2025 Men’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships
- March 26-29, 2025
- Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Center, Federal Way, Washington
- Short Course Yards (25 yards)
- SwimSwam Pick’Em Contest
- SwimSwam Preview Index
- Psych Sheet
- Day 1 Heat Sheets
- Day 1 Live Recap
Highlighting the swims you might have missed was Army scoring for the first time in a relay since 1966. The relay of Johnny Crush, Kohen Rankin, Daniel Verdolaga, and Ben Vorthmann swam the 15th fastest time of the night in the 200 medley relay with a 1:23.35.
Back in 1966, Army’s 400 medley relay of O’Hara, Landgraf, Pratt, and Trainer earned All-American honors for the 2nd year in a row. The last All-American in any event for the Black Knights was John VanSant as he earned All-American honors in both the 100 and 200 breaststrokes in 1986 and 1987.
The freshman Crush got the relay out to a fast start splitting a 20.68 on the backstroke leg. That was the 7th fastest backstroke leg of the night. Crush, was a top ranked recruit out of high school last year and has already proven to be one of the best at Army in generations.
The breaststroke leg Rankin is making his 2nd NCAA appearance after he qualified individually last year. Rankin also had the 7th fastest split of the night with a 22.94.
The relay team notably earned an invite to NCAAs after securing an ‘A’ cut in the 400 medley relay at the ECAC Open Championships. That meet was a week after the team won the Patriot League title. The relay did not have the ‘A’ cut in the 200 medley relay coming into the meet.
Arizona State’s Jonny Kulow anchored the team’s relay in a 17.78, the 2nd fastest 50 free split of the field. That is much faster than his lifetime flat start best of a 18.64 that he swam in prelims for 7th at the 2024 NCAA Championships. Kulow is the #8 seed in the event tomorrow.
The Virginia men swam to a new school record in the 800 freestyle relay to win heat 2. After the women’s successful week last weekend, the men jumped off to a solid start. The relay of David King, Sebastien Sergile, Jack Aikins, and Hayden Bellotti swam to a time of 6:11.30. That broke the school record of a 6:12.28 that the relay of Ryan Baker, Samuel Schilling, Joe Clark, and Cooper Wozencraft swam in 2019.
On brave old Army team…
The front half of that relay with Crush and Rankin is podium material and the back half is respectable. Cheers to the Army guys on a good swim.
All thanks to Coach Brandt! Hopefully the Navy coaches adapt instead of staying stuck in their ways.
You mean hopefully the Navy coaches DON’T adapt lol
IDK. NAVY guys still drop a lot of time and swim fast. ARMY has done well to get a few massive recruits and quickly gotten them to go even faster. It’s definitely a much more compelling rivalry now than it was for the 25 consecutive years or so that NAVY beat them.
That’s just cause dub T couldn’t swim the other 21 years
Seems like mid major teams gonna have some great time