WATCH: Luca Urlando Breaks NCAA Record in the 200 Fly Against Tennessee

Tennessee Volunteers vs. Georgia Bulldogs

  • Saturday, January 25, 2025
  • Allan Jones Aquatic Center, Knoxville, Tennessee
  • Short Course Yards (25 yards), College Dual Meet
  • Full Meet Results (PDF)
  • Team Scores
    • Women: #5 Tennessee 209 def. #13 Georgia 91
    • Men: #9 Georgia 155 def. #7 Tennessee 144

One of the fastest dual meets in history (which happened to run up against the fastest quad meet in history) produced an NCAA-leading time, a historically-fast relay split, and a new NCAA Record on Saturday in Knoxville.

An official count of 1,215 fans were treated to a day of fast racing by both teams, especially on the men’s side where all of the swims mentioned above happened and there the final score saw Georgia pull a mild upset by 11 points over Tennessee.

Below are the videos for each of those races:

See the full playlist from the meet, courtesy the University of Georgia, here.

Men’s 200 Yard Fly

Luca Urlando fulfilled his destiny on Saturday by breaking an 8-year-old NCAA, American, and U.S. Open Record in the 200 fly – one of the oldest on the books. He swam 1:37.17 to beat Jack Conger’s 1:37.35 ahead of the NCAA Championships.

Watch the record-setting swim below.

Men’s 200 Yard Medley Relay

Tennessee’s Jordan Crooks anchored the 200 medley relay in 17.66, which is the 4th-fastest 50 free in history off a relay split as the Volunteers won by more than two seconds:

Watch at the end how Crooks turns a close race into a blowout even just on the star, and then blows that gap open on the turn, showing just how good he is underwater.

Men’s 100 Yard Butterfly

No Crooks, but Urlando becomes the NCAA leader this season in the 100 fly. The second turn here was huge.

Women’s 100 Yard Breaststroke

With Olympic medalist Mona McSharry still working back into form and Swedish Olympian Emilie Fast on the sideline in an arm brace, the freshman McKenzie Siroky stepped up with a new lifetime best in the 100 breaststroke that ranks her 2nd in Tennessee history.

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mds
7 hours ago

How many times did Luca do a one-handed turn in this race?

captain bubbles
1 day ago

It sounded like nobody realized what just happened in that 200 fly!

BTW, when did turn your head to the side on open turns become more popular than straight back? And how did they decide that is faster?

Grant Drukker
Reply to  captain bubbles
1 day ago

I remember noticing this when Seliskar was still swimming NCAAs, but never heard or read anything about it.

Last edited 1 day ago by Grant Drukker
bigNowhere
Reply to  captain bubbles
1 day ago

I feel like I’ve been seeing that technique for a long time. I could imagine that it faster simply because it involves less movement.

JimSwim22
Reply to  bigNowhere
1 day ago

I wonder if anyone on this website has any info on side breathing fly? Hmm, I wonder. Mel? Anything to add?

Diehard
1 day ago

He also broke the dual meet record

Postgrad Swimmer
1 day ago

Would 2019 Milak drop 1:35? 1:34???

HeGetsItDoneAgain
Reply to  Postgrad Swimmer
1 day ago

Milak never really lit it up in scm. His scy probably wouldn’t be as great as you might think.

JimSwim22
Reply to  HeGetsItDoneAgain
1 day ago

That’s just funny

Last edited 1 day ago by JimSwim22
snailSpace
Reply to  HeGetsItDoneAgain
18 hours ago

Bit more complicated than that. The reason Milak never broke out in SCM is the reason Phelps never did either: he doesn’t care for it, and never swam it tapered. Look at Kos – he never made it in SC either before training in the US, and became one of the best SCY swimmers in the world in 10 months with Bowman’s coaching. Turns and UWs are skills not cultivated at all in the Hungarian swimming tradition, yet when Milak saw how formidable they can be when losing to Dressel in 2021, he developed world class UWs in a year entirely on his own, and had one of the best UWs in 2022. If he actually trained in yards for… Read more »

Aquatic Ursine
1 day ago

This feels personally uplifting having hypermobility myself.

Here’s to him and and Heilman giving Marchand and Milak a run for their money (ik but what else are these comments for then gross speculation)

joe
1 day ago

crowd reaction so underwhelming lol

oxyswim
1 day ago

Luca going no breath the last 25 of his 100 fly was interesting. Adopting the Dressel/Liendo strategy, we’ll see if that makes the difference at NCs.

Aquatic Ursine
Reply to  oxyswim
1 day ago

Isn’t it the Austin Staab strategy actually?

ArtVanDeLegh10
Reply to  Aquatic Ursine
1 day ago

Staab’s the first one that started doing it to my knowledge.

I miss the ISL (Go dawgs)
1 day ago

Damn that first turn by Luca was LETHAL. Not easy to pass Crooks on the underwater! I’m so excited to see how he does at NCAAs.

Geo
Reply to  I miss the ISL (Go dawgs)
1 day ago

His last 25 was no breath!

KRDM
Reply to  Geo
1 day ago

FYI Joe Bottom used to do his last lap in his 100 fly ( and free) no breath in the 70s

JimSwim22
Reply to  KRDM
1 day ago

I knew someone used to do it back when I was swimming.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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