2024 Tennessee Invite
- November 19-22, 2024
- Where: Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center — Knoxville, Tennessee
- Start Times: 10 am ET prelims/5 pm ET finals
- Psych Sheets
- Results on Meet Mobile: “2024 Tennessee Invitational”
- Live Stream
- Day 1 Finals Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Recap | Day 2 Finals Recap
- Day 3 Prelims Recap | Day 3 Finals Recap
- Day 4 Prelims Recap | Day 4 Finals Recap
Tennessee senior Jordan Crooks swam the fastest 100 yard freestyle split on a flying start in history on Friday at the 2024 Tennessee Invitational. He anchored the winning Tennessee relay in 39.89 as the Volunteers broke the Meet Record with a 2:44.13 and missed the NCAA Record by less than a second.
While Crooks is not the first swimmer to go under 40 seconds in the 100 yard free, he is the first person to do it on a relay exchange. Former Florida Gator Caeleb Dressel swam 39.90 in the 100 free on a flat-start. While Dressel usually led off free relays because his flat-start was so good, at that year’s NCAA Championships he did anchor the 400 free relay on the same day as his 39.90.
In prelims of the 400 free relay toward the end of a long meet, he split 40.15, which until Friday was the fastest 400 free relay split in history. He split 40.25 in finals.
Earlier in the night, Crooks swam the 4th-best performance and became the 3rd-best performer, flat-start, in the history of the 100 free, swimming 40.26 and beating his Volunteer teammate Gui Caribe by .59 seconds to win the super-final.
That is Crooks’ best time by .13 seconds, it doesn’t actually change his ranking. That moves him up in both rankings: he previously was the #4 performer in history and had the #6 performance.
Top 5 Performers All-Time, Men’s 100 Yard Free
- Caeleb Dressel, Florida – 39.90 (2018 NCAA Championships)
- Josh Liendo, Florida – 40.20 (2024 NCAA Championships)
- Jordan Crooks, Tennessee – 40.26 (2024 Tennessee Invite)
- Leon Marchand, Arizona State – 40.28 (2024 NCAA Championships)
- Gui Caribe, Tennessee – 40.55 (2024 NCAA Championships)
In Caribe and Crooks, Tennessee has arguably the fastest 1-2 punch of 100 freestylers in NCAA history. The current Cal men with Jack Alexy (40.59) and Bjorn Seeliger (40.75) are the only other instance of two college teammates having sub-41 splits.
The Tennessee men finished 5th in this relay at last year’s NCAA Championship meet which was at the time a school record of 2:45.38. Their 2:44.13 broke that record by over a second.
In addition to Caribe and Crooks, 5th year Micah Chambers is a big part of the difference: he split 42.21 at NCAAs and was 41.70 on Friday night.
Relay Splits Comparison:
| NCAA Record | Tennessee on Friday |
Tennessee at NCAAs
|
|
| 1st | Marchand – 40.28 | Caribe – 41.17 | Crooks – 40.39 |
| 2nd | Dolan – 41.28 | Chambers – 41.70 |
Chambers – 42.21
|
| 3rd | Sammons – 41.02 | Blackman – 41.37 | Santos – 40.96 |
| 4th | Kulow – 40.82 | Crooks – 39.89 |
Kammann – 41.82
|
| Total Time | 2:43.40 | 2:44.13 | 2:45.38 |
With that swim, Tennessee becomes at least co-favorites for the NCAA Championships in this race. While Arizona State lost the front-half of their relay to pro swimming (Marchand) and graduation (Dolan), the Sun Devils are having a big year in sprinting and Ilya Kharun’s speed is really coming around.
Arizona State will swim their midseason 400 free relay on Saturday night in Raleigh.
I forgot Marchand was #4 on that all-time 100 free list.
Almost got lost in the shuffle of his meet last year. Lol.
The speed at which Yards records are being broken currently is mind boggling
Crooks is smoking that Liendo pack at NCAAs 🥱
Probably a stupid question but are they tapered or somewhat rested for mid season meets like this?
Probably a little rested but not a full taper
I would love to see Kyle Chalmers anchor a 400 free relay SCY
Just put him on some weak ass relay like UVA and homie would go 37.5 cuz he’s used to carrying an entire mf team
UVA random stray but I’m here for it
Aussie relays are mid like NC STATE
I’m calling it here and now, ALL of dressel’s records will be broken at 2025 NCAA’s.
This is on November 22nd, 2024.
Crooks is NOT going faster than 17.63
Duly noted.
poor lad, I dont think you understand how utterly diabolical 17.63 is. Not a single swimmer in the United States in high school or college has the pure power and athleticism Dressel had. Nobody has his start, nobody is as fast underwater, and very few can even match his stroke. I’d give it at least 6-8 years before that record is broken, but probably more. Statistically that 17.63 is the most impressive swim in the history of NCAA swimming. Dressel was a freak in short course, i wish people would truly understand that.
I doubt anyone touches his 100 records either. Even though Liendo and Crooks have a huge advantage in the 100 free due to the lack of… Read more »
40.2 at mid season doesn’t make me feel so confident in the 100 free being safe
This is gonna age like milk. Crooks was sub-18 two years ago, had a less-than-expected 2024, then an absolutely bonkers mid season. Reminds me of 2016, 17 and 18…
Every record is unbelievable when it’s set. Name one NCAA record that isn’t wild. There’s nothing inherently special about Dressel that nobody else can reach – we’ve seen the world catch up in LCM, and soon enough we’ll see the NCAA catch up in SCY. And Crooks is the frontrunner to do it right now.
“nothing inherently special”
Dressel dropped the NCAA and US open records by 4.55%. (18.47, Cielo)
Leon Marchand only lowered the 4 IM by 1.91% (3:32.88, Gonzalez)
Gretchen Walsh has lowered the 100 fly by 2.29% (48.46, KD)
G Walsh has lowered the 50 free by 2.02% (20.79, McNiel)
Basically, his 50 free was statistically more than twice as impressive as those other swims.
He was a freak. He has no equals in short course. Sure, those three swims I mentioned broke records, by pretty considerable amounts.
But Dressel took the 50 free, bent it over, fcked it, shattered it over his knee, and then buried it so far under a layer of concrete that Jordan Crooks and… Read more »
I misspoke. When I said nothing inherently special I meant nothing that somebody else couldn’t do. Dressel is a special guy.
Yes, Dressel’s mark was 4.77% better than the next best performer in 2018. However, the future is now, old man! Aging is typically not great for a record when it comes to staying unbroken, and 17.63 is coming up on 7. As of right now, 17.63 is 1.7% faster than 17.93. Still a lot, but not quite the mountainous feat you were making it out to be, and right around those other percentage points you mentioned.
Just like Phelps, Dressel evolved his races to places we hadn’t seen prior. But also like Phelps, he showed everyone else how he… Read more »
Only time will tell!
18.6 to the feet is wild
Dressel was only 19.0 to the feet when he split 40.15.
dressel was 18.9 to the feet when he split 39.9, crooks has a faster front end which is crazy.
Dressel was 18.9 flat start to the feet crooks was 18.6 relay start
Lazy slacker