2026 SEC Championships
- Dates: Monday, February 16–Saturday, February 21
- Location: Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center, Knoxville, TN
- Defending Champions: Texas (1x)
- Live Results
- Live Video: SEC Network+
- Psych Sheet (UPDATED)
- Schedule of Events
- Championship Central
- Teams: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt (women only), Arkansas (women only)
- Live Recaps
On night three of the SEC Championships, Florida senior Josh Liendo shattered his own meet record to four-peat in the 100 fly. He hit the wall first in Knoxville with a time of 43.06, shaving .17 off of the previous mark he established to win this event last year (43.23).
Liendo dominated the field, finishing .87 ahead of 2nd-place finisher Gui Caribe of Tennessee (43.93) and more than one second ahead of Georgia’s Luca Urlando, who finished in 3rd (44.16). The first 50 made all the difference for the senior Gator, who went out in a blistering 19.95, more than half a second faster than what he split this morning (20.65) to clock the fastest-ever prelims time in this event (43.26).
This beats even Caeleb Dressel’s 50-split from when he set the current NCAA record of 42.80 at the 2018 NCAA Championships, by four hundredths of a second. While Liendo was still nearly one-third of a second off of Dressel’s record, this puts him well within striking distance, and he should have two opportunities to chase it at the upcoming NCAA Championships.
Split Comparison
| Liendo 2026 SECs – Prelims | Liendo 2026 SECs – Finals | Dressel 2018 NCAAs | |
| 50 | 20.65 | 19.95 | 19.99 |
| 100 | 43.26 (22.61) | 43.06 (23.11) | 42.80 (22.81) |
This swim ties Liendo’s lifetime best from last year’s NCAA Championships, which is the second-fastest 100 fly performance of all-time in the NCAA. He owns seven of the top-10 fastest swims ever in this event.
All-Time Top 10 Performances, Men’s 100 SCY Fly
| Rank | Swimmer | Time | Team | Meet |
| 1 | Caeleb Dressel | 42.8 | Florida |
2018 NCAA DI Championships
|
| 2 | Josh Liendo | 43.06 | Florida |
2026 SEC Championships
|
| 3 | Josh Liendo | 43.06 | Florida |
2025 NCAA Division I Championships
|
| 4 | Josh Liendo | 43.07 | Florida |
2024 NCAA Division I Championships
|
| 5 | Youssef Ramadan | 43.15 | Virginia Tech |
2023 NCAA Division I Championships
|
| 6 | Josh Liendo | 43.23 | Florida |
2025 SEC Championships
|
| 7 | Josh Liendo | 43.26 | Florida |
2026 SEC Championships (Heats)
|
| 8 | Josh Liendo | 43.3 | Florida |
2024 NCAA Division I Championships
|
| 9 | Ilya Kharun | 43.38 | Arizona State |
CSCAA Dual Meet Challenge #7
|
| 10 | Josh Liendo | 43.4 | Florida |
2023 NCAA Division I Championships
|
everyone is pointing out how Dressel only has 1 top 10 swim, but I think it makes sense. It’s weird at first, but if you take a closer look it checks out
1) Growing depth has flushed out his weaker times
2) Caeleb is like the ultimate taper demon; he saved huge swims for the biggest stage and really didn’t turn heads in season. Now it’s custom for most teams to go fast all year and then drop relatively small amounts at champs
3) Liendo does the 100 fly at every big meet and he’s consistently fast so he keeps racking up 43 low swims. In Caeleb’s senior year when he had his meteoric rise, he didn’t even do the… Read more »
Dressel has a performance that’s 0.26 faster than anyone else in history, yet that performance is the only one of his that is in the all-time top 10.
What a weird stat
It’s odd that Dressel never had another swim within 0.6 seconds of his record
Dressel had a monster senior year where he launched the record into the stratosphere while Liendo has been 43 fast his entire NCAA career
Was just thinking the same thing, but I feel like his 50 free record might be similar?
(This has been “half remembered records” with Steve!)