Courtesy of Army West Point Communications

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. – Army West Point swimming & diving continued its historic run at the 2025 NCAA Championships on Friday. Freshman Johnny Crush earned Army's first First Team All-American honors since 1987 with an eighth-place finish in the 100 back A finals as Kohen Rankin picked up a top-30 finish in the 100 breast before the Black Knights claimed a top-20 finish in the 400 medley relay to close out day three of the meet.

Familiar names to those following Army swimming & diving this season, Kohen Rankin and Johnny Crush took on two individual event preliminaries to kick off the third day of action in Washington.

Army's 100 breast and 200 breast program record holder, Rankin stepped up first in the 100 breast for Army. The junior from Hull, Iowa clocked a 51.90 to finish eighth in his heat and 29^th overall in the event.

Crush then followed with his second individual event of the weekend as he took on the 100 back preliminaries. A familiar face in the top 100 back times in the Patriot League, the Louisville, Ky. native logged a 44.52 in the prelim to finish third in his heat and eighth overall in the event, earning a place in the evening's 100 back championship heat.

The Black Knights returned to the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Center ready for action on the third day of finals. Crush earned Army's first First Team All-American honors since 1987 and became Army's first 100 back All-American since Ben Ross in 1971 who clocked a 54.34 when he logged a 45.07 in the championships finals to finish eighth overall.

After a break for the 3-meter diving finals, the Black Knights hit the water for their second relay of the meet as  Johnny Crush, Kohen Rankin, Daniel Verdolaga, and Thomas Hadji took on the 400 medley relay after earning an NCAA A cut time of 3:04.51 at the ECAC Open Championships in early May.

Crush led off the second heat of the 400 medley relay for Army  with a 45.16 to touch the wall second, setting off Rankin for the breaststroke leg of the race which he completed in 51.08 to hold Army's spot at second in the heat.

Verdolaga then took to the water for the butterfly portion of the race during which he clocked a 46.14 as a surging field saw Southern California edge out in front of the Black Knights.

Hadji took to the competition pool for the first time of the weekend and put up a massive push for the Black Knights with a 42.35 in the freestyle leg of the race, fighting off strong surges from Alabama, Auburn, and Georgia Tech to claim third place in the heat with and 17^th overall with a combined 3:04.73.

UP NEXT
Army will conclude its 2024-25 season on day four of the 2025 NCAA Championships as Johnny Crush and Kohen Rankin take on the 100 free and 200 breast. Follow along on ESPN+ with the prelims set for 10:00a.m. PDT/1:00p.m. ET with the finals to follow at 6:00p.m./9:00p.m. PDT.