2021 NCAA MEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- When: Wednesday, March 24 – Saturday, March 27, 2021
- Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center / Greensboro, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
- Prelims 10 AM/ Finals 6 PM (Local Time)
- Short course yards (SCY) format
- Defending champion: Cal (1x) – 2019 results
- Streaming:
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
Florida’s Kieran Smith became the first swimmer in history to break the 1:30-barrier in the 200 freestyle on multiple occasions on the opening night of the Men’s NCAA Championships, leading off the Gator relay in a time of 1:29.66.
Smith went sub-1:30 for the first time at last month’s SECs, leading off the relay in 1:29.48 to rank him second all-time in the event. One year prior, he announced his presence as an elite 200 freestyler by going 1:30.11 at the 2020 SECs.
The NCAA, American and U.S. Open Records belong to Dean Farris, who led off Harvard’s relay at the 2019 NCAAs in 1:29.15.
Tonight’s swim ranks fifth all-time, giving Smith three of the six fastest times ever.
It’s also notable that four of the five sub-1:30 swims have come on the relay lead-off, with Townley Haas‘ 1:29.50 the lone swim coming in the individual event.
All-Time Performances, Men’s 200 Freestyle (SCY)
- Dean Farris (Harvard), 1:29.15 – 2019
- Kieran Smith (Florida), 1:29.48 – 2021
- Townley Haas (Texas), 1:29.50 – 2018
- Blake Pieroni (Indiana), 1:29.63 – 2018
- Kieran Smith (Florida), 1:29.66 – 2021
- Kieran Smith (Florida), 1:30.11 – 2020
- Andrew Seliskar (Cal) / Andrew Seliskar (Cal), 1:30.14 – 2019
- –
- Blake Pieroni (Indiana), 1:30.23 – 2018
- Zach Apple (Indiana), 1:30.34 – 2019
Compared to his swim at SECs, Smith’s splits were near identical. The biggest margin came on the opening 50, where he was .12 slower.
Smith Split Comparison
| 2021 SECs |
2021 NCAAs
|
| 20.68 | 20.80 |
| 22.61 (43.29) | 22.65 (43.45) |
| 23.09 (1:06.38) | 23.04 (1:06.49) |
| 23.10 (1:29.48) | 23.17 (1:29.66) |
While Smith was the lone swimmer to hit 1:29 on the lead-off leg, there were two others in the 1:30s.
Texas A&M’s Shaine Casas took down his school record for the Aggies in 1:30.59, becoming the eighth-fastest performer in history, and Texas’ Drew Kibler went 1:30.65, just off his lifetime best of 1:30.57 set earlier this season.
All-Time Performers, Men’s 200 Freestyle (SCY)
- Dean Farris (Harvard), 1:29.15 – 2019
- Kieran Smith (Florida), 1:29.48 – 2021
- Townley Haas (Texas), 1:29.50 – 2018
- Blake Pieroni (Indiana), 1:29.63 – 2018
- Andrew Seliskar (Cal), 1:30.14 – 2019
- Zach Apple (Indiana), 1:30.34 – 2019
- Drew Kibler (Texas), 1:30.57 – 2020
- Shaine Casas (Texas A&M), 1:30.59 – 2021
- Dylan Carter (USC), 1:30.95 – 2017
- Simon Burnett (ARIZ), 1:31.20 – 2006
Texas won the event in a time of 6:07.25, with Cal second, the Aggies third and the Gators fourth. Leading off for the Golden Bears was Trenton Julian, who took almost a full second off his PB in 1:31.41 to rank 15th all-time. USC’s Alexei Sancov moved into 23rd with his 1:31.82.
Well Townly also dropped a 1:29.66 at the anchor of the 2019 800 free relay, which is also under 1:30 even with flying start margin.
Kieran smith if you see this please marry me
Who was the first to break Berens’ 1:31.31? Townley, right? Also wow, how many years did that stand for? Also funny that he did it in like lane 1 of a 500 free final.
It was Haas, dropping that 1:30.46 bomb in 2016
Its important to distinguish times – individual vs. relay swims. Haas is fastest of all time (individually)……may change this week!
Especially at this meet. Racing every other lane in relays at this meet creates a much more conducive environment for fast times versus a full heat of individuals.
Funny enough, I think all events that could have a flying start actually have really fastest time being from a flat start.
50fr 17.63
100fr 39.90
200fr 1:29.15
100br 49.69
100fl 42.80
I dont know of any flying start times that are faster than those
Cordes and finnerty have been faster on relays
Dressel split a 17.37 anchoring the 200 Medley Relay at the 2018 NCAA’s. Only .38 away from 16. lol
his fastest was 17.30, prelims of 200 medley relay
absolute insanity
The 100 fly and 200 free are misleading. The 100 fly is misleading because Dressel didn’t swim the fly leg on his medley relays and no-one is nearly as fast as Dressel. Schooling did go faster on the relay than his flat start PB.
For a longer distance like the 200 free the time differential between individual swimmers is just very large and almost every team chooses to lead off with their fastest swimmer to get some clean water because the 800 free pool can be mayhem. Plus not all top performers in the 200 swim the 200 free individually, think Held (who was really great for his time), Farris, Conger, any IMer (except Seliskar who ditched the 400 IM)… Read more »
POV: Shaine will brake a record on 200 back
Seeing Simon Burnett’s time from 2006 still that high up is pretty insane considering how fast this event has gotten recently!
Swimswam sure does love these photos of Smith entering the water for backstroke.
Simon Burnett, still 10th. That’s pretty remarkable.
I think I still have that taped on VHS! Ahead of his time.