Jordan Crooks Opens Tennessee Invitational with 1:30.00 200 Free
Tennessee’s Jordan Crooks got his home invitational off to a flying start Tuesday night with a time of 1:30.00 off the front of the 800 free relay.
The Tennessee Invitational began Tuesday with just 800 free relays for the early arrivers, the Volunteers and the University of Kentucky. Both meet records fell in the process at the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center.
The Volunteer women won in 6:56.95, an NCAA A cut and the fifth-fastest time in program history. Camille Spink, Ella Jansen, Julia Mrozinski and Brooklyn Douthwright comprised that squad. Spink led off in 1:43.46, only slightly faster than the 1:43.92 of B relay lead-off Josephine Fuller, a best time for her.
Crooks got the Volunteers off to a flier in 1:30.00, a program record that trounces the previous mark of 1:32.35 set in 2019 by Joey Reilman. The team of Gui Caribe, Joaquin Vargas and Bjorn Kammann finished it up in 6:12.33, a meet record and NCAA A cut. Caribe, the Brazilian Olympian, was the second quickest split in 1:33.81, and Nikoli Blackman led off the B relay in 1:33.68. That’s the fifth-fastest time in program history.
The time takes nearly five seconds off the Volunteers’ program record, set in 2018.
This was the one relay that Tennessee didn’t compete in at NCAAs last year, finishing fifth in the 200 medley, fifth in the 200 free, fifth in the 400 free and tied for fifth in the 400 medley. Crooks’ speed in the 200 free could provide a sprinting wrinkle to break through that ceiling.
Prelims on the second day of the four-day meet resume Wednesday with, among other events, the 200 freestyle.