Josh Liendo Swims 43.23 100 Fly to break the SEC Championship Record…Again

2025 SEC Championships

• 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)
• Live Recaps
  • Prelims: Day 3 | Day 4
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Josh Liendo repeated his championship record performance from prelims in the SEC finals, swimming 43.23 to break his SEC Championship record by almost half-a-second, winning the event by seven-tenths.

MEN’S 100 FLY – Final

• NCAA Record: 42.80 – Caeleb Dressel, Florida (2018)
• SEC Record: 42.80 – Caeleb Dressel, Florida (2018)
• SEC Championship Record: 43.70 – Josh Liendo, Florida (2025)
• 2025 NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 44.51

Final:

1. Josh Liendo (FLOR), 43.23 CR
2. Luca Urlando (UGA), 43.99
3. Scotty Buff (FLOR), 44.28
4. Connor Foote (TAMU), 44.34
5. Harrison Lierz (TENN), 44.67
6. Gui Caribe (TENN), 44.76
7. Bjoern Kammann (TENN), 45.14
8. Martin Espernberger (TENN), 45.50

Last year, he had set the record at 43.89 in the preliminaries, but was unable to match that performance in finals, swimming 43.98. That was not the case tonight.

This morning, Liendo swam 43.70, descending his 100 by 25s. Tonight, he came out much stronger, turning just one one-hundredth off Caeleb Dressel’s NCAA record pace at 20.00. He fell off the pace in his 2nd 50, coming back in 23.23.

Tonight’s finals swim is the 2nd fastest Liendo has ever been, only behind his 43.07 from last NCAA Championships. When looking at the split comparison, he is getting stronger on the back end, especially considering his descending splits this morning and the fact that his final 25 tonight was more than a tenth faster than it was at NCAAs last year.

This time currently ranks him 1st in the NCAA, and 4th all time in the event. It is also the fastest time ever recorded outside of an NCAA Championships race.

Updated Top Five

1. Caeleb Dressel– 42.80, 2019 NCAA Championships
2. Josh Liendo – 43.07, 2024 NCAA Championships
3. Youssef Ramadan – 43.15 (2023 NCAA Championships
4. Josh Liendo – 43.23, 2025 SEC Championships
5. Josh Liendo – 43.30, 2024 NCAA Championships

In the last two years, Liendo has dropped around seven tenths of a second from SECs to NCAAs. In 2023, he went 44.11 at SECs and 43.40 at NCAAs for a 0.71-second drop. Last year, he swam 43.89 at SECs and 43.07 at NCAAs for a 0.82-second drop.

A seven-tenths drop from his time tonight, would put him well under NCAA record time at 42.53.

Race Video