Swimming

2022 Champion Andrei Minakov Misses 100 Butterfly Final at 2024 NCAA Championships

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By Sean Griffin on SwimSwam

2024 MEN’S NCAA SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The third heats session of the 2024 Men’s NCAA Championship meet is in the books, and the 2022 NCAA Champion in the 100 butterfly did not advance in the top 16.

That swimmer is Stanford Cardinal Andrei Minakov, a junior who is the fourth fastest performer in 100-yard butterfly history. He earned the status of the fourth fastest man ever at the 2022 NCAA Championships, where he hit the wall in 43.71. Last year, Minakov placed 4th in 44.27 after posting a morning effort of 44.17 to advance in 3rd.

All-Time Top Performers, Men’s 100-Yard Butterfly:

  1. Caeleb Dressel, Florida — 42.80 (2018)
  2. Youssef Ramadan, Virginia Tech — 43.15 (2023)
  3. Josh Liendo, Florida — 43.30 (2024)
  4. Andrei Minakov, Stanford — 43.71 (2022)
  5. Joseph Schooling, Texas — 43.75 (2017)

This morning, Minakov punched a time of 45.11 to place 6th in heat four, which earned him 20th overall. He opened his race strongly, turning through the 50 in 20.64 before closing in 24.47.

Earlier this week, Minakov featured on three Cardinal relays: the 200 medley relay (day 1), 800 freestyle relay (day 1), and 200 freestyle relay (day 2). Stanford dropped from their entry time in each of those relays, with Minakov posting the following splits:

  • 200 Medley Relay: 19.57 on the butterfly leg
  • 800 Freestyle Relay: 1:32.14 on the second leg
  • 200 Freestyle Relay: 19.15 on the lead-off leg

His split on the 800 free relay was 1.74 seconds faster than he was at last month’s Pac-12 Championships, while his 50 free lead-off was 0.23 faster. His split on the butterfly leg (19.57) from Wednesday’s 200 medley relay represents his 3rd fastest split ever.

At the Pac-12 Championships last month, he only competed for half of the competition, before ultimately pulling out after the 100 butterfly prelims. There in Federal Way, he qualified 4th in the heats of the 100 fly (45.31), while also adding a 10th place showing in the 50 free (19.37) and splitting 1:33.88 on Stanford’s silver medal-winning relay.

Minakov is slated to swim in Saturday’s 200 butterfly, where he is ranked 2nd overall (1:38.61) on the psych sheets. ASU freshman Ilya Kharun is the fastest entry, as he clocked 1:37.93 in a dual meet versus Stanford on January 19th. The 200 fly is a brand new event for Minakov this season, and it’s turned out to be one of his best. He swam it for the first time this year against Kharun in the previously mentioned race, where he notched a time of 1:38.63. He lowered his time by 0.02 at a dual meet with Cal in late February.

SwimSwam: 2022 Champion Andrei Minakov Misses 100 Butterfly Final at 2024 NCAA Championships

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