MINNEAPOLIS – Josh Liendo is looking forward to another first this week.

The 20-year-old from Markham, Ont., will be looking to cap a successful freshman year at Florida when he makes his 2023 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships debut.

Liendo is a Top 3 seed in three events at the championships, which will be held Wednesday through Saturday at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center in Minneapolis. It’s been an impressive transition so far for Swimming Canada’s Male Swimmer of the Year, who claimed bronze in the 100-metre freestyle and 100-m butterfly at last year’s world championships, and gold in the 100 fly at Commonwealth Games.

“It’s like a different sport,” Liendo says of his first year swimming short-course yards at the American university level. “It’s way more detail-oriented than long course. Mentally you have to be focused on a lot more things in yards, whether it’s your turn, underwaters. You have to be more precise when it comes to yards swimming.”

Liendo is ranked second in the 50-yard freestyle with a blistering seed time of 18.35, behind only Tennessee sophomore Jordan Crooks of Cayman Islands (17.93), the world short-course metres champion.

In the 100 butterfly Liendo sits third (44.11) behind Egyptian Olympian Youssef Ramadan of Virginia Tech (43.93) and Crooks (44.04). He also enters third in the 100 free (41.22) behind Cal junior Bjorn Seelinger of Sweden (40.90) and Crooks (41.17).

Liendo and Crooks went head-to-head at the recent SEC championships, with Liendo winning the 100 butterfly, and taking second in the 50 and 100 free.

“It’s only my second meet in yards where I’ve been tapered. I’m just looking to take what I learned from SECs. Obviously it’s some good competition,” Liendo said. “The guys I’m racing, you have world championships and Olympic medallist. I’m getting a lot of racing in and I’ve just been trying to get better with each race and learn.”

Liendo was also part of Florida’s SEC champion 200 free and 400 medley relays and second-place 200 medley. He expects to reprise his role on the relays in Minneapolis.

“It was crazy. The stands were full, it was loud, like nothing I’d experienced before at a meet. I was doing a bunch of relays and got so hyped during those relays,” he said.

Further down the 100 free psych sheets, Ramadan ranks fourth (41.33), then just behind him is Canadian Ruslan Gaziev at 41.38, his winning time at the recent Big Ten Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships.

The Ohio State junior from Etobicoke Swim Club also sits ninth in the 200 free (1:31.94) and is seeded 18^th in the 50 free (19.09).

At the Big Tens, Gaziev anchored the Buckeyes to the win in the 200 medley relay and was part of a third-place finish in the 800 free relay the same night. Later in the meet he helped OSU to a second-place finish in the 200 free relay. In addition to his 100 free win he finished second in the 200 free and third in the 50 free.

Meanwhile, Liendo’s fellow Florida freshman Eric Brown of Montreal’s Pointe-Claire Swim Club is set to compete in the 1,650 freestyle (12^th, 14:44.06), 500 free (14^th, 4:12.95) and 400 individual medley (34^th, 3:44.11).