NCAA Report in 100 Breast Solidifies Distinctive Julian Smith in Choose Membership
The primary man to interrupt 50 seconds for 100 yards of breaststroke by no means represented the USA as a senior worldwide, by no means made the ultimate of an occasion at Olympic Trials.
The second swam on the College of Minnesota, removed from the mainstream of NCAA hotbeds.
The third gained the C remaining at SEC Championships in his true sophomore yr of school.
And the fourth graduated highschool tied for the Forty fourth-fastest time within the nation his senior season.
The sub-50 membership in males’s breaststroke is an uncommon fraternity. It consists of nobody who has (but) swum at an Olympics or a World Championships within the long-course realm. As an alternative, it options 4 swimmers whose journeys have been amazingly numerous.
Julian Smith renewed his membership in that contingent Friday night time on the SEC Championships, clocking in at 49.51 seconds to re-set the NCAA and American information in his second profession sub-50 swim. He took the report from Liam Bell, the Cal swimmer who set it at NCAAs in 2024. Bell had moved Ian Finnerty off his perch, the Indiana swimmer holding the report since 2018 at 49.69 and including a second sub-50 swim the following yr. Behind them got here the assault of Max McHugh, whose 49.90 introduced one in every of his three NCAA titles within the occasion.
It’s an incredible – and amazingly uncommon – group that Smith belongs to. Briefly:
– Finnerty got here out of Indiana’s breaststroke powerhouse that included 2024 Olympian Josh Matheny plus many standouts on the ladies’s aspect. He was the primary man to interrupt 50 twice, with a 49.85 in repeating as champion in 2019. However Finnerty by no means translated it into long-course success: He didn’t swim at Olympic Trials delayed a yr to 2021 after ending eleventh within the 100, his solely occasion, in 2016.
– McHugh was ticketed for achievement in highschool, the Sturgeon Bay, Wisc., native having gone 51.62 in highschool, a nationwide public faculty report. He delivered on that promise in 5 years with Minnesota, amassing 4 NCAA titles.
– Bell, a Georgia native, was the youngest male to qualify for Olympic Trials in 2016. His winding profession helped him publish the sixth-fastest time within the NCAA in 2019-20, earlier than the nationwide championships had been cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. He struggled as a sophomore with the Crimson Tide, skipping NCAAs (through which he was seeded twenty fourth within the 100 breast) and Olympic Trials earlier than a rebirth in Berkeley. He went 50.50 to set this system mark in 2022, ending third at NCAAs, then sixth in 2023 at 50.76. Even with that pedigree, the drop from 50.89 on the Pac-12 Championships in 2024 to 49.53 at NCAAs astounded. (His fourth place at Olympic Trials in June, .24 off the second Olympic spot, can also be the closest brush to worldwide long-course illustration of the U.S.)
And now, Smith. His time of 49.98 on the Georgia Fall Invitational served discover. His construct in Gainesville has been regular and inexorable, even when it might need appeared unlikely on the outset to culminate with SEC Male Swimmer of the Meet honors.
SEC Swimmer of the Meet 🐊 #GoGators pic.twitter.com/6TrM4VXyUu
— Gators Swimming & Diving (@GatorsSwimDv) February 23, 2025
Smith graduated from highschool – on the formidable program that’s Episcopal Faculty of Jacksonville, beneath Olympic gold medalist Martin Lopez-Zubero – with a 100 breast greatest time of 55.57. He lowered that to 52.73 as a freshman at SECs in 2022, then 51.45 for 14th at NCAAs in 2023 and 50.94 at NCAAs in 2024 to put seventh.
However nonetheless, the leap from an excellent breaststroker and invaluable dash relay cog to the most effective short-course breaststroker ever is huge. But Smith has completed it. His occasion development within the 100 breast must be framed and supplied to coaches as a wall-hanger.
Inseparable from his rise is his versatility: The place Finnerty, McHugh and Bell had been dash breaststrokers who made cameos within the 200, Smith has all-purpose pace over a number of strokes and distances. His efficiency at SECs included a 1:29.67 cut up on Florida’s 800 free relay that got here up simply .24 off the quickest time ever and a 200 IM win in 1:39.38, an enchancment of greater than a second and a half to tie for No. 11 all-time within the occasion. He opted out of the 200 breast Saturday to focus on the 100 free, ending sixth in 41.34.
Furthermore, he backed his record-breaking breaststroke Friday night time with a relay cut up of 48.95, developing simply wanting the highest cut up all-time belonging to Leon Marchand. Together with Josh Liendo, Smith was a main drive behind the Gators annihilating the NCAA report within the 400 medley relay by 1.6 seconds. His bounce from cog to star appears consultant of the profession he’s had in Gainesville.
And the bizarre nature of his skillset appears to suit completely with the unorthodox group he has joined.
