Virginia Makes Big Statement in 800 Free Relay and Other Morning Overreactions ...Middle East

By Terin Frodyma on SwimSwam

2026 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships

We are off and running (or swimming) at the 2026 Men’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, and through the first session, let’s look at what teams look red-hot, and who may be treading water early.

After a season of patience and underwhelming results in a long build-up to these NCAA Championships, we finally got to see a payoff of the Virginia men’s hype train, blasting a massive 6:06.24 800 freestyle relay to take the top time of the early heats. Spearheading the quartet was freshman Maximus Williamson, who was able to give us a sneak peek of what he may have in store for the individual 200 free tomorrow with an opening leg of 1:30.43, a full second faster than his seed time for the 200 of 1:31.46. Sophomore David King carried that speed through to the halfway point in a 1:31.09 2nd leg. Thomas Heilman showed no signs of slowing down either, ripping a 3rd leg 1:32.06 before handing over to veteran Jack Aikins, who polished off the relay in 1:33.27, and an overall time of 6:06.85, the fastest time of the early heats by over two seconds, and blowing away their 6:10.17 entry time.

This was a major “we’re here” statement swim for Virginia, and gives the Cavalier men big momentum, adding to that of the women’s title from this past weekend. This performance locks them in for at least 18 points in this event, which is four more points than the Cavalier men scored all of last season at these championships.

One of the biggest individual performances of the morning was Tennessee’s Koby Bujak-Upton, who led off the Volunteers’ 800 free relay in a blistering 1:29.79. The rest of the relay was unable to match the freshman’s performance, finishing with just the 8th-fastest time in 6:12.29, almost a full two seconds slower than their 6:10.31 entry time. Bujak-Upton, though, may have further solidified his name as a top contender in the individual 200 free tomorrow.

Auburn’s 800 free relay sits 3rd (6:10.77) after the morning races, with a relay that included three freshman; Arthur Balva (1:33.13, 1st), Daniel Krichevsky (1:31.64, 2nd), and Luke Bedsole (1:32.66, 4th) helped earn the Tigers their 2nd top four relay showing through the morning events, after the 200 medley relay finished with the 4th fastest time in 1:22.37.

NC State was very quick this morning in the 200 medley relay, locking in the top time through the early heats in 1:21.23, tying them with LSU (who will race later tonight) for the 4th-fastest relay at this meet. The opening and closing legs were the real difference makers here, as Quintin McCarty shot out of a rocket to give the Wolfpack an early advantage on the backstroke in 20.26, while Drew Salls sealed the deal through to the finish in 18.13 on the freestyle anchor to finish with the only sub 1:22 time of the early heats in 18.06.

The Louisville taper strikes again, as freshman standout Nikita Sheremet continued his impressive first season with the Cardinals by splitting a sizzling 18.06 to close out Louisville’s 200 medley relay, which finished 3rd through the morning races in 1:22.22. That time makes him the fastest true freshman relay leg ever.

Georgia’s Ruard Van Renen opened up Georgia’s 200 medley relay in a quick 20.20, tying him with Ryan Murphy as the 7th-fastest performer in history, which bodes well for his 100 back later in the meet, where he sits as the #3 seed (43.92).

Florida’s Gio Linscheer, swimming out of lane 1, swam a 12 second best time to finish with the fastest time of the early heats in the 1650 in 14:34.18, this swim moved him up from a pre-meet #15 seed to at the lowest a 9th place finish for the Gators, with another two Gators yet to swim in the event’s final heat this evening with Ahmed Jaouadi and Ahmed Hafnaoui.

In the same race, Yale’s Noah Millard, who was 4th in this race last season, was nearly 20 seconds slower than that time he went last season to finish 8th out of the early heats in 14:47.47, earning him a 16th-place finish at worst, but still snagging points for the Bulldogs nonetheless.

Cal’s Ryan Erisman, entered here as the #9 seed, got off to slight early lead in that final early 1650 heat, but dropped off the lead by the 500 yard mark, and was unable to regain that momentum he showed in the opening stages of the race, and would wind up adding nearly four seconds from his entry time od 14:37.58 to touch 4th in the morning heats. The freshman did still have another swim to come on the session, as he would race on Cal’s 800 free relay, splitting a respectable 1:32.63 as the 2nd leg of that relay.

That Cal relay added nearly half a second to their seed time of 6:09.53 to finish 4th in 6:10.91. Their 200 medley will race tonight, and will see Nathan Wiffen in the evening heat of the 1650.

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