SwimSwam Pulse: Virginia’s Return To Top 10 Voted Biggest Surprise of Men’s NCAAs

SwimSwam Pulse is a recurring feature tracking and analyzing the results of our periodic A3 Performance Polls. You can cast your vote in our newest poll on the SwimSwam homepage, about halfway down the page on the right side.

Our most recent poll asked SwimSwam readers what the most surprising thing was at the Men’s NCAA Championships:

Question: What was the biggest surprise of Men’s NCAAs?

RESULTS

• Virginia takes 9th, Williamson wins two titles – 29.3%
• Florida takes 2nd, just 29.5 pts back of Texas – 20.5%
• Kos goes 42.6 in 100 back, 42.5 in 100 fly – 16.5%
• Three men break 43 in 100 fly – 11.6%
• Jaouadi dismantles Finke’s record in 1650 – 10.7%
• Cal takes 7th, worst finish since 2007 – 5.2%
• Okadome sweeps breaststroke events – 3.6%
• ASU places 4th despite four relay wins – 2.6%

While the Women’s NCAA Championships largely went as expected, with Virginia rolling to its sixth straight title and only one NCAA Record falling throughout the meet, the men’s meet was much more unpredictable.

In the first race of the meet, Florida freshman Ahmed Jaouadi shattered Bobby Finke‘s all-time record in the 1650 free, which many thought was untouchable, by more than two seconds, and things carried on from there.

The Texas men ultimately won the title as predicted, but it was a lot closer than anyone expected, with the Florida Gators the surprise runner-ups, just 29.5 points back of the Longhorns. And not that it was necessarily a surprise, but the fastest times ever were produced in five events: 1650 free, 100 back, 200 back, 100 fly, and the 200 free relay.

In our latest poll asking SwimSwam readers what the biggest surprise of the Men’s NCAA Championships was, it wasn’t Florida pushing Texas all the way into the final day or any of the record performances that came out on top, but the revitalization of the Virginia men’s program.

The Cavaliers, 12 months removed from scoring just 14 points for a 32nd-place finish at NCAAs, triumphantly returned to the top 10. Led by the stud freshmen duo of Maximus Williamson and Thomas Heilman, Virginia finished 9th with 192 points—nearly 14x as many points as last season.

Williamson only swam two individual events, but won them both, claiming the 200 free (1:30.03) out of Lane 8 (after teammate David King opted not to contest the swim-off and gave Williamson the spot in the final after the two tied for 8th in the prelims), and then followed by topping the 200 IM field (1:38.48), setting new best times in both finals.

Along with Williamson’s 40 points, Heilman scored 32, taking 2nd in the 200 fly (1:38.16) and 4th in the 100 fly (43.58), also setting two best times.

Both also contributed to all four of Virginia’s relays—they didn’t field a team in the 200 medley—where the Cavaliers finished in the top 10 across the board, highlighted by a 4th-place finish in the 800 free relay out of the early heats.

UVA’s finish marked their first time in the top 10 since placing 10th in 2022, and tied their highest showing since taking 9th in 2021.

In the poll, Virginia’s 9th-place finish led the way with 29.3% of votes, followed by Florida’s runner-up finish at 20.5%.

The Gators were seeded 3rd based on psych sheet scoring, only 4.5 points back of 2nd-ranked ASU, but we predicted them to finish 4th, expecting Indiana’s diving to push them up into the top three.

However, as it turned out, Florida scored 58 diving points, more than any other school (and Indiana only scored four), but that ultimately didn’t matter in terms of nabbing the runner-up spot, as they ended up 65 points clear of the 3rd-place Hoosiers.

However, the diving performances did give the Gators a boost as they hunted down Texas for the title. The Longhorns were the overwhelming favorites coming in, but they were up by just 8.5 points on Florida entering the final day before pulling away on Saturday.

The third-most voted option in the poll was what Hubert Kos was able to do in the 100 fly and 100 back, as the Texas senior became the first swimmer in history to break 43 seconds in the 100 back, clocking 42.61 in the final to knock off his 43.08 mark from the prelims by nearly half a second. Coming into the meet, he held the U.S. Open and NCAA Record at 43.20 from the 2025 NCAAs.

Prior to that, in the 100 fly, which is an event Kos has never contested at the NCAA Championships and only made its way into his lineup this year due to the scheduling change, the Hungarian threw down a surprising 42.97 swim in the prelims, becoming just the second swimmer ever sub-43, joining Caeleb Dressel.

A few heats later, Florida’s Josh Liendo blasted his way to a time of 42.54, breaking Dressel’s eight-year-old record of 42.80 and answering Kos.

In the final, Liendo set a new all-time mark of 42.49, using his patented no-breath final 25 to edge out Kos, who tied Liendo’s prelim record in 42.54 to finish 2nd.

Kos going 42 in both 100s earned 16.5% of votes in the poll, while the fact that three swimmers, Liendo, Kos and Ilya Kharun (42.92) went sub-43 in the 100 fly after Dressel was the only one who had ever done it coming into the meet earned 11.5% of votes.

The other poll option that picked up more than 10% of votes was Jaouadi’s swim in the 1650 free.

Despite sitting three-tenths off Finke’s record pace with 50 to go, Joauadi stormed home, splitting 22.73 over the last two lengths to clock 14:10.03 and obliterate Finke’s previous mark of 14:12.08 set in 2020.

The Cal men recording their worst finish since 2007, Golden Bear sophomore Yamato Okadome sweeping the breaststroke events, and Arizona State ending up back in 4th in the team standings despite winning four relays, each earned a small chunk of votes as well.

Below, vote in our new A3 Performance Poll, which asks: Which future NCAA Championship change would you back:

 Loading ...

ABOUT A3 PERFORMANCE

The A3 Performance Poll is courtesy of A3 Performance, a SwimSwam partner.