2024 Men’s NCAA Championships: Worlds Medalists Alexy & Liendo Collide in the 100 Free

2024 MEN’S NCAA SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• March 27-30, 2024
• IUPUI Natatorium, Indianapolis, Indiana
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MEN’S 100 FREE

• U.S. Open Record: 39.90 – Caeleb Dressel, University of Florida (2018)
• American Record: 39.90 – Caeleb Dressel, University of Florida (2018)
• NCAA Record: 39.90 – Caeleb Dressel, University of Florida (2018)
• 2023 NCAA Champion: Josh Liendo, Florida – 40.28

There is an immense amount of talent in the men’s 100 free this year. In fact, this might be the deepest men’s 100 freestyle field that we’ve ever seen.

Evidence: four swimmers enter the meet seeded with a 40-point in the event. Never before in history has there been more than one swimmer sub-41 before the NCAA Championships.

Jack Alexy (photo: Jack Spitser)

And that list rightly should be five. That’s because Cal junior Jack Alexy skipped the Pac-12 Championships to race in long course at the Pro Swim Series meet in Westmont, Illinois. His seed time of 41.40 is from the team’s January dual meet against Arizona State, and it seems highly-likely that the 2023 World Championship silver medalist in long course would have been sub-41 seconds in the event if he had raced it at Pac-12s.

The top seeds who have been under 41 already this season:

• Chris Guiliano, Notre Dame – 40.62
• Josh Liendo, Florida – 40.82
• Jordan Crooks, Tennessee – 40.90
• Gui Santos, Tennessee – 40.99

Among that list is Chris Guiliano, the other American who swam the 100 free individually at the 2023 World Championships. That qualification was a surprise – but for Guiliano, who seems to get better every time he dives into the pool, there are no more surprises.

He enters the NCAA Championships as the top seed in the 100 free after setting the ACC Record in the 100 free in both prelims and finals at the ACC Championships.

Then, of course, there is Florida’s Josh Liendo, who last year as a 20-year-old freshman won the NCAA title in 40.28. That was the third-fastest performance in history behind only the NCAA Championship swims of Caeleb Dressel in 2017 (40.00) and 2018 (39.90).

Guiliano at 40.62 is the third-fastest performer in the history of the event behind Dressel and Liendo, and he’s a third-of-a-second slower – which is almost a yard in real-life terms.

In short: while Liendo enters the meet with a seed of 40.82, right in the thick of this field, on paper he’s still easily the best performer of the bunch in yards. Don’t forget that he was the World Championship bronze medalist in the 100 free in 2022 in long course.

The Rest of the America(n)s

Like many races at the men’s NCAA Championship, there will be a significant international influence in this men’s 100 free. But unlike other races, in the sprint freestyles those swimmers are largely from the Americas.

Besides the Canadian Liendo, that includes Cayman Islander Jordan Crooks of Tennessee. The junior finished 5th in the 100 free at each of the last two seasons, and through a sensational beginning of his collegiate career was a short course superstar.

But last summer, he debuted new long course abilities that included 21.73 in the 50 meter free and 47.71 in the 100 meter free at the 2023 World Championships. That new-found success on the surface of the pool has translated over to his short course swimming as well. His 40.90 at the SEC Championships was .29 seconds faster than he was at the same meet last year and was a new lifetime best.

While Crooks has always been very fast at SECs, he’s done a good job throughout his career of still finding ways to improve at the NCAA Championships. In his freshman season, he improved .28 seconds from his best time at SECs to his best time at NCAAs; in his sophomore season, that improvement was .27 seconds. The transitive property of swimming, then, implies a 40.6 coming for him at NCAAs.

His teammate Gui Santos of Brazil enters the meet as the 4th seed. He too swam a best time of 40.99 at the SEC Championships. He is sort of the opposite of Crooks – he came to Tennessee already very good in long course, and has been developing his results in short course to match.

