Jordan Crooks Becomes First Man to Split 39 Seconds on a Relay Split
Today at 09:04 PM
By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
2024 Tennessee Invite
- November 19-22, 2024
- Where: Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center — Knoxville, Tennessee
- Start Times: 10 am ET prelims/5 pm ET finals
- Psych Sheets
- Results on Meet Mobile: "2024 Tennessee Invitational"
- Live Stream
- Day 1 Finals Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Recap | Day 2 Finals Recap
- Day 3 Prelims Recap | Day 3 Finals Recap
- Day 4 Prelims Recap | Day 4 Finals Recap
Tennessee senior Jordan Crooks swam the fastest 100 yard freestyle split on a flying start in history on Friday at the 2024 Tennessee Invitational. He anchored the winning Tennessee relay in 39.89 as the Volunteers broke the Meet Record with a 2:44.13 and missed the NCAA Record by less than a second.
While Crooks is not the first swimmer to go under 40 seconds in the 100 yard free, he is the first person to do it on a relay exchange. Former Florida Gator Caeleb Dressel swam 39.90 in the 100 free on a flat-start. While Dressel usually led off free relays because his flat-start was so good, at that year’s NCAA Championships he did anchor the 400 free relay on the same day as his 39.90.
In prelims of the 400 free relay toward the end of a long meet, he split 40.15, which until Friday was the fastest 400 free relay split in history. He split 40.25 in finals.
Earlier in the night, Crooks swam the 4th-best performance and became the 3rd-best performer, flat-start, in the history of the 100 free, swimming 40.26 and beating his Volunteer teammate Gui Caribe by .59 seconds to win the super-final.
That is Crooks’ best time by .13 seconds, it doesn’t actually change his ranking. That moves him up in both rankings: he previously was the #4 performer in history and had the #6 performance.
Top 5 Performers All-Time, Men’s 100 Yard Free
- Caeleb Dressel, Florida – 39.90 (2018 NCAA Championships)
- Josh Liendo, Florida – 40.20 (2024 NCAA Championships)
- Jordan Crooks, Tennessee – 40.26 (2024 Tennessee Invite)
- Leon Marchand, Arizona State – 40.28 (2024 NCAA Championships)
- Gui Caribe, Tennessee – 40.55 (2024 NCAA Championships)
In Caribe and Crooks, Tennessee has arguably the fastest 1-2 punch of 100 freestylers in NCAA history. The current Cal men with Jack Alexy (40.59) and Bjorn Seeliger (40.75) are the only other instance of two college teammates having sub-41 splits.
The Tennessee men finished 5th in this relay at last year’s NCAA Championship meet which was at the time a school record of 2:45.38. Their 2:44.13 broke that record by over a second.
In addition to Caribe and Crooks, 5th year Micah Chambers is a big part of the difference: he split 42.21 at NCAAs and was 41.70 on Friday night.
Relay Splits Comparison:
| NCAA Record | Tennessee on Friday | Tennessee at NCAAs | |
| 1st | Marchand – 40.28 | Caribe – 41.17 | Crooks – 40.39 |
| 2nd | Dolan – 41.28 | Chambers – 41.70 | Chambers – 42.21 |
| 3rd | Sammons – 41.02 | Blackman – 41.37 | Santos – 40.96 |
| 4th | Kulow – 40.82 | Crooks – 39.89 | Kammann – 41.82 |
| Total Time | 2:34.40 | 2:44.13 | 2:45.38 |
With that swim, Tennessee becomes at least co-favorites for the NCAA Championships in this race. While Arizona State lost the front-half of their relay to pro swimming (Marchand) and graduation (Dolan), the Sun Devils are having a big year in sprinting and Ilya Kharun’s speed is really coming around.
Arizona State will swim their midseason 400 free relay on Saturday night in Raleigh.
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