U.S. Open, Day 1: Ilia Sibirtsev Tops Bobby Finke in 1500 Freestyle to Open Meet
The last major long course competition of 2025 began Wednesday evening in Austin, Texas, with numerous top American competitors in town for the U.S. Open. A full slate of preliminaries and finals will begin Thursday after heats of the 1500 freestyle started things off. Two-time Olympic champion and world-record holder Bobby Finke raced in the men’s event, but he was unable to keep pace down the stretch thanks to the efforts of Ilia Sibirtsev.
In the first of two men’s heats, Finke held the lead for the first half of the race, narrowly holding Sibirtsev, Ivan Puskovitch and Luke Whitlock at bay, but Sibirtsev took over for good at the 950-meter mark and gradually extended his lead to 3.70 seconds by the finish. Sibirtsev, a former Louisville Cardinal who competed for Uzbekistan at the Paris Olympics, recorded a time of 15:05.51 in his victorious effort.
Finke came in second in 15:09.21. That was more than 38 seconds behind his own world record, but that’s hardly an unusual occurrence for Finke, who is known for saving his best races for major competitions. Puskovitch, the U.S. representative in the men’s 10k open water swim in Paris, was third in 15:10.91 while Whitlock, an American Olympian alongside Finke in the 800 free last year, ended up fourth (15:18.45).
In the women’s event, the win went to Ohio State’s Mila Nikanorov, an Ohio State sophomore who was the gold medalist in the 800 free at the World University Games this year. Nikanarov produced a time of 16:19.80 to win by six seconds over Louisville’s Leticia Fassina Romao, who touched in 16:25.92. Third went to Ohio State’s Emma Finlin (16:37.59).
The meet continues Thursday with the 50 backstroke, 400 free, 200 IM, 50 breaststroke and 50 free on the schedule.
