By Sam Blacker 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) SwimSwam Preview Index Psych Sheets Preview Index Live Stream Live Results Live Recaps Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3With just one day of racing left at the Men’s 2026 NCAA Championships, the meet has certainly not disappointed. However, behind the NCAA records and top-ten splits there were still a number of lightning fast swims.
Jack Wilkening lowered his Michigan school record of 44.79 that he set at Big Tens, slicing a tenth of a second off this morning to go 44.69. That was enough to place 15th in prelims this morning, but he demolished that time just hours later as he led off Michigan’s 400 medley relay in 43.98, a huge new best which makes him the only Wolverine to go under both 44 seconds and 45 seconds. Tommy Hagar was another swimmer to shave some time from his best in the 100 back, going 44.98 in prelims for 22nd before going just a hundredth slower in 44.99 to lead of Alabama’s 400 medley relay. That lowered his PB of 45.20 from SECs, where he also set his 200 back best of 1:37.92, and he could be one to watch for that event tomorrow.
Kai Van Westering made it two Indiana swimmers in the top 16 in the 100 back as he hacked seven tenths of a second from his season best and a 0.12 seconds from the PB he set this time last year, going 44.64 for 14th. Like Hagar, he is more focused on the 200 back and may have designs on the ‘A’ final tomorrow.
Tennessee’s Nick Simons and Notre Dame’s Marcus Reyes-Gentry both sliced half a second off their 100 back bests, Simons going from 45.42 to 44.93 and Reyes-Gentry going from 44.59 to 44.07 before goin44.14 in the final. Reyes-Gentry became the Mexican record holder in the 50 and 100 back last summer, and made his first NCAA ‘A’ final here.
After a fantastic 100 breast last night, Alexei Avakov dropped over a second in the 200 breast to move up to 10th and score some big points for Indiana again. He was 1:51.43 to take 1.15 seconds off his former best of 1:52.58. Eli Martin, who did not qualify for the meet last year, placed 7th this morning in 1:51.08 before finishing 8th, as Sergio Lopez develops yet another 200 breaststroker at Virginia Tech.
While he didn’t drop too much time from his season best and was a couple of tenths off his PB of 18.60 from last year, Alex Painter moved up ten spots in the 50 free to score what could be five important points for Florida. Having not qualified directly in the 50 free and sitting in 22nd on the start sheets, he gave Florida two scorers in the event alongside winner Josh Liendo. Charlie Hutchison also moved up into the points in the 500 free after doing so in the 400 IM yesterday, dropping 0.27 seconds to clock 4:12.13 for 13th. Gio Linscheer dropped a second from his best from SECs to place 5th, and has been huge for the Gators with two 5th place finishes in the distance free events.
Another swim to note in the 50 free was ASU’s Jonny Kulow. An ‘A’ finalist last year, he moved up from the 22nd seed to place 6th in the final in 18.55, not only exactly the same time as he swam in heats but also split identically in 9.00/9.55.
Sean Green moved up from 17th to 8th in the 500 free for Georgia in the 500 free, setting a new best of 4:11.34 in prelims. That was 0.67 seconds faster than his time from SECs, and he has dropped 5.44 seconds over the course of his freshman season.
The 400 medley relay saw some notable splits, with Landon Gentry (43.95) and Michal Chmielewski (43.78) bringing some heat on the fly leg in the morning heats for Virginia Tech and USC respectively. Gentry set a new best of 44.99 in the 100 fly yesterday to place 18th, while Chmielewski was 10th in a PB of 44.42. Logan Robinson delivered his best swim of the meet so far as he split 43.45 on FSU’s relay in the final heat this evening, playing a big part in their 9th place finish as he came in 1.85 seconds under his flat-start best.
Josh Staples scratched the 200 breast this morning after placing 8th in the 400 IM last night, and his focus on this relay paid off with a 50.46 split on the breaststroke leg for Northwestern. That was four-tenths faster than his previous best-ever split of 50.85 from midseason, and continues his breaststroke renaissance this season after swimming the 500 free and the mile at NCAAs last year.
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