Rex Maurer Leading Veteran 500 Freestyle Field Toward NCAA Championships Showdown
Last March, Leon Marchand made an unexpected appearance in the 500 freestyle at the NCAA Championships, opting for that event instead of the 200 IM because of Arizona State’s belief that he could win the race while clearing a path for then-teammates Hubert Kos and Owen McDonald to excel in the shorter medley. The result was Marchand deploying his underwater kickouts off every wall like no mid-distance freestyle specialist ever had, becoming the fastest swimmer ever by four seconds at 4:02.31.
Now, Marchand has departed college swimming, leaving the possibility of another record-shattering swim much more remote for this year. However, an intriguing national field is coalescing around some consistent veterans in their final year of eligibility, Olympians returning to the NCAA field after a year away and a University of Texas sophomore whose stunning fall performance made him the second-fastest man in history.
The latter swimmer is Rex Maurer, who was 31st in the 500 free during his freshman year at Stanford after swimming as quick as 4:11.88 during the season. After moving on to the Longhorns, Maurer holds the American record, having blasted a time of 4:04.45 at the Texas Invitational in November. That broke a mark set earlier that evening by training partner Carson Foster, which in turn broke Kieran Smith’s record of 4:06.32 which was the all-time best before Marchand came around.
That performance established Maurer as a budding star, and as the calendar flipped to 2025, he held the country’s top times in the 500 free plus the 400 IM and 1650 free. In the 20-lap event, he will try to improve his time at the national meet in Federal Way, Wash., and perhaps make inroads on Marchand’s NCAA and U.S. Open records.
Luke Hobson — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
As for potential challengers, two will be familiar Texas foes: Luke Hobson and David Johnston. Hobson is the fastest swimmer ever in the 200-yard free and world-record holder in the short course meters version of that race, and he has a history of success in the 500 as well: he was the NCAA champion in the event in 2023 and the runnerup to Marchand last year at 4:06.93, a time that ranks him No. 7 all-time in the event. Hobson did not swim fast at midseason, but it soon became clear he was busy preparing for the Short Course World Championships, where he broke the aforementioned 200 free world record.
Johnston, meanwhile, took the 2023-24 season away from college swimming to gear up for the U.S. Olympic Trials, where he broke through onto an Olympic team for the first time with a runnerup finish in the 1500-meter free. The top NCAA finish of his career is a second-place result in the 500 free in 2023 (behind Hobson), and he is the only swimmer besides Maurer to crack 4:10 this season, topping out at 4:09.41.
A recent entrant into contention is Cal’s Lucas Henveaux, who was ninth in the event in his only previous college season two years ago. Since then, Henveaux has become a consistent international finalist for Belgium, and he won his first global medal with a 200 free silver at December’s Short Course Worlds. Last Friday, Henveaux surpassed Maurer as the top 1650 freestyler in the country this season, and he returned shortly thereafter to swim a mark of 4:10.82 in the 500, good for third in the national rankings.
That leaves a man who has finished first, second, third and third in the 500 free at the NCAA Championships during his undergraduate years, Georgia’s Jake Magahey. He has never recaptured the form of his freshman season, when he upset Smith for the title, but he has never fallen far behind. History’s No. 6 all-time performer at 4:06.71, Magahey sits fourth nationally so far this season at 4:10.93.
Right now, it would be a tough ask for Hobson, Johnston, Henveaux, Magahey or anyone else to overtake Maurer in the event, but that foursome enters with the experience of racing and excelling in a high-stakes final while this will be the first moment of Maurer’s career in such a moment, and he will bring in the status as favorite. We will have a better gauge on the field following the conference championship meets this month. However, if he meets the moment, it will set up Maurer not only for a huge NCAA Championships but possibly a breakout summer in which he could qualify for his first U.S. international team.
We should not discount the possibility of others breaking into this lead group, including Cal’s Gabriel Jett, Florida’s Jake Mitchell, Alabama’s Charlie Hawke or Texas’ Coby Carrozza. Yes, a fourth Texas swimmer could qualify for the A-final in this event, which will be the first individual final of the meet, and such a performance would give Texas a huge swing in the team battle as the Longhorns aim to return to the national pinnacle.
