By Sophie Kaufman on SwimSwam
2026 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships
Dates: Wednesday, March 25–Saturday, March 28 Location: McAuley Aquatic Center, Atlanta, GA Defending Champions: Texas (1x) Championship Central Updated Psych Sheets (3/22) Live Results Live Video Scored Psych SheetsMen’s 100 Butterfly
NCAA Record: 42.80 – Caeleb Dressel, Florida (2018) Championship Record: 42.80 – Caeleb Dressel, Florida (2018) American Record: 42.80 – Caeleb Dressel, Florida (2018) U.S. Open Record: 42.80 – Caeleb Dressel, Florida (2018) 2025 Champion: Josh Liendo, Florida – 43.06Liendo’s Quest For A Three-Peat and NCAA Record
Only one name matters to Josh Liendo when it comes to the 100 butterfly at these upcoming NCAA Championships—Caeleb Dressel. Liendo has worked towards breaking his fellow Gators’ iconic NCAA record for years now. He’s been able to open ahead of Dressel’s record-setting pace multiple times and has chipped away at his own lifetime best. He matched his best at the 2026 SEC Championships, clocking a 43.06, the same time that he went to win the event at the 2025 NCAAs.
Liendo is the second-fastest performer in history behind Dressel’s 42.80. Dressel’s hold over the event is well earned and in pursuit of Dressel’s record, Liendo has written his name all over the history books. He dominates the top 10 performances list, holding six of the top 10 times. Four of those times were swum in the last year, showcasing Liendo’s consistency.
Top 10 Performances, Men’s 100 Fly (SCY)
Caeleb Dressel, Florida – 42.80 (2018) Josh Liendo, Florida – 43.06 (2025/2026) – Josh Liendo, Florida – 43.07 (2024) Youssef Ramadan, Virginia Tech – 43.15 (2023) Josh Liendo, Florida – 43.23 (2025) Josh Liendo, Florida – 43.26 (2026) Josh Liendo, Florida – 43.30 (2024) Ilya Kharun, Arizona State – 43.38 (2025) Josh Liendo, Florida – 43.40 (2023)Liendo is not the only swimmer on the top 10 list competing in Atlanta this week, but his consistency is what’s helped make him such a strong favorite in the race. He’s eyeing the illustrious distinction of a three-peat in this race but all the focus will be on his time. There’s winning and then there’s the record.
The Rest of the Sub-44 Club
Returning ‘A’ Finalists
While Liendo has been out under Dressel’s NCAA record pace multiple times, he trailed Ilya Kharun, his now former Canadian national teammate, at the halfway point of the 2025 NCAA Championship ‘A’ final. Kharun was out in 20.11 to Liendo’s 20.13. He could not handle Liendo’s back half speed but held on to win silver last year in a then-lifetime best 43.43. He’s undercut that mark since, swimming a 43.38 during the CSCAA Dual Meet Challenge (the same meet he also logged a 200 butterfly best).
Ilya Kharun (photo: Jack Spitser)
As a freshman, Kharun was unable to have his fastest swim of the season come at NCAAs in the 200 fly, but that has not been the case in the 100 fly; he’s dropped from conference to NCAAs in each of his two college seasons.
Last year, Urlando challenged Kharun for the silver, touching six-hundredths behind the Sun Devil in 43.49. Urlando pulled out of the 2026 NCAA Championships last week with an injury. But that doesn’t mean Kharun has the silver locked up. He could face a challenge from the newest entrant on the all-time top performer list, Michigan’s Tyler Ray. Ray burst onto the list at last month’s Big Ten Championships, swimming a 43.83 on the way to his conference title. Ray is the third top 10 performer in history who will be in the field this week. He sits a half-second behind Kharun; that’s a big ask for another drop, but Ray’s presence as another sub-44-second swimmer will help keep the final interesting.
Scotty Buff rounds out the group of returning ‘A’ finalists; he finished 5th in this event last year, getting under the 44-second mark for the first time in his career with a 43.95. The junior has not been as fast this season, coming in with a 44.53 season-best from the SEC Championships. That makes him the #10 seed, meaning he’ll need to drop some time to make the ‘A’ final a second-straight year. If he scores at all, he will have scored in the 100 butterfly in each of his three seasons at Florida.
Breaking In
Credit: Jason Wang / Peak Images
Virginia freshman Thomas Heilman is aiming to kick off a scoring streak of his own during his debut NCAA Championships this week. Heilman has yet to clear the 44-second mark during his young college career, but he got close at the ACC Championships with his 44.16 for second place. His lone outing faster than 44 seconds came during the 2024 Winter Juniors East Championship, when he ripped a 43.86, breaking the 17-18 National Age Group record.
Tennessee senior Gui Caribe is also looking to make his first 100 butterfly championship final. He won the ‘B’ final last year (44.31) and recently undercut time with a massive 43.94 at the 2026 SEC Championships. Caribe has been on a remarkable trajectory in this event at NCAAs: in 2024, he finished 35th and then jumped to 9th last year. Making the final this year would cap off an impressive arc in this event over the course of his college career. When Caribe swam this event for the first time in October 2022, when he arrived at Tennessee, he debuted with a 48.44.
