2021 NCAA Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships
- When: Wednesday, March 24 – Saturday, March 27, 2021
- Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center / Greensboro, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
- Prelims 10 AM/ Finals 6 PM (Local Time)
- Short course yards (SCY) format
- Defending champion: Cal (1x) – 2019 results
- Streaming: ESPN3
- Championship Central
- Full Meet Results
The University of Texas Men’s Swimming and Diving team won the 2021 NCAA Division I Men’s Championships with 595 on Saturday. The Longhorns took back the title from 2019 championship Cal, who were runner-up with 568 points.
The key to the 2021 Texas victory was depth. The 2020-21 Texas roster was so deep they had to leave a number of NCAA qualifiers back in Austin. In Greensboro, all 20 members of the squad scored. While they did win one swimming event, they placed at least one swimmer or diver in the top-8 of every individual event and had B-finalists in most events, as well.
Head coach Eddie Reese, already the most decorated coach in NCAA history, earned his 15th NCAA championship and has now won a title in five different decades. It is Reese’s 43rd season at the helm of the Longhorns. His team won four straight titles from 1988-1991, three from 2000-2002, and four from 2015-2018. Along with his 15th national crown, he boasts 27 top-two NCAA finishes and 34 top-three showings.
Men’s Team Head Coaches with NCAA Titles
- Eddie Reese – 15
- Mike Peppe – 11
- Peter Daland – 9
- David Marsh – 7
- Skip Kenney – 7
- James Counsilman – 6
- Matt Mann – 6
- David Durden – 4
- Gus Stager – 4
- Robert J.H. Kiphuth – 4
- Randy Reese – 2
- Nort Thornton – 2
- Mike Bottom – 1
- Richard Quick – 1
- Frank Busch – 1
- Jon Urbanchek – 1
- Ron Ballatore – 1
- Ray Bussard – 1
- Jim Gaughran – 1
The Longhorns opened the meet with a win in the 800 free relay on Wednesday. The next day, they won the 400 medley relay and were 6th in the 200 free relay and went 5-15-16 in the 500 free, 4-10-12-15 in the 200 IM, and 1-2-16 in 1-meter diving. In addition, their only 50 free entrant scored 6th in the A final.
The tide really turned for Texas on Friday when all four of the 400 IMers made the A final. They finished 2-5-6-8 to move into the lead with a 3-point spread over Cal. Texas then went 4-10 in the 100 fly, 2-4-8-14 in the 200 free, 6 in the 100 breast, 4-10-15 in the 100 back, and 2-11 in 3-meter diving. They finished the day with a 5th in the 200 medley relay.
On Saturday, all the Texas milers scored, going 7-9-13. Next came 5-6 in the 200 back and two 2nds (a tie) and a 14th in the 100 free. They were 4-10-12 in the 200 breast, 6-16 in the 200 fly, and 4-10 in platform diving.
With a 37-point lead over Cal heading into the final relay, all they needed were safe takeoffs to seal the win. The Longhorns did just that, finishing second in the final heat but winning the overall championship for the 15th time.
The 2021 NCAA Championship Team
Thank you to SwimSwam’s Barry Revzin and Andrew Mering for the numbers.
