World Cup Westmont — Day One Finals: Australia Picks Up Three Victories to Begin Meet
Swimmers from Down Under put up big performances to open the middle stop of the World Cup circuit in Westmont, Ill., with Lani Pallister and Sam Short opening the session with wins in their respective 400 freestyle finals before Kaylee McKeown came through for her second consecutive victory in the 50 backstroke. Pallister opened the session in sensational form as she lowered her own Australian and World Cup records in the 400 free.
Later in the session, Hubert Kos would continue his dominance of the men’s 200 backstroke while Regan Smith clipped her own American and World Cup records in the women’s 200 butterfly. Further winners in the session included Noè Ponti, Kate Douglass, Ilya Shymanovich, Kasia Wasick and Ilya Kharun before Americans Gretchen Walsh and Shaine Casas blasted sizzling performances in the 100 IM to wrap up the session.
Women’s 400 Freestyle
Two weeks, two dominant wins for Lani Pallister in the women’s 400 free. One week after she pulled away to win by four seconds at the Carmel stop, Pallister jumped on the pace even earlier against a similar field in Westmont and emerged with a record-setting swim. Pallister arrived for this year’s American swing of World Cup meets already the third-fastest performer in history, having gone 3:53.73 for Short Course Worlds silver last year, but Pallister now sits at No. 2.
The 23-year-old Australian motored to a time of 3:52.42, a whopping 1.31 seconds quicker than her previous best time from last December’s global meet. Only Summer McIntosh has ever been faster with the time of 3:50.25 she swam last December. Pallister was two seconds away from that but still under the World Cup record of 3:52.80 that McIntosh swam in Toronto in 2022, and she jumped ahead of Katie Ledecky (3:52.88) in the all-time rankings.
Placing second here was New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather, who pulled into second place with a time of 3:57.99. Fairweather was almost a second quicker than she swam last week in Carmel. Bella Sims was the top American and the final swimmer under 4:00 as she came in at 3:58.29 for third.
Men’s 400 Freestyle
Australia’s Sam Short returned to the apex of the world rankings in mid-distance freestyle this year as he grabbed silver in the 400 free at the World Championships, missing out on gold by just two hundredths. Short also dealt with a tough loss in the event last week, albeit in less consequential circumstances, as he fell to second place in the event at the opening stop of the World Cup. At that competition, American Carson Foster had too much closing speed for Short to handle in a race where the top-four swimmers were separated by less than a second.
Different story in Westmont as Short blasted ahead of the field and did not let Foster close the gap down the stretch. Short clocked 3:36.27, more than one-and-a-half seconds clear of the field. Foster placed second in 3:37.93, just a tick behind his Carmel time, while American Kieran Smith placed third in 3:38.79. Luke Hobson, the short course world-record holder in the 200 free, put up a time of 3:38.90 in the early heats that ranked fourth overall.
Women’s 50 Backstroke
The Australian visitors started off the session three-for-three with victories as Kaylee McKeown won the 50 back for the second consecutive meet, overcoming an exceptionally tight field where only 0.13 separated the top-four finishers. The gap at the top was even tighter as McKeown overcame a challenge from Gretchen Walsh. The star sprinter rarely competes in backstroke, at least in long course, but her incredible underwater dolphin kickouts made Walsh the fastest swimmer ever in the 100-yard back, and she once held the American record in the short course 50-meter race.
Australian swimmers flipped 1-2 at the halfway point in this final, with Mollie O’Callaghan under world-record pace and McKeown in second, but Walsh blasted ahead off the wall. At the end, though, McKeown battled back to finish in 25.63, just clear of Walsh’s 25.65. O’Callaghan was a further seven hundredths behind in 25.72, followed closely by American Katharine Berkoff (25.76). Kylie Masse, the Canadian who also has world titles to her credit, took fifth (25.89).
Men’s 200 Backstroke
Nowadays, no one is ever a match for Hubert Kos in the 200 backstroke. Leon Marchand, the individual medley maestro who trains alongside Marchand at the University of Texas, actually led Kos in the early stages of last week’s final in Carmel, but Marchand was one-and-done for the World Cup circuit. That gave the Hungarian the opportunity to cruise to his second consecutive win in this event, even without threatening his European-record time of 1:45.65.
Kos pulled into the wall in 1:47.51, a bit down on the 1:46.84 he notched last week. Kos won by 1.25 seconds here over Thomas Ceccon, the Italian swimmer who is the Olympic champion and long course world-record holder in the 100. Ceccon actually made up ground on Kos in the final stages of the race, and he managed a time of 1:48.76 for second place. Alexandre Desangeles, a French swimmer who training at the University of Arizona, placed third in 1:51.17, just four hundredths clear of Australia’s Joshua Edwards-Smith.
Men’s 100 Butterfly
Switzerland’s Noè Ponti was undefeated in the sprint butterfly events on the World Cup circuit last fall, and he is halfway to going undefeated again in 2025. The Westmont race unfolded nearly the same as last week’s final in Carmel as he edged out Canadian Ilya Kharun by a half-second. Ponti was out in 22.76, two hundredths clear of Kharun, before pulling away down the stretch to swim a time of 48.47. That time was merely seven hundredths slower than his World Cup record of 48.40. Ponti’s world record from last December stands at 47.71.
