Jordan Crooks Breaks Caeleb Dressel’s 100 Free NCAA Record in PRELIMS

2025 Men’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships

• March 26-29, 2025
• Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Center, Federal Way, Washington
• Short Course Yards (25 yards)
• Start Times: Prelims: 10 AM ׀ Finals: 6 PM (Pacific Daylight Time)
• Psych Sheet
• Eligible Relays
• SwimSwam Preview Index
• Live Results
• Live Recaps
  • Prelims: Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

Jordan Crooks wasted absolutely no time in this morning’s prelims session of the 100 freestyle, swimming a monster 39.83 to break Caeleb Dressel’s 2018 NCAA record of 39.90 and become the 2nd person ever under 40 seconds.

Men’s 100 Freestyle

• NCAA Record: 39.90 – Caeleb Dressel, Florida (2018)
• Championship Record: 39.90 – Caeleb Dressel, Florida (2018)
• American Record: 39.90 – Caeleb Dressel, Florida (2018)
• U.S. Open Record: 39.90 – Caeleb Dressel, Florida (2018)
• 2024 Champion: Josh Liendo, Florida – 40.20
• 2024 Time to Final: 41.29/41.71

Top 8

1. Jordan Crooks (TENN) – 39.83 ***NEW NCAA, US OPEN RECORD***
2. Josh Liendo (FLOR) – 40.28
3. Jack Alexy (CAL) – 40.45
4. Guilherme Caribe (TENN) – 40.51
5. Chris Guiliano (TEX) – 40.70
6. Jonny Kulow (ASU) – 40.83
7. Jere Hribar (LSU) – 40.94
8. Matthew King (IU) – 41.14

The men’s 100 freestyle has been one of the headline races of this week’s meet because of this exact reason, but I don’t think anyone expected the record to go down in prelims.

This is not Jordan Crooks’ first time breaking a Dressel record in prelims. At the 2024 SC Worlds in December, Crooks swam 20.08 in the men’s 50 freestyle prelims so break Dressel’s World Record of 20.16.

He went on to further break the record in semi-finals, which happened that evening, dropping to 19.90. The NCAA format does not have semi-finals which means Crooks will be swimming the race again in tonight’s final, where he will try to lower the record even further for his last individual NCAA event.

Before this morning, Crooks had never been faster than 40.26. He dropped more than four tenths this morning to break the record.

He was out slower than Dressel was in 2018, flipping at 18.98 to Dressel’s 18.96. His back 50 was almost a tenth of a second faster, though, coming in at 20.85 to Dressel’s 20.94.

Split Comparison

Top 10 Times in History:

1. Jordan Crooks, Tennessee- 39.83 (2025 NCAA Championships)
2. Caeleb Dressel, Florida- 39.90 (2018 NCAA Championships)
3. Caeleb Dressel, Florida- 40.00 (2017 NCAA Championships
4. Josh Liendo, Florida- 40.20 (2024 NCAA Championships)
5. Jordan Crooks, Tennessee- 40.26 (2024 Tennessee Invite)
6. Josh Liendo, Florida- 40.28 (2025 NCAA Championships)
7. Josh Liendo, Florida/ Leon Marchand- (2023 NCAA Championships/2024 NCAA Championships)
8. —
9. Jordan Crooks, Tennessee- 40.39 (2024 NCAA Championships)
10. Jordan Crooks, Tennessee/Josh Liendo, Florida/Jack Alexy, Cal- 40.45 (2025 SEC Championships/2025 NCAA Championships)