While a 6th place finish at the 2023 Men’s NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships was likely not the Florida Gators’ team goal heading to Minneapolis, there were some amazing peaks, including a trio of NCAA Relay Records in the 200 and 400 free relays.
The 200 free relay, in particular, broke a historic record. The Gators’ 1:13.35 broke the 2009 Auburn Record of 1:14.08, which was the last remaining NCAA Record from the 2008-2009 supersuit era.
They closed the meet in a wild final race, edging Cal by .01 seconds and breaking the 400 free relay record. Florida swam 2:44.07, with both them and Cal under NC State’s 2018 record of 2:44.31.
In between those record-setting free relay swims, they also broke the 400 medley relay record, swimming 2:58.32. That cleared the 2017 records set by Texas in 2:59.22 by almost a second.
Here’s what’s wild: between those three relays, which aggregate to 12 swims, the Gators will only lose 1 or 2 legs, combined.
The one leg that is for sure leaving is breaststroker Dillon Hillis, a 5th year who split 50.23 on the breaststroke leg of the 400 medley relay.
Not only are the other 11 legs not 5th years, 10 of them are not even seniors, which eliminates a lot of the “will they/won’t they” return for next season. The lone senior is Eric Friese, who had the slowest split among Florida’s four legs on the 200 free relay.
200 Free Relay:
- Josh Liendo – freshman (18.22)
- Adam Chaney – junior (18.37)
- Eric Friese – senior (18.64)
- Macguire McDuff – sophomore (18.12)
400 Medley Relay:
- Adam Chaney – junior (44.28)
- Dillon Hillis – 5th year (50.23)
- Josh Liendo – freshman (42.91)
- Macguire McDuff – sophomore (40.90)
400 Free Relay:
- Josh Liendo – freshman (40.66)
- Adam Chaney – junior (41.10)
- Julian Smith – sophomore (41.26)
- Macguire McDuff – sophomore (41.05)
In spite of that 6th-place result this year, Florida looks built to clear that gap that they’ve been knocking up against for years with so much talent returning and an incredibly-deep recruiting class coming in. That includes:
- Sean Sullivan, the Indiana High School State Champion in the 100 free (20.17/44.09 freestyler)
- Scotty Buff, the Ohio High School DI State Champion in the 100 fly and National high School Record breaker (44.97)
- Jonny Marshall, the Ohio High School DI State Champion in the 100 back (beating Buff) in 46.31
- Caleb Maldari, the North Carolina LSC Champion in the 200 fly and 200 free (1:47.30 in the 200 fly, 1:36.55 in the 200 free)
- Josh Parent, the Junior Pan Pacs silver medalist in the 1500 free (14:56.60 miler)
- Amadeusz Knop, the Florida 4A State Champion in the 200 IM and 100 back (a 3:51.64 IMer/15:09.46 miler)
- Bobby Dinunzio, the Virginia High School 6A State Champion in the 500 free (4:24.56 freestyler)
The one thing missing from that list is a breaststroker to replace Hillis, but that might not be as dire as it seems. The Gators’ fastest breaststroker on a flat-start last season, Aleksas Savickas, was just a freshman this season. He flat-started 50.73 to Hillis’ 50.80, though Hillis was the clear choice for that relay spot based on their performances at NCAAs.
The point is: the Gators enter next year as an overwhelming favorite in all three relays. All three relay records are square in the crosshairs as well. And with the talent coming in, Florida might sit in that favored position for years to come in all three relays (and the 200 medley and 800 free relays, which they didn’t win last season).
This feels like a team approaching a ‘year of destiny,’ where they have a big number of returning swimmers and a big group of top-20 freshmen coming together at the same time. If the stars align, and it all comes together, 2024 or 2025 could be a golden opportunity for the Gators.
To move up, Florida needs more individual points from Chaney and McDuff – they combined for only 22 points.
Hard to give Chaney too hard of a time. He met expectations in the 100 Back. and exceeded them in the 100 Free (dropped .5 from seed in prelims) The 50 Free wasn’t great, but unless you’re capable of 18.3/4 now, you’re not a lock for the A-Final anymore. You need to be ready to go sub 19 now in the morning just to make the B-Final.
