Louisville Wins First-Ever Men’s NCAA Relay Title

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
• Friday Finals Live Recap

Louisville earned their first-ever men’s NCAA Championship relay title on Friday by touching the wall 1st in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:22.11, simultaneously setting a new pool record.

Senior Evgenii Somov‘s 50 breast split of 22.87 was the 13th all-time fastest relay split in the NCAA. He gained the Cardinals a narrow lead over Florida and Cal that was held up by senior Nicolas Albiero on the fly leg (20.07) and sophomore Haridi Sameh on the free leg (18.45). Junior Mitchell Whyte led-off the relay with a solid backstroke split of 20.72, placing the Cardinals just behind Florida’s Adam Chaney.

Full List of Louisville Men’s NCAA Titles:

• 200 breast – Carlos Almeida, 1:51.88 (2012)
• 200 free – Joao De Lucca, 1:31.51 (2013)
• 100 free – Joao De Lucca, 41.70 (2014)
• 200 free – Joao De Lucca, 1:31.96 (2014)
• 200 medley relay – Mitchell Whyte, Evgenii Somov, Nicolas Albiero, Haridi Sameh, 1:22.11 (2021)

Three of Louisville’s NCAA titles were won by Brazilian Olympian Joao De Lucca who went on to win 3 gold medals at the 2015 Pan American Games in the 400 free and 800 free relays, alongside the individual 200 free. All 4 of Louisville’s past men’s NCAA titles were won under current head coach Arthur Albiero.

The Louisville women have a total of 7 individual NCAA Championships titles spanning the years 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. While the Cardinal women broke their individual streak this year, this 200 medley men’s victory has made it so the Louisville men and women have won an NCAA title for 9 seasons in a row. Note that this streak excludes 2020 when the NCAA Championships were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Going into day 4 of the men’s NCAA Championships, Louisville is in 6th place with 158 points, just 8 points behind Indiana.