2025 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, June 3 – Saturday, June 7, 2025
- Indianapolis, Indiana
- Indiana University Natatorium
- LCM (50 meters)
- World Championship Selection Criteria
- SwimSwam Preview Index
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheets (Updated 6/02)
- Live Results
- Day 1 Prelims Live Recap
- Distance Session Heat Sheet
The 2025 U.S. National Championships, which double as the World Championship Trials, kicked off today from Indianapolis. In between Day 1 prelims and finals, we’ve got a timed finals distance session featuring the slower heats of the women’s 800 free and men’s 1500 free—slower only compared to the fastest-seeded heat, as plenty of quick swims are on the docket.
If you’re here to see Katie Ledecky or Bobby Finke, you’ll have to wait for the finals session, where the top 8 seeds in each event will race for spots on Team USA’s World Championship roster.
Because these are timed finals, all heats are ranked together. So while it’s very unlikely, a swimmer from one of the earlier heats could technically still post a time fast enough to hold up for a top-2 finish—and potentially capture a Worlds berth.
Stay tuned for live updates below.
WOMEN’S 800 FREESTYLE — TIMED FINALS (SLOWER HEATS)
- World Record: 8:04.12, Katie Ledecky (USA) — 2025
- American Record: 8:04.12, Katie Ledecky — 2025
- U.S. Open Record: 8:04.12, Katie Ledecky (USA) — 2025
- Championship Record: 8:07.07, Katie Ledecky (USA) — 2023
- World Aquatics ‘A’ Cut: 8:34.62
(Provisional) Top 8:
- Katie Grimes (CAV) – 8:34.15
- Katie McCarthy – 8:34.35
- Maya Geringer (CAL) – 8:35.97
- Cavan Gormsen (LIAC) – 8:36.63
- Kennedi Dobson (EEX) – 8:40.84
- Alex Siegel (LIAC) – 8:41.69
- Chloe Kim (SCAR) – 8:42.31
- Caroline Pennington (TAC) – 8:43.83
The first heat of the women’s 800 free saw Texas commit Sydney Schoeck run away with the victory in 8:44.67. The CSP Tideriders swimmer was entered with a yards time of 9:50.48 and had no long course 800 or 1500 on record, so today marked her first-ever swim in the event and technically counts as a new lifetime best.
Heat two was dominated by Alex Siegel, who logged an 8:41.69 to win by over four seconds. The Long Island Aquatic Club swimmer erased her previous career best of 8:50.88 in the process and overtook Schoeck as the current leader with two more heats remaining before tonight’s championship heat.
Scarlett Aquatics’ Chloe Kim won the third heat of the session, notching a final time of 8:42.31 to give Siegel’s leading mark a good scare, ultimately falling just 0.62 short. The Princeton commit dropped nearly two seconds from her previous best of 8:44.24, a solid confidence boost before heading into tonight’s ‘D’ final in the 200 fly, where she posted a time of 2:16.04 in prelims, a bit off her 2:12.69 personal best.
The final heat of this session was taken out by Virginia freshman Katie Grimes, who claimed Olympic silver this past summer in the 400 IM. She hit the wall in 8:34.15 for a new season-best effort, undercutting her time from the Fort Lauderdale Pro Swim Series last month by over six seconds. The former Sandpipers of Nevada swimmer has been as quick as 8:17.05 in the event, a time she clocked in prelims at the Tokyo Olympics back in 2021 when she was just 15, before placing 4th in the final with the only other sub-8:20 swim of her career to date—an 8:19.38.
Minnesota’s Katie McCarthy (8:34.35) pushed Grimes to the very end in the final heat, securing 2nd place heading into tonight’s championship final. Cal’s Maya Geringer logged an 8:35.97. Both swims marked lifetime bests—McCarthy dropped significantly from her previous 8:41.00, while Geringer surpassed her prior time of 8:40.91.
MEN’S 1500 FREESTYLE — TIMED FINALS (SLOWER HEATS)
- World Record: 14:30.67, Bobby Finke (USA) — 2024
- American Record: 14:30.67, Bobby Finke — 2024
- U.S. Open Record: 14:40.28, Bobby Finke (USA) — 2024
- Championship Record: 14:40.28, Bobby Finke (USA) — 2024
- World Aquatics ‘A’ Cut: 15:01.89
(Provisional) Top 8:
- Lance Norris (WOLF) – 15:11.46
- Gabriel Manteufel (SAND) – 15:15.08
- Alec Enyeart (TST) – 15:18.97
- Ellis Crisci (TST) – 15:20.93
- Joey Tepper (UOFM) – 15:23.75
- Mason Edmund (OSU) – 15:27.93
- Sean Atkinson (ND) – 15:30.86
- Luke Brennan (UOFM) – 15:33.89
Fox Valley’s Chase Maier won the first heat of the men’s 1500 free with a time of 15:42.62, the only swimmer under 16 minutes with two heats remaining. He shattered his previous lifetime best of 16:18.49—an improvement of over 35 seconds—to kick off the U.S. Naval Academy commit’s 2025 Nationals campaign.