Kharun picked up second place here in 49.00 while fellow Canadian Josh Liendo came in just behind at 49.56. No one else got under 50 seconds here, with Finn Brooks (50.06) and Simone Stefani (50.08) the best of the rest.
Women’s 200 Breaststroke
There is never any doubt when it comes to Kate Douglass in the 200 breaststroke. In the last 15 months, Douglass has won Olympic gold plus world titles in long course and short course in this event, and she clobbered the world record in the 25-meter format last fall. Last week in Carmel, Douglass became the first woman to ever clock a time in the 2:13-range, having previously skipped straight from 2:14 to 2:12, and here she cruised to a wire-to-wire, four-second triumph.
Douglass recorded a time of 2:14.57 on the way to her fifth 200 breast victory over the past two World Cup seasons. The time actually matched the time that had been the world record set prior to Douglass’ emergence, which was held by former U.S. star Rebecca Soni. Second place here went to Alex Walsh, a training partner of Douglass at the University of Virginia. Walsh clocked 2:18.54, while South Africa’s Rebecca Meder came in third at 2:18.88.
Men’s 100 Breaststroke
The world-record holder in this event turned the tables on Carmel winner Caspar Corbeau to pick up the win by two hundredths. Ilya Shymanovich has been largely quiet since setting the world record in the 100 breast four years ago, with many of those years spent away from international competition with most Belarusian swimmers. But he rocketed up the long course world rankings in 2025 before making a pair of semifinals at the World Championships, and now he has a World Cup victory.
Shymanovich was one hundredth behind Corbeau at the halfway point, but he cleared his Dutch rival by two hundredths coming home. Shymanovich finished in 56.41, two hundredths ahead of Corbeau’s 56.43. Both swimmers swam much quicker than one week earlier, where Corbeau won in 56.67 and Shymanovich took second in 57.18.
Japanese teenager Shin Ohashi placed third in 56.79 while Adam Peaty, the Olympic champion in this event in Rio and Tokyo, got fourth in 57.00. Peaty, returning to competition after a yearlong layoff, was more than a second quicker than his 10th-place mark of 58.27 last week.
Women’s 50 Freestyle
The podium in the women’s 50 free was identical to that from the first stop as Kasia Wasick, the 33-year-old Polish sprinter who has competed at the past five Olympic Games, kept Australian Alex Perkins at bay by 0.15. Wasick went 23.30 for the win here, one hundredth behind her mark from last week, while Perkins dropped five hundredths on the way to a time of 23.45. Mollie O’Callaghan made her second podium of the evening with a time of 23.87, just ahead of Canadian Taylor Ruck (23.87).
Men’s 50 Freestyle
A pair of Canadian men, both better known for their butterfly abilities and both just minutes removed from competing in the 100 butterfly, showed off some sizzle in this event. Ilya Kharun came through down the stretch, covering the second length in 10.61 to easily surpass the rest of the field. That brought him to the wall in 20.72, 0.15 ahead of a field consisting of swimmers who compete more consistently in sprint freestyle.
The next three finishers were separated by just four hundredths. Josh Liendo, third in the aforementioned 100 fly final, touched in 20.87 to beat out Trinidad and Tobago’s Dylan Carter (20.89) and American Jack Alexy (20.91). Chris Guiliano, the U.S. swimmer who swam 20.83 for the win at the first stop, was much slower here with a fifth-place time of 21.03.
Women’s 100 IM
Expect a world-record scare every time Gretchen Walsh enters the water to race the 100 IM. She does not get a lot of chances to swim the sprint medley, but the race perfectly suits her skillset, as evidenced by her world title and world record last December in Budapest. No one else in history has ever swum below 56, and Walsh has now done so on five separate occasions, the latest Friday evening in Westmont.
Walsh never trailed in this final, losing some ground to University of Virginia training partner Kate Douglass on the back half but never being challenged. Walsh finished in 55.77, the third-fastest performance ever and 0.14 ahead of the previous World Cup record she set last week. Douglass was second in 56.42, just behind her own best of 56.34 from last week but still ahead of anyone else on the all-time list, while Belgium’s Roos Vanotterdijk placed third in 57.41.
Men’s 100 IM
Shaine Casas survived a scare in the preliminary round, when he was merely the seventh-best qualifier for the final. Once he made it into the top-eight, the 25-year-old American never trailed, beating butterfly specialist Noè Ponti to the wall at the halfway point and supreme backstroke Hubert Kos to the halfway point. Casas extended the advantage on breaststroke before powering to the wall in 50.45. With the swim, he became the fifth-fastest man in history behind Caeleb Dressel, Leon Marchand, Vladimir Morozov and Ponti.
Taking second here was Ponti, the Swiss star who is the reigning world champion in this event. Ponti had the best freestyle leg (12.42) to jump from fourth to second place at the end with a final time of 50.76. Kos was third in 50.99, just ahead of American Grant House (51.07). Thomas Ceccon, second to Kos in the 200 back earlier in the night, came in fifth (51.35).
