VT Freshman Youssef Ramadan Swims 44.3 in 100 Fly; Tied as 5th-Best Ever

2021 ACC MEN’S SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• When: Wednesday, February 24th to Saturday, February 27th Prelims 10:00 am | Finals 6:00 pm (1650 prelims Saturday at 4:00 pm)
• Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, North Carolina (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: North Carolina State University (NC State) (29x, 6th-straight) (results)
• Streaming: ACC Network
  • Wednesday
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• Championship Central: Here
• Detailed Timeline: Here
• Psych Sheets: Here
• Live Results

Virginia Tech freshman Youssef Ramadan is now the fastest freshman in NCAA history in the 100 yard fly after blasting a new ACC Record of 44.32 to open finals on Friday at the ACC Championships.

The 18-year old Egyptian swam a 44.53 in prelims, which was previously the 2nd-fastest swim in NCAA history by a freshman. He’s now jumped Joseph Schooling’s 44.51 from the 2015 NCAA Championship meet as the fastest in history.

Schooling was coached in high school by Virginia Tech head coach Sergio Lopez, who now coaches Ramadan.

What’s more, Ramadan is now tied as the 5th-best performer at any age in history in the event.

Fastest 100 Yard Butterfliers in History:

1. Caeleb Dressel – 42.80
2. Joseph Schooling – 43.75
3. Tom Shields – 43.84
4. Austin Staab – 44.18
5. (TIE) Youssef Ramadan/Marius Kusch – 44.32
7. Jack Conger – 44.35
8. Vini Lanza – 44.37
9. Coleman Stewart – 44.46 (previous ACC Record)
10. Jan Switkowski – 44.49

Three of the four swimmers ahead of him all have Olympic gold medals, including Schooling, who is the defending Olympic champion in the 100 fly in long course.

Ramadan’s aggressiveness with the swim stood out most – he opened in 20.11. The only swim we could find that opened faster than that was the 19.99 opener that Caeleb Dressel used to break the U.S. Open Record by almost a second at the 2018 NCAA Championships.

His swim is also the fastest-ever swim by an 18 & Under swimmer, though he’s not eligible for American National Age Group Records as a non-U.S. citizen.

Virginia Tech is growing its butterfly reputation under  Lopez. On Friday, they were the only school to qualify multiple swimmers for the A final at the championships, earning 3 of the top 5 spots (Antani Ivanov 4th @ 45.51, Philip Manoff 5th @ 45.60). In finals, Ivanov finished 3rd (45.21) and Manoff finished 5th (45.50).

Manoff held the school record coming into the season at 45.60, with Ivanov 2nd in program history at 46.13. Now all three swimmers have been under that old school record.

Lopez is the coach who trained Singapore National Joseph Schooling to a National High School Record at Bolles in Jacksonville. Schooling was training under Eddie Reese at Texas when he won an Olympic gold medal in 2016, but is now back training with Lopez in Blacksburg.