The Biggest Stories from College Conference Meets (February 26)

With all 5 “Power” conferences in action, plus a number of mid-majors in action, there’s a lot of swimming to keep up with this week. With so much going on, SwimSwam wants to provide a quick snapshot at the highlights from yesterday’s collegiate conference meets.

AAC

SMU’s Colin Feehery won the 400 IM in an NCAA B-cut of 3:47.37. In the men’s meet, SMU leads Cincinnati 864-721, while Houston is dominating the women’s meet with a score of 688. 

ACC Men

Virginia Tech freshman Youssef Ramadan kicked-off the session by swimming one of the fastest 100 butterflies in history, posting a time of 44.32 to move to #5 all-time in the event. His performance also smashed the conference record of 44.46 that was set by Coleman Stewart in 2019. 

Louisville senior Evgenii Somov also set a meet record, winning the 100 breaststroke in a time of 51.03. His performance took down Brandon Fíala’s ACC record of 51.30 as well. 

Big 12

The Texas women cleared the meet record in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:27.96. The team of Bridget Semenuk (22.44 leadoff), Kelly Pash (21.86), Grace Cooper (21.84), and Julia Cook (21.82) was almost a second faster from their time from last season. Texas leads the meet on both sides going into the final day. 

Big Ten Women

Michigan’s Olivia Carter lowered her Big Ten record in the 200 butterfly by over a second, finishing in a time of 1:52.17. Carter crushed the field, finishing almost 3 seconds ahead of runner-up Miriam Guevara. Ohio State still holds the lead in the team competition over Michigan. 

Conference USA

Florida International leads the meet by a score of 630.5, only 4 points ahead of Rice University. The two teams will battle for the top spot on the final day. 

PAC-12 Women

Stanford and Cal still remain in a tight team battle with one more day left in the championship. Individually, Stanford’s Brooke Forde had two podium finishes. First, Forde won the 400 IM, swimming a time of 4:02.57 to come just above a second off of her winning time from last season (4:01.53). Two events later, Forde was back in the water for the 200 freestyle, where she finished 3rd in a personal best of 1:44.39. 

SEC Men

Two of the top-10 swims in history occurred during the final session of the SEC Championships. In the 1650 freestyle, American record-holder Bobby Finke swam the 2nd fastest time in history, finishing .1 away from his American record in a time of 14:12.18. Then, in the 200 backstroke, Texas A&M’s Shaine Casas put up a time of 1:36.85, marking the 9th fastest swim in history. 

WAC Men

UNLV leads the meet with a score of 626. In a tight battle in the 100 butterfly, UNLV senior Bryan Chavez won by .05 in a time of 47.34.