Texas’ Emma Sticklen and Georgia’s Luca Urlando Both Hit .01 Seconds from NCAA 200 Fly Records

By Braden Keith on SwimSwam

2025 SEC Championships

• Dates: Tuesday, February 18–Saturday, February 22
  • Prelims: 9:30 am EST/ Finals 5:30 pm EST (Tuesday-5:00 EST)
• Location: Gabrielsen Natatorium — Athens, GA
• Defending Champions: Florida women (2x); Florida men (12x)
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• Teams: Alabama, Arkansas (women), Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas*, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt (women)
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  • Prelims: Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5

In an almost hard-to-believe pattern, Texas 5th year Emma Sticklen and Georgia redshirt senior Luca Urlando came within .01 seconds of the women’s and men’s NCAA Records in the 200 fly, respectively, in back-to-back races on Friday.

Sticklen – SEC Record

First up was Sticklen, who swam 1:49.17 to break the SEC and University of Texas records in the event. The old SEC and University of Texas mark was her 1:49.54 from November, the old SEC Meet Record was her 1:50.01 from prelims. Prior to that, the SEC Championship record was a 1:51.45 set by Florida’s Bella Sims as a freshman at last year’s meet.

Splits Comparison:

Sticklen was out aggressively both in prelims and finals on Friday relative to prior swims by her, with the difference in the evening being the 29.36 on the last 50 (which was better than prelims by .74 seconds and better than the field by about half-a-second).

While 29.36 isn’t a great finish by these standards (she was 28.68 at last year’s NCAA Championship meet), and Sticklen was clearly running out of gas, an opening 100 yard split of 51.11 can make up for a lot of deficiencies in the back-half of this event.

Sticklen is the two-time defending NCAA Champion in this event, and it’s safe to assume that she will swim it again this year. The question mark is whether Walsh, the 2022 champion, will. Walsh set the NCAA Record at last year’s ACC Championships, but opted for an event shift at NCAAs. Swimming at ACCs about 34 minutes after Sticklen’s swim, Walsh posted a 1:50.43 to win the ACC title.

Sticklen is having the best meet of her career, splitting 21.07 on a 200 free relay (rolling start), winning the 200 IM by almost a second (1:52.42), leading the field with a 23.38 backstroke split on the 200 medley relay, and winning the 100 fly on Thursday with a best time of 49.40.

U.S. Olympian Regan Smith remains the U.S. Open Record holder in the 200 fly thanks to a 1:48.33 that she swam in the pro session of an Arizona State vs. NC State dual meet in October 2023.

Urlando – SEC Record

Luca Urlando (photo: Jack Spitser)

About 13 minutes after Sticklen broke her record, Urlando broke the men’s SEC Record in the 200 fly.

Urlando swam 1:37.18, leaving him just .01 seconds shy of his own NCAA Record done four weeks ago in a dual meet against Tennessee. There he swam 1:37.17 to set the SEC, NCAA, and U.S. Open Records in the event.

Prior to that swim, the fastest performance ever was Jack Conger‘s 2017 1:37.35, meaning that Urlando now has the two best performances in history.

Splits Comparison:

Urlando swam basically the same race here as he did in his January swim, though he was maybe a little more aggressive on the key third 50 as he tries to dial in his perfect pacing.

Urlando broke the SEC Championship Record in prelims with a 1:38.86.

This is a huge redemption arc for Urlando, showing off not only his quality but his durability. A promising junior, Urlando has dealt with shoulder issues throughout his college career, including a dislocation at a November 2022 World Cup stop in Indianapolis where he had to be helped out of the pool.

Following that injury, which required surgery, he was away from the Georgia varsity for about 18 months, training mostly with Bob Bowman at Arizona State.

Now, going the two fastest times about a month apart without any visible injury issues brings optimism about his future both in the NCAA and at the international level.

Nobody else in the NCAA has been within 1.6 seconds of Urlando’s second-best time this season. His biggest competitor is Arizona State’s Ilya Kharun, who will race at Big 12s next week, but with Kharun shifting his focus a bit toward the sprints this year, the race, for now, feels like Urlando’s to lose.

Urlando’s best time prior to the latest injury was 1:38.82.

Read the full story on SwimSwam: Texas’ Emma Sticklen and Georgia’s Luca Urlando Both Hit .01 Seconds from NCAA 200 Fly Records