Josh Liendo Anchors in 17.58 as Florida Men Swim Fastest 200 Medley Relay in History
As soon as the SEC Championships began, the University of Florida men were ready to fire off a massive performance in the 200 medley relay. The team of Jonny Marshall, Koen de Groot, Scotty Buff and Josh Liendo recorded the fastest time in history while narrowly missing out on becoming the first team to swim below 1:20.
Before making history, however, the Gators had to fight off the Texas Longhorns, who jumped out front with sizzling splits from Will Modglin and Nate Germonprez. Modglin, who swam the fastest 50 backstroke ever earlier this year at 20.00, led off in 20.17 here before Germonprez followed with a 22.49 breaststroke split. But the Gators did enough to stay close, with Marshall leading off in 20.52 and de Groot going 22.61 on breaststroke.
On the butterfly leg, Buff closed the gap on the Longhorns’ Hubert Kos, 19.32 to 19.67, and Liendo followed with a hammer on the anchor leg. He split 17.58, the first sub-18 performance of his life and the fifth-fastest 50 freestyle split ever. Only Caeleb Dressel, Jordan Crooks (twice) and Jonny Kulow have ever posted quicker times.
That added up to a time of 1:20.03, breaking the NCAA and U.S. Open records of 1:20.15 established by the Gators at the 2024 NCAA Championships. Only Liendo returns from that previous record-setting squad as he swam butterfly on that occasion alongside Adam Chaney, Julian Smith and Macguire McDuff.
At last year’s NCAA Championships, Florida touched first in the 200 medley relay in 1:20.05, seemingly breaking their own record, but the team was disqualified for a false start. Here, the Gators managed to go even faster despite the graduation of Smith, who split 22.14 on that team. With de Groot holding his own on the breaststroke leg, Florida also benefitted from switching Buff to butterfly and Liendo to freestyle this season.
Texas, with Garrett Gould joining Modglin, Germonprez and Kos, finished second in 1:20.85, while LSU’s team of Stepan Goncharov, Volodymyr Lisovets, Caleb Ellis and Jere Hribar third in 1:21.23. Hribar also recorded a scintillating anchor split as his 17.59 was the sixth-best in history. Kentucky, led off by Lysander Osman in 20.21, also got under 1:22 (1:21.80) for fourth place.
Event 5 Men 200 Yard Medley Relay
==================================================================================
NCAA: N 1:20.15 3/27/2024 Florida
A Chaney, J Smith, J Liendo, M McDuff
SEC: S 1:20.15 3/27/2024 , Florida
A. Chaney, J. Smith, J. LIendo, M. McDuff
Meet: M 1:20.22 2/18/2025 , Tennessee
L. Taylor, K. Housemom, G. Caribe, J. Crooks
Pool: P 1:20.56 11/23/2025Arizona State
A Chaney, A Dobrzanski, I Kharun, J Kulow
1:23.61 NCAA
1:23.85 PROV
School Seed Finals Points
==================================================================================
1 FLOR-FL 'A' 1:22.90 1:20.03NNCAA 64
1) Marshall, Jonny C JR 2) r:0.22 de Groot, Koen SR
3) r:0.11 Buff, Scotty JR 4) r:0.13 Liendo, Josh SR
r:+0.76 10.18 20.52 (20.52)
30.66 (10.14) 43.13 (22.61)
51.88 (8.75) 1:02.45 (19.32)
1:10.79 (8.34) 1:20.03 (17.58)
2 Texas 'A' 1:21.11 1:20.85 NCAA 56
1) Modglin, Will C JR 2) r:0.17 Germonprez, Nate JR
3) r:0.30 Kos, Hubert SR 4) r:0.26 Gould, Garrett SO
r:+0.60 9.79 20.17 (20.17)
30.16 (9.99) 42.66 (22.49)
51.50 (8.84) 1:02.33 (19.67)
1:11.06 (8.73) 1:20.85 (18.52)
3 LSU-LA 'A' 1:22.42 1:21.23 NCAA 54
1) Goncharov, Stepan SR 2) r:0.02 Lisovets, Volodymyr SO
3) r:0.11 Ellis, Caleb SO 4) r:0.14 Hribar, Jere JR
r:+0.63 10.14 20.79 (20.79)
30.67 (9.88) 43.44 (22.65)
52.44 (9.00) 1:03.64 (20.20)
1:11.72 (8.08) 1:21.23 (17.59)
4 UK 'A' 1:23.86 1:21.80 NCAA 52
1) Osman, Lysander FR 2) r:0.26 Gatulis, Adomas SO
3) r:0.15 Lopez-Guillen, vier SO 4) r:0.02 Tuufui, Falemana FR
r:+0.61 10.03 20.21 (20.21)
30.53 (10.32) 43.33 (23.12)
52.38 (9.05) 1:03.64 (20.31)
1:12.07 (8.43) 1:21.80 (18.16)
5 Auburn-SE 'A' 1:22.72 1:22.41 NCAA 50
1) Tarasov, Ivan FR 2) r:0.19 Zivanovic, Uros SO
3) r:0.00 Khaled, Sohib SR 4) r:0.06 Makinen, Kalle SR
r:+0.72 10.69 21.20 (21.20)
31.36 (10.16) 44.06 (22.86)
52.83 (8.77) 1:03.88 (19.82)
1:12.60 (8.72) 1:22.41 (18.53)
6 Tennessee-SE 'A' 1:23.77 1:22.48 NCAA 48
1) Saravia, Ulises 2) r:0.23 Nunziata, Gabe
3) r:0.23 Caribe, Gui 4) r:0.32 Blackman, Nikoli
r:+0.66 10.46 21.08 (21.08)
31.30 (10.22) 44.31 (23.23)
52.98 (8.67) 1:03.90 (19.59)
1:12.78 (8.88) 1:22.48 (18.58)
7 UGA-GA 'A' 1:22.18 1:22.61 NCAA 46
1) Van Renen, Ruard SR 2) r:0.17 Woodburn, Elliot SO
3) r:0.33 Urlando, Luca SR 4) r:0.14 Bidois, Tane SO
r:+0.57 10.20 20.41 (20.41)
30.71 (10.30) 43.77 (23.36)
52.98 (9.21) 1:03.63 (19.86)
1:12.57 (8.94) 1:22.61 (18.98)
