2023 NCAA DIVISION I MEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- March 22-25, 2023
- Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center | Minneapolis, MN
- SCY (25 yards)
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheets
- SwimSwam Preview Index
- SwimSwam Pick ’em Contest
- Live Results
Jack Alexy and Jordan Crooks were dialed in this morning in the final preliminary session at the Men’s NCAA Championships, joining an exclusive club in the 100 freestyle.
Alexy and Crooks became just the 10th and 11th swimmers in history to go under the 41-second barrier, doing so in the heats no less.
Cal’s Alexy threw down the gauntlet in the first circle-seeded heat, rocketing to a time of 40.88 to drop more than half a second off his previous best time of 41.42, set just three weeks ago at Pac-12s, and slot into #7 on the all-time performers’ list.
Tennessee’s Crooks answered in the next heat, blasting his way to a time of 40.92 to dip under his previous best of 41.16 set at the 2022 NCAAs and tie for ninth all-time with Brazilian Olympic champion Cesar Cielo.
The two sophomores had near-identical splits, making the impending clash in tonight’s final all the more intriguing.
Split Comparison
| Alexy | Crooks |
| 19.53 | 19.56 |
| 40.88 (21.35) | 40.92 (21.36) |
In the historical rankings, Alexy and Crooks now accompany a who’s who of sprint freestylers in the sub-41 club, joining a list of names that includes former 100 free NCAA champions Caeleb Dressel, Dean Farris, Brooks Curry, Ryan Hoffer and Cielo.
In addition to Curry, Cal’s Bjorn Seeliger has also been sub-41 (on multiple occasions), meaning that four of the 11 swimmers that have broken the barrier will be going head-to-head in tonight’s finals.
All-Time Performers, Men’s 100 Freestyle (SCY)
- Caeleb Dressel (Florida), 39.90 – 2018 NCAA Championships
- Bjorn Seeliger (Cal), 40.75 – 2022 NCAA Championships
- Vladimir Morozov (USC), 40.76 – 2013 NCAA Championships
- Dean Farris (Harvard), 40.80
- Bowe Becker (Minnesota), 40.83
- Brooks Curry (LSU), 40.84 – 2022 NCAA Championships
- Jack Alexy (Cal), 40.88 – 2023 NCAA Championships
- Ryan Hoffer (Cal), 40.89 – 2021 NCAA Championships
- Cesar Cielo (Auburn) / Jordan Crooks (Tennessee), 40.92 – 2008 NCAA Championships / 2023 NCAA Championships
- –
- Michael Chadwick (Mizzou), 40.95 – 2017 NCAA Championships
Seeliger and Curry tied for fourth this morning in 41.17, just behind last night’s 100 fly winner, Youssef Ramadan of Virginia Tech (41.15). Florida’s Josh Liendo lurks in sixth at 41.25.
It’s also notable that four swimmers split sub-41 last night on the anchor leg of the 400 medley relay, but Seeliger (40.45) was the only one of the bunch to make the 100 free ‘A’ final.
Tennessee’s Gui Caribe placed 10th in 41.51, ASU’s Jonny Kulow was 14th in 41.86, and Florida’s Macguire McDuff took 15th this morning in 41.92, all advancing through to the ‘B’ final.
Last night, Caribe split 40.77 for the Vols, while Kulow was 40.78 for the Sun Devils and McDuff was 40.90 for the record-setting Gators.
I like… forgot no one has been under 40.75 besides Dressel.
Unrelated: remember when N. Adrian broke or tied the American record at a master’s meet with a 41.07 or something like that? This is just going off of memory, but IIRC the touchpad glitched because he was so fast to the feet on the first 50.
if anyone is more familiar with women’s times like me, I think women’s 100 free times are approximatly 13.5% slower, which puts the 41.00 barrier at about 46.54 on the women’s side. Incidentally, Torri Huske became the 10th female swimmer to break that time so the number of swimmers under each benchmark is about the same on both sides.
Dressel’s 39.90 converts to around a 45.28 with this, about the time that Maggie split at SECs for the fastest women’s relay split ever
Personally I would not say that women’s 45.28 is comparable to Dressel’s 39.90. The anatomical difference especially at the peak elite end of talent exponentially expands the gap between male and female possibilities. Imo
perhaps, but a lot of people also thought that Dressel looked tired at the start of the swim (from the swimswam articles when he did that swim), which is further substantiated by the fact that his drop in the 100 free from 2017 to 2018 was much less than in the 50 free or 100 fly
I know it’s not the most accurate way at looking at it but I see the time difference at about 2.5 seconds per 50 between men and women’s times it is about perfect in the 200 free, and the 100 back, but not so much in most other events because of Katie Ledecky and on the guys side as well.
There is no perfect time differential but I would say with dressel’s 39.90 would for example convert to a 44.90 for the women’s 100 but no one is there just yet but that’s just my theory of looking at it. It’s not perfect for every event but it does work for quite a bit of times. Which is partially… Read more »
5 second difference in the 100 back feels like the women are being really underrated here- Regan Smith’s 49.66 AR from March of 2019 seems more like a 44 low, not a time that would’ve been beaten by Dean Farris by a whole second at NCAAs a couple weeks later, and Beata Nelson’s 49.18 record the same month feels like a time that would be very close to Dean’s winning time of 43.66, so around a 5.5 sec difference instead of 5
Similarly in fly I think a 5.5 sec difference is more appropriate too which would make the litany of women that swam 49.2-49.4 (like Dahlia, Brown, Curzan, Hansson) similar to the men in the 43.7-43.9 range). It also… Read more »
Knew Alexy was gonna be a problem this season from the Cal practice and pancakes video from back in October
The way Alexy swims – without emphasizing underwaters – bodes well for long course.
Now if he did start emphasizing underwaters… oh dear.
Brooks curry doesn’t have to swim any relays…. He always has such an unfair advantage on those guys for the 100 free
JC goes out in 18.9 and the race is over! 40.33
Speaking of Jordan crooks, don’t know if anyone noticed but after winning the NCAA title in the 50, he joined the rare list of people who have gone from world champ to NCAA champ in the same season.
40.47
Where’s the up/down?
What exactly does up down mean?
^meant to reply to your comment
up = A final
down = B final
41.3 to make A final is completely absurd..