| Athlete | Year | Points | Event 1 | Place | Event 2 | Place | Event 3 | Place |
| Jordan Windle | SR | 52 | 1m Diving | 1 | 3m Diving | 2 | Platform Diving | 4 |
| Drew Kibler | JR | 47.5 | 500 Free | 5 | 200 Free | 2 | 100 Free | 2 |
| Carson Foster | FR | 45 | 200 IM | 4 | 400 IM | 2 | 200 Back | 6 |
| Alvin Jiang | SR | 31 | 100 Fly | 4 | 100 Back | 4 | 200 Fly | 16 |
| Caspar Corbeau | SO | 30 | 200 IM | 15 | 100 Breast | 6 | 200 Breast | 4 |
| Daniel Krueger | JR | 29.5 | 50 Free | 6 | 200 Free | 38 | 100 Free | 2 |
| Jake Foster | SO | 28 | 200 IM | 10 | 400 IM | 5 | 200 Breast | 10 |
| Noah Duperre | FR | 23 | 1m Diving | 2 | 3m Diving | 11 | Platform Diving | 33 |
| Braden Vines | JR | 23 | 200 IM | 12 | 400 IM | 6 | 200 Breast | 12 |
| David Johnston | FR | 23 | 500 Free | 17 | 400 IM | 8 | 1650 Free | 7 |
| Sam Pomajevich | SR | 20 | 100 Fly | 10 | 200 Fly | 6 | ||
| Austin Katz | SR | 16 | 100 Back | 15 | 200 Back | 5 | ||
| Jake Sannem | SR | 15.0 | 50 Free | 41 | 200 Free | 4 | ||
| Peter Larson | SO | 11 | 500 Free | 19 | 200 Free | 8 | ||
| Alex Zettle | JR | 11 | 500 Free | 15 | 1650 Free | 9 | ||
| Chris Staka | SR | 10 | 100 Back | 10 | 100 Free | 14 | ||
| Andrew Harness | SO | 7 | 1m Diving | 28 | 3m Diving | 31 | Platform | 10 |
| Johnthomas Larson | SR | 5 | 500 Free | 16 | 200 Free | 26 | 1650 Free | 13 |
| Coby Carrozza | FR | 3 | 500 Free | 21 | 200 Free | 14 | ||
| Brendan McCourt | FR | 1 | 1m Diving | 16 | 3m Diving | 29 | Platform Diving | 30 |
All 2021 Event Winners
Day 1
- 800 free relay – Texas (Drew Kibler, Jr.; Austin Katz, Sr.; Carson Foster, Fr.; Jake Sannem, Sr.) – 6:07.25
Day 2
- 200 free relay – Cal (Bjorn Seeliger, Fr.; Ryan Hoffer, Sr.; Daniel Carr, Sr.; Nate Biondi, Sr.) – 1:14.36
- 500 free – Jake Magahey, Georgia, Fr. – 4:07.97
- 200 IM – Shaine Casas, Texas A&M, Jr. – 1:39.53
- 50 free – Ryan Hoffer, Cal, Sr. – 18.33
- 1-mtr diving – Jordan Windle, Texas, Sr. – 435.60
- 400 medley relay – Texas (Chris Staka, Sr.; Caspar Corbeau, So.; Alvin Jiang, Sr.; Daniel Krueger, Jr.) – 3:00.23
Day 3
- 400 IM – Bobby Finke, Florida, Jr. – 3:36.90
- 100 fly – Ryan Hoffer, Cal, Sr. – 44.25
- 200 free – Kieran Smith, Florida, Jr. – 1:30.10
- 100 breast – Max McHugh, Minnesota, Jr. – 50.18
- 100 back – Shaine Casas, Texas A&M, Jr. – 44.20
- 3-mtr diving – Andrew Capobianco, Indiana – 505.20
- 200 medley relay – Louisville (Mitchell Whyte, Jr.; Evgenii Somov, Sr.; Nicolas Albiero, Sr.; Haridi Sameh, So.) – 1:22.11
Day 4
- 1650 free – Bobby Finke, Florida, Jr. – 14:12.52
- 200 back – Shaine Casas, Texas A&M, Jr. – 1:35.75
- 100 free – Ryan Hoffer, Cal, Sr. – 40.89
- 200 breast – Max McHugh, Minnesota, Jr. – 1:49.02
- 200 fly – Nicolas Albiero, Louisville, Sr. – 1:38.64
- Platform diving – Brandon Loschiavo, Purdue, Sr. – 469.05
- 400 free relay – Cal (Bjorn Seeliger, Fr.; Ryan Hoffer, Sr.; Destin Lasco, Fr.; Hugo Gonzalez) – 2:46.60
Final Team Scores
- Texas 595
- Cal 568
- Florida 367
- Georgia 268
- Louisville 211
- Indiana 207
- Ohio State 180
- NC State 164
- Virginia 152
- Texas A&M 151
- Virginia Tech 135
- Michigan/Arizona 106
- (tie)
- Stanford 99
- Alabama 91
- Mizzou 86
- Purdue 83
- LSU 68
- Miami 54
- Tennessee 48
- Georgia Tech/Minnesota 40
- (tie)
- Florida State 32.5
- UNC 31
- Notre Dame 29
- Pittsburgh 28
- USC 21
- Wisconsin 20
- Utah 17.5
- Kentucky 14
- Penn State 13
- West Virginia 5
Much respect to Coach Reese on an outstanding career. A point of clarification, however, regarding the above claim: He may be the leading record holder for NCAA team titles in Division 1 men’s swimming, but Jim Steen at Kenyon still holds the record for all of NCAA team titles, men (31) and women (23).
