Urlando went on to sweep his individual events, taking the 200 freestyle in 1:37.73, about six seconds off his lifetime best of 1:31.81. This marks only his 6th 200 yard freestyle in the last five years. He swam it twice last season, dropping his lifetime best 1:31.81 at the SEC Championships in February.

Luke Sandberg was 2nd in 1:40.73 to touch just ahead of UGA teammate Will Gavin‘s 1:40.79 in 3rd.

Urlando also won the 200 backstroke in 1:45.78. His lifetime best stands at 1:38.18 from last February. UGA freshman Hayden Meyers was 2nd in 1:47.76 and Finn Hammer was 3rd at 1:49.07.

The final event of the day also went to a UGA relay with Urlando, the 400 free relay. Tane Bidois led off in 46.30. Tomas Koski swam 43.58. Urlando was 45.52, and Ruard van Renen split 44.45 to touch in 2:59.85. They took the win by almost six seconds over their ‘B’ relay team’s final time of 3:05.26.

Junior Tomas Koski also won the 500 free and 1000 free ahead of newcomer Sean Green. Koski touched in 4:24.86 and 9:05.58 to lock up the wins ahead of Green’s 4:30.91 and 9:13.27.

The most wins of the day went to sophomore Drew Hitchcock, who took home the gold in the 200 fly (1:44.53), 100 fly (47.76), and 200 IM (1:48.18).

Elliot Woodburn swept the breaststroke events in 55.43 and 2:01.99, beating UNCW’s William Carrico, 55.63 and 2:02.55, in both.

Diver Matthew Bray also won both of his events for Georgia, scoring 293.10 on the 1-meter and 281.10 on the 3-meter.

Other Georgia Event Winners

• 100 back- Ruard van Renen, 48.35
• 50 free- Tane Bidois, 21.20
• 100 free- Luke Sandberg, 45.94

UNCW had some strong swims as well with senior Jack VanHowe taking 3rd in the 100 back (49.63) and senior Nathan Jao finishing 2nd in the 50 free (21.41) and 3rd in the 100 free (47.12).

Sophomore Joseph Busic also earned a podium finish with his 3rd place swim in the 100 fly (51.20).