New Challenges
The Texas men have an embarrassment of riches, but one of their weaker events for the past couple of seasons has been the 100 butterfly. Last year, backstroke/IM specialist Hubert Kos often pulled butterfly duties on the Longhorns’ medley relay. And that’s not to say that using Kos there was scrounging around at the bottom of the barrel—the versatile Olympic champion clocked a 44.05 at the 2025 Eddie Reese Texas Showdown that remains his lifetime best. It simply means that last year, Kos had other priorities than sprint butterfly, namely resetting NCAA backstroke records, plus sweeping those events and the 200 IM at the NCAA Championships.
Hubert Kos (photo: Jack Spitser)
But this is a new season for Kos and it seems that after taking the fall semester off from college racing in favor of cleaning up the World Cup circuit, Kos is looking for new challenges. The NCAA event lineup change forced a decision on all 200 IM/200 backstrokers, so Kos mixed things up and went with a 100 butterfly/100 backstroke/200 backstroke lineup for his senior year NCAA Championships.
Kos is lingering way down the psych sheet as the #40 seed with a 45.82, but it would be a mistake to discount him as a final threat. He’s never swum this as an individual event while tapered and is one of the stronger bets to become the next member of the sub-44-second club.
Nicholas Finch and Michel Arkhangelskiy capped their freshman years on a high, making the 100 butterfly ‘B’ final at the 2025 NCAA Championships. Finch displayed remarkable consistency throughout the rounds—he came into the meet with a 44.57 best, swam 44.58 in prelims, then got back down to 44.57 for 11th overall. He’s only improved in his second season at Yale, swimming a 44.34 lifetime best at the Ivy League Championships. That swim improves his standing as the fastest mid-major performer in history and has him holding the #7 seed.
That puts Finch just two-hundredths ahead of Arkhangelskiy’s lifetime best (44.36) from last year’s ACCs. That was the Florida State sophomore’s breakout meet. He added time at his NCAA debut (swimming 44.77 in the ‘B’ final). But more importantly, he got experience swimming at night. Multiple swimmers at the 2026 Women’s NCAA Championships shared how important a ‘B’ final swim early in their NCAA careers set them up for success later. The margin for error is smaller than it was when 16 spots earned a second swim, but we’ll see whether Finch and Arkhangelskiy can pay off that learning opportunity this year. They’re both seeded to final as the 7th and 8th seeds, but the top eight will likely be decided by a few hundredths, and it won’t only be Kos challenging from behind them.
While Finch and Arkhangelskiy will be aiming to parlay last year’s ‘B’ final experience to an ‘A’ final, Ohio State’s Matthew Klinge aims to pay off a very different lesson. Last year as a freshman, Klinge had an off swim during the 100 butterfly prelims, adding .76 seconds from his 45.39 and placing 44th (46.15). 45.39 was Klinge’s lifetime best coming into this season; he’s taken over a second off that mark, lowering his best to a 44.48 at Big Tens.
More Names To Consider
The biggest name we’ve yet to mention is NC State’s Aiden Hayes. An injury sidelined Hayes, the 2023 200 butterfly NCAA champion, for the 2024-25 season. He returned to racing last spring and has been a solid force for the Wolfpack this year, particularly as a stroke sprinter. He won the 100 butterfly ACC title in a lifetime best 44.07, improving from the 44.35 he swam at 2023 NCAAs.
Aiden Hayes (photo: Jack Spitser)
In an event that has many swimmers vying for the first 100 butterfly championship final of their careers, Hayes has a proven track record. He made the ‘A’ final at each of his three previous NCAA Championships, notching two 6th places and a 7th.
Julian Koch and Stuart Seymour are both trying to score after not swimming this event at the 2025 NCAA Championships. Seymour made that meet, swimming the 50 free/100 free/100 back, with his highest finish coming in the 100 back (17th). Koch did not make the NCAA Championships in his freshman year at Pitt. This year, he’s been making Panthers history throughout the season. Most recently at the ACC Championships, he became Pitt’s first sub-19-second 50 freestyler. His 100 fly bronze (44.56 PB) made him the fourth men’s swimmer to medal in school history. He’s seeded 11th, just outside of a second swim with that lifetime best. Seymour is seeded 13th with his 44.66 lifetime best from Big Tens.
The man seeded between them, Michal Chmielewski, did swim this event at the 2025 NCAAs. Like many of the swimmers we talked about in the last section, Chmielewski is looking to put lessons from last year into practice. He was disqualified from the 100 butterfly last year for a false start and aims to right that mistake this year. He swam a 44.57 best at Big Tens. Like Koch and Seymour, he’ll be looking to take advantage if any of the swimmers seeded ahead of him make a mistake in prelims.
SwimSwam’s Picks
Rank Swimmer Team Season Best Lifetime Best 1 Josh Liendo Florida 43.06 43.06 2 Ilya Kharun Arizona State 43.38 43.38 3 Hubert Kos Texas 45.82 44.05 4 Thomas Heilman Virginia 44.16 43.86 5 Tyler Ray Michigan 43.83 43.83 6 Gui Caribe Tennessee 43.93 43.93 7 Aiden Hayes NC State 44.07 44.07 8 Nicholas Finch Yale 44.34 44.34Dark Horse: Spencer Nicholas, Virginia – Will the Virginia men’s taper hit? Nicholas had an intriguing freshman season as a Cavalier, swimming a lifetime best 44.41 at the Tennessee Invite. He was off that pace at the 2025 NCAAs, adding time and taking 24th place. Can he reverse that trend this year? He’s only been 44.86 so far this season, but his lifetime best would put him right in the heart of the fight for an outside lane in the final.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: 2026 M. NCAA Previews: Josh Liendo Hunting History In The 100 Fly
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