McDuff had 2 misses in the 200 Free and 50 Free. Both of which if he matched seed would’ve put him solidly in the B-Final. But with 2 B-Finals you’re only talking about 8-15 points.
My opinion is the 1650 cost Florida a likely 4th place finish and maybe as high… Read more »
I hope all the 17th and 18th place finishes cut deep enough to make Florida’s coaching staff realize that winning SECs by 50 or 100 points instead of 300 is still winning the meet. The top end of this team is just too good not to give them a shot to really unleash at NCs.
UF will be a better team next year by virtue of actually having 200 backstrokers, having Buff, adding depth in distance with guys like Parent and Andrew Taylor (a top 10 recruit), having Joaquin Gonzalez-Pinero show this year that he can become a possible 3 event scorer instead of just a 200 flyer, etc. The pieces are there. They just need to put it… Read more »
I can’t wait to see how Buff develops.
They got 6th this year lol
Unless I’m proven wrong, the Florida gators don’t belong in the same sentence as Cal or Texas
If Liendo returns, it seems impossible that they don’t push in to top 3 next year. On paper they are every bit as good as ASU.
They were that good this year as well
They definitely were. Hard to explain McDuff and even Chaney. Have to think those two bounce back very well next year.
Except, look at their relay splits. McDuff clearly has it in him. The boy split 18.12/40.9/1:31.56. All at least a second under his flat start for his individual events. He swam well he just couldn’t quite convert on the individual swims (an anti-seeliger perhaps you could say). As for Adam, he was hardly off anything. Maybe it was a small taper error but he went a season best in the 100 free and still swam lights out. The energy of SECs can be a huge motivation source as well.
key words “on paper” they are as good but when the rubber met the road, ASU smoked Florida in a championship format. NCAA format is the only one that really matters for *real* contenders. outside of relays, Florida has a LOT of ground to make up to catch ASU as long as Marchand is there🤫
They got excellent relays no doubt, but also some holes to figure out. Outside of their relay core, they had:
Think it is tougher to do a double taper vs a single taper.
They’re going to be scary good.
Odds Liendo goes pro instead of returning to UF? Would love to see him return to swim some possible SCY records but there’s a good bit of $$ on the table
I mean…with NIL being a thing, and without the ISL, is there a point in going pro unless it is for a non-money reason?
iirc NIL doesn’t really work the same with internationals in NCAA
I’ve heard the NCAA made it harder for international student-athletes to get NIL money and stay eligible. I don’t know the rules, but this could be an issue for the Canadian if he has a breakout WCs.
In the past, I think it was easier for an international athlete to get paid or take illegal money!
It’s not the NCAA that has made it difficult it is the issues with INS and the ability to make money while on a student visa. There is work being done by two CT senators to address this in Congress – coincidentally because the best player at UCONN (Sanogo) is affected by this.
Yeah, student visas make it hard. I’d imagine he could get a different visa to fix that because there are plenty of foreigners who are pro in the US but he probably couldn’t keep a scholarship then.
Canadians don’t need visas to study in the US.
Then I would imagine he would have no NIL issues. I understand it to be that all issues originated from visas.
it’s definitely possible but also just hearing the way he talked about aiming for dressel’s records makes it seem like he wants to continue to try and get those
Really think it’s gonna depend on how well he performs at worlds this year. If he “breaks out” (he’s here already, but you know what I mean) and takes home a few medals, he’s no doubt going to be a huge part of Canada’s marketing for Paris. Financial incentive + the pressure to perform on the biggest stage might be enough to at the very least take a gap year a la Chase Kalisz.
Money for what? He doesn’t have any international gold medals or world records (yet). Swimmers get paid based on accolades, not potential.
His home market is Canada, not the US, although Gold Medals would make him more marketable in the US as well.
Not totally true. There is big money in contracts that are signed in the the lead-up to the Olympics. Companies gamble on athletes in hopes they bring home Olympic hardware.
Since Canadians don’t need visas to study in the US and he can make money through NIL and loves the team, I don’t see him leaving. He talks all the time about how yards swimming forces him to be a lot more detail-oriented, and that has carried over massively to his long course swimming as well. Plus, in all the interviews he did after the relays, he was looking forward into what they could do in years to come.