Louisville Men Describe Elation of First Ever Relay Title in Program History

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

Reported by Nick Pecoraro.

200 MEDLEY RELAY – TIMED FINALS

• NCAA Record: Texas (2017) – 1:21.54
• American Record: Cal (2018) – 1:21.88
• U.S. Open Record: Texas (2017) – 1:21.54
• Meet Record: Texas (2017) – 1:21.54
• Pool Record: NC State (2019) – 1:22.37
• 2019 Champion: Alabama, 1:22.26
• 2020 Top Performer: Cal, 1:22.16

Top 3:

1. Louisville- 1:22.11 *Pool Record
2. Florida- 1:22.41
3. Cal- 1:22.43

In the final heat, Florida freshman Adam Chaney led off in a 20.55 backstroke split, which is the 9th-fastest lead-off all-time. In the same heat, Louisville’s Evgenii Somov came in hot with a 22.87 breast split, the 13th-fastest split all-time, to put the Cardinals in the lead. Senior Nicolas Albiero held on to the narrow lead with his 20.07 fly split. Cal’s Ryan Hoffer (19.70) and Florida’s Eric Friese (19.87) were sub-20 on their fly legs, yet still could not catch Cardinal Albiero. Hoffer’s split is now the 10th-fastest split in history.

Into the freestyle leg, Cal had a three-tenths deficit behind Florida, who was 0.09s behind leader Louisville. Sophomore Haridi Sameh anchored the Cardinals in an 18.45, which was enough to win the 2021 title and break the Greensboro pool record at 1:22.11. This was also Louisville’s first NCAA relay title in program history. Taking second place was Florida at 1:22.41, who held off Cal (1:22.43) by two one-hundredths. Michigan placed fourth in the heat at 1:22.81, which wound up placing 6th overall.