After 12 consecutive years of dominating the Men’s Swimming and Diving Southeastern Conference Championships, the Florida Gators were not prepared to handle the Longhorns’ entrance into the conference in 2024.
The Longhorns are headed to Knoxville, Tennessee, from Feb. 16-21 for the 2026 SEC Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships.
After breaking the Gators’ 12-year winning streak at last year’s SEC Championships and this year’s undefeated season, the Longhorns are predicted to defend their 2025 SEC title, according to Swim Swam News, and return to Austin with another championship in hand.
This year’s race for second place is anticipated to be between Florida and Georgia. The Bulldogs are set to jump from their fourth-place finish at last year’s championships with the help of Luca Urlando, who broke the 200 fly American and NCAA records in November, and Ruard van Renenm, who holds the second fastest 100-meter backstroke in the SEC.
For Florida, freshman Ahmed Jaouadi dominates the 1000-meter and 1650-meter freestyle and is ranked second behind Texas standout Rex Maurer in the 500-meter free. Additionally, seniors Eric Brown and Gio Linscheer are both ranked in the SEC’s top 10 for the 1650-meter freestyle.
Three top-eight finishes in the 1650 would give the Gators an extra boost towards outscoring the Bulldogs as the SEC runner-up. If Georgia succeeds, it would be Florida’s first time outside a top-two finish in the SEC Championship since 2001.
The reigning NCAA and SEC champions, Texas’ strength this year is highlighted in the different breaststroke races. Junior Nate Germonprez started to train for the breaststroke at Texas last year under Head Coach Bob Bowman and has since been the only SEC swimmer to break 50 seconds in the 100 breast this season.
Germonperez swam a personal best 49.71 in November at the Texas Invitational.
Along with Germonprez, junior Will Modglin, freshman Campbell McKean and junior Will Scholtz, all achieved times under 51 seconds in the 100-meter breast this season.
With the Gators controlling the long-distance events, the Longhorns dominating their breaststroke and IM performance, and the Bulldogs having standout exhibitions in backstroke, the 50-meter freestyle is this year’s most unpredictable event.
Josh Liendo and Gui Caribe represented Florida and Tennessee as last year’s second and third place finishers for the 50-meter freestyle and are likely to finish within milliseconds of each other. Tied for the third spot in the SEC are LSU’s Jere Hribar and Missouri’s Luke Nebrich.
All four swimmers are separated by just .35 seconds this year, making the race for first place of the 50-meter freestyle much more exhilarating.
The SEC Championships will run from Feb. 16 to 21, with the first final kicking off at 4:25 p.m. CT and the rest at 4:30 p.m. each evening.
