2023 TENNESSEE INVITATIONAL
- November 15-17, 2023
- Knoxville, Tennessee
- Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center
- LCM (50-meter) prelims / SCY (25-yard) finals
- Prelims: 9:30am (EST)/ Finals: 6pm (EST)
- Psych Sheets
- Live Stream
- Day 1 Prelims Recap
Tennessee junior Jordan Crooks wasted no time in establishing his sprinting dominance during the opening session of the Tennessee Invite on Wednesday, firing off a time of 21.95 in the prelims of the men’s 50 freestyle (LCM).
The meet is being run with long course prelims and short course finals, a nod to the 2024 Olympic year being on the horizon.
The swim for Crooks marks his fourth time under the 22-second barrier, having done so in all three rounds of the 50 free at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, where he produced a best time of 21.73 in the semis and then matched it in the final to finish 6th overall.
The Cayman Islands native is the 10th swimmer to break 22 seconds in the 2023-24 long course season, moving into 9th in the world rankings.
2023-2024 LCM Men 50 Free
MCEVOY
21.13
| 2 | Benjamin PROUD | GBR | 21.25 | 04/06 |
| 3 | Vladyslav BUKHOV | UKR | 21.38 | 02/16 |
| 4 | Caeleb DRESSEL | USA | 21.41 | 06/22 |
| 5 | Josh LIENDO | CAN | 21.48 | 05/18 |
| 6 | Leonardo DEPLANO | ITA | 21.50 | 08/01 |
| 7 | Jordan CROOKS | CAY | 21.51 | 08/01 |
| 8 | Florent MANAUDOU | FRA | 21.52 | 06/20 |
| 9 | Chris GUILIANO | USA | 21.59 | 06/20 |
| 9 | Kristian GKOLOMEEV | GRE | 21.59 | 08/02 |
The defending NCAA champion in the event, the 21-year-old Crooks comes into the meet in a tie for 1st in the nation in the SCY 50 free, having clocked 19.02 (unsuited) in the Vols’ tri-meet with Florida and Kentucky less than two weeks ago to match the performance from ASU’s Jack Dolan in late October.
In terms of Olympic qualification, Crooks has already cleared the ‘A’ cut of 21.96 inside the qualifying period at the World Championships, and his prelim swim also notably gets under the converted NCAA invite time of 22.08 (from 19.21).
For what it’s worth, using the NCAA’s conversion factors, 21.95 converts to 19.10 in SCY (19.0965).
Crooks will be joined by three of his teammates in tonight’s short course final, with Gui Caribe qualifying 2nd in 22.52, Nikoli Blackman (22.95) sitting 5th and Flynn Crisci (23.12) advancing in 7th.
At last season’s Tennessee Invite, Crooks swam a time of 18.60 in the 50 free final to earn victory. He also led off the 200 free relay in 18.27, a personal best at the time that tied him for #2 in history. He lowered his PB down to 17.93 at the 2023 SEC Championships, and ended up winning his first NCAA title in 18.32.
Get our first peek at NCAA champs in 200 free relay tonight!
Unless they clone Crooks they’re not beating Florida.
I’m predicting 18.1 flat start tonight love to see if he breaks 18 again but not sure especially after going 19.0 in a brief. Never know what will happen but we’re about to find out.
my predictions are 18.3 on relay tonight and18.5 individually
Wasn’t Jordan Crooks 18.2 at last years invitational
Trials are LCM, finals are SCY.
Leading off the relay – added that in.