USA Swimming Pro Swim Series Austin, Day 1 Finals: Bobby Finke Tops Daniel Wiffen in 1500 Free; Regan Smith, Anna Elendt Score Dominant Wins
Five world-record holders were in action in their respective events Wednesday evening at the USA Swimming Pro Swim Series in Austin, Texas. First up came Katie Ledecky, who swam the second-fastest time ever in the women’s 1500 freestyle, and then Bobby Finke followed with a race against against 800-meter Olympic champion Daniel Wiffen in the men’s event.
Later, Regan Smith swam the 100 backstroke while Summer McIntosh and Leon Marchand competed in the 200 IM semifinals, with the middle round contested at a Pro Series meet for the first time. Additionally, a strong field assembled for the men’s 50 free semis, with Jack Alexy, Maxime Grousset and Caeleb Dressel in adjacent lanes, and world champion Anna Elendt raced in the women’s 100 breaststroke.
Men’s 1500 Freestyle
The two men who won Olympic gold medals in distance freestyle in Paris faced off for the first time since Daniel Wiffen made the move to the United States to train at Cal-Berkeley. Wiffen, the Irish winner of the 800 free in Paris, was up against two-time 1500 free gold medalist Bobby Finke. The two swam around the same pace in the early portion of the race, with Wiffen leading through 200 meters before Finke tied it after five lengths and then pulled ahead. The margin would eventually expand to 3.28 seconds.
Finke swam a time of 15:01.70, more than 31 seconds behind his world record of 14:30.67. Wiffen was second in 15:04.98 while Ryan Erisman, a freshman with the Golden Bears, swam a best time by more than 13 seconds to place third (15:06.94).
Women’s 50 Freestyle Semifinals
Simone Manuel will turn 30 this year, but she remains firmly among the best sprinters in the United States. In the first semifinal ever contested at a Pro Series, Manuel led the way with a time of 24.77 in the first heat. French swimmers Beryl Gastadello and Marie Wattel followed that up with sub-25 efforts in the second heat, Gastadello going 24.86 and Wattel 24.93. Well back in fourth was Anna Peplowski in 25.41 while the last spot in the heat went to Claire Weinstein (25.87).
Men’s 50 Freestyle Semifinals
A strong field of sprinters will race in the men’s 50 free final Thursday evening. Three of them went under 22 in the semifinal round, with Maxime Grousset leading the way by a quarter-second in 21.62. Grousset has previously won a World Championships medal in the 50 free (bronze in 2022), but he has focused more on butterfly in recent years. Grousset was the world champion in the 50 and 100 fly in 2025.
Serbia’s Andrej Barna came in behind Grousset at 21.87 while Jack Alexy, the Worlds bronze medalist in the event last year, took third in 21.96. The field will also include the likes of Brooks Curry (22.16) and Chris Guiliano (22.18) while Tokyo Olympic champion and American-record holder Caeleb Dressel did not advance. He clocked 22.38 for 11th place, a bit slower than the 22.33 he swam in prelims.
Women’s 100 Breaststroke
Last year’s surprise world champion in the 100 breaststroke dominated a relatively weak field assembled in Austin. Anna Elendt, the German who has long been based at the University of Texas, put up a time of 1:06.91 to take the win by almost a second. In her upset win in Singapore, Elendt swam a national record of 1:05.19 to hold off American Kate Douglass by eight hundredths.
Skyler Smith, who qualified for the U.S. team bound for the Pan Pacific Championships in the 50 breast, placed second in 1:07.87 while Kate Canales was well back in third (1:10.13).
Men’s 100 Breaststroke
For the first time all night, the race for the win came down to the wire in the men’s 100 breast. Indiana’s Van Mathias, a surprise qualifier for Pan Pacs in the 50 breast, went out in 27.32 and held off Denis Petrashov down the stretch. Mathias clocked 59.45, surpassing his previous best time of 59.74, while Petrashov, a native of Kyrgyzstan who trains at Louisville, was a tenth back in 59.55. Mitch Mason finished third in 1:00.50.
Women’s 200 IM Semifinals
Canadian star Summer McIntosh is competing in her new home pool this week in Austin, and she is by far the class of a 200 IM field missing most of the top U.S. swimmers in the event. McIntosh showed some speed in the early going, swimming within two hundredths of world-record pace after the butterfly leg, but she quickly backed off. Still, McIntosh had the fastest split on each stroke, and she ended up recording a time of 2:09.27. She set the world record last year at 2:05.70.
Teagan O’Dell, the national-high-school-record holder in the 200-yard IM who is now a freshman at Cal, swam the second-quickest time at 2:13.15 while Emma Weyant, a two-time Olympic medalist in the 400 IM, took third in 2:14.74. A time of 2:19.00 was required to advance to the final, with Rowyn Wilber in eighth.
Men’s 200 IM Semifinals
Three world-class performers raced in the second semifinal heat, going stroke-for-stroke down the stretch before touching within 0.14 of each other. Leon Marchand, who annihilated the world record in the event with a time of 1:52.69 last summer, had the lead for most of the race before laying off down the stretch. Marchand touched in 2:00.10, just ahead of Kieran Smith (2:00.19) and Carson Foster (2:00.24). Expect those three to pick up the pace in Thursday’s final.
Cal’s Humberto Najera qualified fourth (2:02.77), and the last spot went to Cullen Kahl in 2:06.63.
Women’s 100 Backstroke
No one has beaten Regan Smith in the 100 back domestic competition in more than seven years, and she crushed the Austin field that lacked many of her top domestic rivals in the event. Smith was the first woman ever under 58 when she clocked 57.57 in 2019, and she set the world record at 57.13 at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials. Fueled by a sizzling 29.77 closing split, Smith dipped under 58 again Wednesday with a time of 57.98.
Rylee Erisman, the teenager who blasted her way onto the Pan Pacs team with sizzling sprint freestyle times at the World Junior Championships, came in second at 59.25. That surpassed her previous lifetime best of 59.39. Anna Peplowski came in third in 1:00.18, with Charlotte Crush fourth (1:00.53).
Men’s 100 Backstroke
French swimmers claimed the top-two spots in the men’s 100 back, with Yohann Ndoye-Brouard leading the way. Ndoye-Brouard captured bronze medals in both the 100 and 200 back at last year’s World Championships with massive best times. In Austin, Ndoye-Brouard pulled away from countryman Mewen Tomac to take first in 53.67. He swam as fast as 51.92 in the Worlds final. Tomac took second in 54.34, with Grant Bochenski third (55.24).
