Rex Maurer Breaks Hugo Gonzalez’s SEC Meet Record in the 400 IM with a 3:35.61

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

MEN’S 400 IM – Final

• NCAA Record: 3:28.82 – Leon Marchand, Arizona State (2023)
• SEC Record: 3:33.42 – Chase Kalisz, Georgia (2017)
• SEC Championship Record: 3:35.76 – Hugo Gonzalez, Auburn (2018)
• 2025 NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 3:38.37

Final:

1. Rex Maurer (TEX), 3:35.61 CR
2. Baylor Nelson (TAMU), 3:37.47
3. Jake Magahey (UGA), 3:37.89
4. Giovanni Linscheer (FLOR), 3:38.46
5. Cooper Lucas (TEX), 3:39.02
6. Drew Hitchcock (UGA), 3:39.98
7. David Johnston (TEX), 3:40.86
8. Mason Laur (FLOR), 3:42.53

After winning the 500 free last night, Rex Maurer collected his second individual SEC Championship win tonight in record fashion, taking down Hugo Gonzalez‘s 400 IM Record from 2018. Gonzalez, who went on to swim for Cal and is now the #2 performer of all time, was just a freshman at Auburn when he set the record.

Maurer did not set a personal best, however, as he has already been faster this season. At the 2024 Texas Hall of Fame Invite in November, he swam a 3:34.19 to become the fifth-fastest performer ever. Nonetheless, this marks Maurer’s second-fastest performance ever and a significant improvement upon his 400 IM at his conference meet last season, where he swam a 3:38.10 at the 2024 Pac-12s to finish 3rd.

Splits Comparison

Tonight Maurer swam a race with splits that closely mirrored that of his personal best. While 100 butterfly split was marginally faster, his backstroke and breaststroke splits were virtually the same. In his personal best swim, Maurer unleashed an incredibly fast 350 split, going 23.98 on the first 50 of the freestyle leg. In contrast, tonight he was 25.54, nearly 1.5 seconds slower. That significant drop-off in speed made the difference between tonight’s time and his PB.

The splits also highlight the contrasting strengths between Gonzalez and Maurer. While Maurer had a more explosive start, Gonzalez relied more on his breaststroke split to keep him in the race. Gonzalez’s breaststroke split of 29.83/30.35 not only made up the 1.5+ second deficit, tonight, it erased the mark entirely and put him a second quicker than Maurer. Maurer’s significantly faster freestyle leg, however, enabled him to break the record regardless.