Heat two saw former Tennessee undergrad and current Minnesota grad student Joey Tepper clock a time of 15:23.75 to hold off the field by just over seven seconds. His performance represents as a new career best, eclipsing his previous mark of 15:31.33 from January 2022.
Tepper will wear the red, white, and blue cap at the upcoming World Championships in Singapore, where he’ll compete in the open water 10K after finishing as the second-fastest American at the Open Water Trials in April. He raced the 10K at the 2023 Worlds, where he placed 36th, and also helped Team USA finish 9th in the mixed 4x1500m relay at that same meet.
The final heat of the session saw NC State’s Lance Norris come away with the win, dropping 6.5 seconds from his lifetime best to touch in 15:11.46. He was able to hold Sandpipers’ Gabriel Manteufel (15:15.08) and Tsunami’s Alec Enyeart (15:18.97) at bay with those three representing the only individuals under 15:20 so far on the day. Manteufel, an Indiana commit, lowered his best time of 15:17.47 while Enyeart was a ways off his 15:05.10 standard from 2022 NCSA Summer Championship meet.
Katie Grimes amd Cavan Gormsen were in the wrong lanes Gormsen actually won that race. I can’t believe no one has picked that up yet
College swimming is what it is. American record holder in the womens lcm 400 IM didn’t swim in college. She also held American record in 1650. World record holder in womens lcm 1500 before KL also didn’t swim in college. KL best times in 100, 200, 400 are all from a gap year taken before entering college, which she only competed in two year, and with a coach who may have overtrained people by giving them workouts written to KL’s fitness level. Expecting your favorites to progress in college isn’t living in the real world. Yes it’s tragic from the fan point of view. I wish they could move to Magdeberg, lol.
Katie Grimes potentially falling off the national team seems slightly different from Katie Ledecky being 3 seconds off her 800 PB and 1 second off her 400 PB at Stanford.
Didn’t Katie Ledecky set the 1500 WR in college? I would be satisfied if Grimes regressed like that.
This has proven to be a controversial take here – but I truly do not think Ron Aitken prepares his athletes to perform in college. Being homeschooled while training obscene amounts of yardage obviously will yield success early on, but makes the transition to college swimming near-on impossible for most. I’d love to be proven wrong but Weinstein might be the next to experience a bit of a down year in 2025-26. Rooting for all the Sandpiper girls – they still have a long career ahead of them!
The colleges have gotten the crap thrown at them (Texas with Sullivan, Florida with Sims, and UVA with Grimes) but I really think the issue is with Sandpipers
How exactly is this Ron Aitken’s fault? The fact that he’s a better coach than most college coaches?
It’s not Ron’s fault but some club/HS coaches prepare their swimmers to be good while in HS but better in college. I don’t think Ron does that at least with his best females.
I swam for one of the better clubs in Ohio and we had some great swimmers but everyone swam much faster in college.
I coached collegiately too and most coaches know what clubs produce swimmers that will continue to drop time in college and the ones that don’t.
He’s a club coach, not subject to the vagaries and restrictions of college swimming. He’s doing an excellent job at what he’s paid to do
That’s a new one — blaming the club coach whose been responsible for keeping the 4×200 on the podium for the past few years. 🤣
I am not blaming him for this – read my comment and I have very clearly said that his young female swimmers are all unable to reproduce the success they had with him. Yes they have taken turns to keep the relays/distance events afloat, but look at what’s happening now
Add Erica Sullivan to the list. It all went downhill once she attended the University of Texas.
He burns them out.
Grimes is definitely missing the Singapore team. yikes.
I hope Leah Hayes is up for the task in the W 400 IM.
great swim for norris in that last heat
Perhaps that dude that always talks about the aerobic graveyard in Charlottesville is onto something
Grimes swims over 17 seconds slower than her PB in what is her slowest final session 800 LCM IM since 2021 (outside her even more disastrous 800 in Fort Lauderdale last month). Her training buddy Cavan Gormsen was also off her PB from HS…
At this rate Grimes won’t make the national team — let alone a trip to Singapore, Germany, or Irvine.
Bailey Hartman was also really far off her 500 high school PB all this year and in the 2 fly today. Looks like Todd makes everyone a sprinter now.
Yards and short distance LC are different animals than distance LC. Maybe Todd needs to figure out how to coach distance or hire someone who knows. If it’s as bad as everyone here says, it’s embarrassing.
Tbf, Hartman went 4:33 back in 2022 while swimming next to Sims/Grimes/Weinstein and her next best time is a 4:39, which was also while she was still in high school. Not too fair to blame UVA for that one, as it was likely a very fluke swim.
You mean Singapore (2025), Budapest (2027), …..
Minnesota looking good in those two heats.