The only real European factor in this race is Cal senior Bjorn Seliger (8th seed – 41.41), who like Alexy skipped Pac-12s. He was 40.75 at the 2022 NCAA Championships, finishing 2nd, but last year took a bit of a backslide to 40.93, though that was still good for 3rd place. He has been top four at each of his three previous NCAA Championship appearances in the 100 free, though the bar has raised substantially since his first championship in 2021.

Sun Devil Sprinters

Jack Dolan (photo: Jack Spitser)

Arizona State has one of the deepest sprint crews in the country, with three guys entering the meet seeded to score points (only Cal can match that).

That group is led by grad student Jack Dolan, who is the 6th seed in 41.38. The Pac-12 runner-up has knocked half-a-second off his career best this season after a 16th-place finish at NCAAs last year.

Dolan is definitely a top-5 contender, but he’ll have to get the performance monkey off his back: in his previous collegiate seasons, he has not been a season-best time in an individual event final at the NCAA Championships.

But this year, when he swims the 100 free at the end of the meet, Arizona State could be in position to run away with a title, and that momentum could be what puts Dolan over the top.

His teammates’ Jonny Kulow, a US National Team member who kicked off his season with six medals for Team USA at the Pan American Games. He’s the 9th seed at NCAAs in 41.44.

Patrick Sammon is the 16th seed in 41.77. He was the 200 free Pac-12 champion and made some progress in the 100 this season. He has been about a quarter-second ahead of last season at almost every step of the way this year.

Other Contenders

The 2024 Pac-12 champion in the 100 free, Matthew Jensen (photo: Jack Spitser)

In the absence of his more-renowned teammates Seeliger and Alexy, Cal senior Matthew Jensen stepped up to win the Pac-12 title in 41.57 in the swim of his career so far. His previous best time was a 42.01 from last year’s Pac-12 Championships; he swam a similar time at NCAAs in 2023.

Coming into the year, Jensen might have considered himself to be more breaststroker than freestyler. At Pac-12s, he was 2nd in the 100 breast and 7th in the 100 free.

Florida’s Macguire McDuff continues to be the most-underrated sprinter in the NCAA. He enters the meet as the 5th seed after a 41.30 at SECs to finish 4th behind Liendo, Crooks, and Santos. He’s really improved the back-half of his race this year, and after a 7th-place finish at last summer’s Trials in long course has become a serious sleeper pick to make the US Olympic Team next summer.

Georgia’s Reese Branzell joins a bunch of other guys on this list in having swum his lifetime best at the SEC Championships a month ago. There he split 41.44 leading off Georgia’s 400 free relay. He was only 41.71 in the individual event, though. Many of his previous best times were also done on relay leadoff legs, where he’s been at his best over the last couple of seasons.

Don’t overlook Virginia Tech senior Youssef Ramadan as the 14th seed. He finished 8th at NCAAs last year, and got a lot of time to work on his freestyle this season while the team was being cautious with his specialty the butterfly races after an injury. He seems to be back to full speed now.

The highest-seeded freshman is his teammate Brendan Whitfield, an in-state recruit who was a stud sprinter in high school and has continued that in college. He is the 13th seed, one spot ahead of Ramadan, at 41.61. That’s a full-second improvement on his best coming into the meet.

Other low seeds to watch out for include Florida senior Adam Chaney (27th – 42.17), who finished 13th in the 100 free last season; and Texas’ Luke Hobson.

SwimSwam Picks:

Darkhorse: Luke Hobson, Texas – Texas junior Luke Hobson is the 68th seed out of 71 entered swimmer in the men’s 100 free, barely sneaking under the NCAA “B” cut with a 43.10 at the mid-season Texas Invitational. He didn’t flat-start the 100 yard free a single time in the spring semester, but he did split 47.68 in long course at the World Championships on a relay rolling start. He’s better-known as the defending NCAA Champion in the 200 and 500 yard freestyles, but was 17th at NCAAs last year. Don’t sleep on Luke Hobson the sprinter.