Jordan Crooks Splits 17.4 Freestyle; Julian Smith Goes Fastest-Ever 50 Breast in SEC Medleys

Southeastern Conference (SEC) – Men and Women

• Dates: Tuesday, February 18–Saturday, February 22
  • Prelims: 9:30 am EST/ Finals 5:30 pm EST (Tuesday-5:00 EST)
• Location: Gabrielsen Natatorium, Athens, GA
• Defending Champions: Florida women (2x); Florida men (12x)
• Live Results
• Live Video: SEC Network+
• Championship Central
• Fan Guide (Men)
• Fan Guide (Women)
• Psych Sheets
• Teams: Alabama, Arkansas (women), Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas*, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt (women)

A pair of all-time great medley relay splits propelled the Tennessee Volunteers and Florida Gators under the SEC Championship Record on Tuesday in the men’s 200 medley relay.

For the Volunteers, who won the race in 1:20.22, it was a 17.42 anchor split from Jordan Crooks, which ranks him as the third-best ever.

For the Gators, it was a 22.15 breaststroke split from Julian Smith, the fastest in history, that helped them to a 2nd-place finish in 1:20.66.

Both teams, and the 3rd-place Texas Longhorns (1:20.75), all cleared the old SEC Championship Record of 1:21.43 that was set by Tennessee in 2023, showing that in spite of public rhetoric, adding a program like Texas to this meet has significantly ramped up its intensity.

Tennessee also came up just shy of the NCAA and overall SEC Record of 1:20.15 that was set by Florida last year at the NCAA Championships. Only Smith returned from that Florida relay at this meet, which means no Josh Liendo, who will likely swim the team’s other four relays this week.

 Splits Comparison:

For Tennessee, it was Crooks’ anchor split that was the difference-maker. His was the third-best 50 free rolling start in history, behind Caeleb Dressel‘s 17.30 and 17.37 from the 2018 NCAA Championships. Crooks was previously #3 on that list from the 2024 Tennessee Invite. He and Dressel now, in combination, hold the 7-best splits on that list in history, according to SwimSwam’s research.

All-Time Top 50 Free Splits:

1. 17.30, Caeleb Dressel, Florida – 2018 NCAAs
2. 17.37, Caeleb Dressel, Florida – 2018 NCAAs
3. 17.42, Jordan Crooks, Tennessee – 2025 SECs
4. 17.66, Jordan Crooks, Tennessee – 2025 Tennessee vs. UGA dual meet
5. 17.57, Jordan Crooks, Tennessee – 2024 Tennessee Invite
6. 17.71, Caeleb Dressel, Florida – 2017 NCAAs
7. (TIE) 17.86, Caeleb Dressel, Florida – 2017 SECs/Vlad Morozov, USC – 2013 Pac-12s
9. 17.90, Caeleb Dressel, Florida – 2017 SECs
10. 17.93, Caeleb Dressel, Florida – 2017 NCAAs

For Florida, Smith was the clear star. The Gators expected Adam Chaney back for a 5th year this season, but he hasn’t raced since the Olympic Trials. Sophomore Jonny Marshall filled that spot well, but it was Smith who pulled them to a big early lead with a 22.15 split.

That is the fastest 50 yard breaststroke split in history ahead of Cal’s Liam Bell, who split 22.25 at the 2024 NCAA Championships.

Smith was 7th at NCAAs last season in the 100 breaststroke, but a switch really flipped for him this year. His 49.98 from the Georgia Fall Invitational led the nation, and with this split, he affirms his status as NCAA favorite even with Caspar Corbeau joining Indiana for the spring semester.

Fastest all-time 50 breaststroke splits:

The Texas men had really good boundary legs from sophomore Will Modglin on backstroke (20.34) and senior transfer Chris Guiliano, who joined them at the semester, on freestyle (18.08), but the middle legs showed where they the Longhorns are still a bit lacking in depth in the sprint events. Olympic backstroke champion Hubert Kos was pushed to the butterfly leg, where he split 19.74 – a good split by most standards, but six-tenths behind Caribe of Tennessee.

Likewise Nate Germonprez has come a long way for Texas in the breaststrokes this season, but even a 22.59 split for him (one of the fastest ever) gave up more than four-tenths to Smith.

Those splits were still much better, across-the-board, than Texas was mid-season in this race, but when racing guys like Crooks, Smith, Ilya Kharun from Arizona State, Luca Urlando from Georgia, and others, it’s hard to hang without something otherworldly coming somewhere.