Julian Smith Has Monster Day While Leading Florida Relays on Day 2 of SEC Championships

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
• Day 1 Finals Recap | Day 2 Finals Recap
• Teams: Alabama, Arkansas (women), Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas*, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt (women)

Julian Smith has been a good swimmer the last three years, but something clicked in him over the summer and he is quickly solidifying his legacy at Florida. His night started with the 200 medley relay where he went the fastest breaststroke split in history at 22.15, helping Florida to a 2nd place finish in the event.

That was not enough for him, however, and he turned around to swim the 800 freestyle relay, going the 2nd fastest split in the field at 1:29.67, helping Florida go 3:02.50 to break the SEC record.

Smith is a senior this year, and his growth has been nothing short of exceptional. At this meet last year, his junior year, he swam 22.88 on the medley and 1:32.10 on the 800 free relay. His sophomore year, he didn’t even swim the medley relay and he went 1:32.73 on the 800 freestyle relay, and his freshman year he didn’t swim a single relay. In a year, he has dropped half-a-second in his 50 breaststroke alone. His 100 breaststroke has also gotten significantly faster this year with him dropping almost a second from 50.94 to 49.98.

He did not even swim the 100 breast or the 200 free at the Olympic Trials in June, instead swimming the 50 and 100 free, neither of which he made semifinals in. If tonight is any indication of what we can expect to see out of Smith the rest of this meet, and potentially into NCAAs, we are going to see some impressive swims. He is entered in four individual events, and seeded highly in all three, the 200 IM (3rd), 50 free (6th), 100 breast (1st), and 100 free (3rd).

Smith was not the only swimmer on Florida’s record-breaking 800 freestyle relay, though he was the fastest. They led off with freshman Alex Painter who went a huge best time, dropping nearly three seconds, to swim 1:31.21 and earn his first NCAA ‘A’ cut. He went on to repeat these relays at NCAAs where

The Gators also chose to put Josh Liendo on the 800 freestyle relay, rather than the 200 medley, a choice that worked out in their favor since Liendo split 1:30.19, the second fastest time on the relay

Smith swam 3rd, and he handed it off to Jake Mitchell who went 1:31.33, securing the title and shattering the SEC and SEC meet record. This is also the 2nd fastest time in history in the event.