Fair to say.
Texas would have dominated last year’s ncaas.
There were no matches for Rooney.
And Cal’s sophomore class is pathetic.
So Texas divers three and four scored 8 points. Was it worth it? Still, probably, but interesting to think about.
Coaches take note! It is very difficult if nott impossible to win the NCAAs without strong diving as well as swimming. While Cal had the stronger swimming team, they scored zero points diving, where as Texas scored 83 points diving. This was too great a point advantage for Cal to overcome.
Someone fact check me on this but i believe this is the first ncaas since 2012 where there wasnt an ncaa record broken
Simply overcoming the COVID contact-tracing protocols and getting the meet done was amazing. The swimmers, divers and coaches of ALL the Teams represented, did an incredible job this year. They all “Improvised, Adapted and Overcame” a myriad of obstacles to achieve at such an incredible level. The races, the wins, best times, relays, the dives, Team points, and the All-American awards from this NCAA Championship will be remembered by the swimmers and divers and coaches, long after the “times” and lack of records are long-forgotten.
It will also be interesting to look back at other Olympic Years to see how it compares. Pandemic had an impact.
Something else to consider: we also saw a new level of depth. Look at how the top 8 in the 100 fly were all sub-45 as the prime example, but across the meet it seemed like 8th place was faster than last year. Sure, no records were broken, but you would think the pandemic would have affected the results more or less equally. If we’re attributing this to COVID, then why were the winners disproportionately affected?
I think it just had to happen eventually. We’ve been spoiled lately, but the truth is that records aren’t going to get broken every year.
Just a minor technical comment: Finke won the 1650 in 14:12, not “4:12” as listed above. On a more general note, all of these guys are incredible swimmers. 🙂
Durden always has the Bears ready to compete. This was one hell of a meet. Texas had a total team win.
Cal has now scored the most swimming points in seven of the past 11 NCAA championships, but on three of those occasions (2010, 2018 and now 2021), Texas diving has made the difference.
Dude, I’m sorry, but nobody cares.
What bobthebuilderrocks said, except I’m not sorry. Diving is part of the competition whether you like it or not, we don’t just get to exclude the events our teams are bad at.
What this shows is that without a strong diving program as well as a strong swimming program is very difficult to overcome the advantage a strong diving program gives a team. Texas scored 83 diving points. Cal zero diving points. The margin of victory was 27 points! Do the math!
Hey Jim, your son did great. Very happy to see him contribute to the big one.
Yeah you’re right. Cal always shows up. Hoffer talked about how Cal is always thinking about Texas, and Eddie was right in sending that back. The boys spend the entire year thinking about what those boys in the north bay are doing, and honestly as a Texas fan, it’s super comforting to hear from Hoffer that the inverse is true. Cal and Texas bring the best out of each other.
But to actually respond to you, it was absolutely a team win. Much moreso than any other recent Texas titles. Every single swimmer there was a part of that win, and the qualified athletes… Read more »
Does anyone think Texas and Cal, both men and women, would be as successful if they were combined programs? There are not too many split programs out there any more. Does their ability to have 4 super strong head coaches help them that much? Please share thoughts/counter arguments
If programs were combined, Cal would win every year. The women’s teams that are competitive with Cal and the men’s teams that are competitive with Cal are not comparable at all.
Texas women beat Cal women this year…
I don’t think you answered the question.
For sure, to answer the question, I think Cal would become the most dominant program in the nation. I say this as a Texas fan.
Never, ever, ever give in to this approach. If it keeps the program, then do it. We need more Head Coaching positions for men and women. Props to Florida for doing the right thing. We need UCLA to step up and hire a men’s coach and get men’s swimming and diving back into their new pool. It might even be more cost effective to step up and pay a quality head coach more and provide a great assistant a great salary then have a slew of assistants on the deck at lower wages.