2025 U.S. OPEN
- December 3-6, 2025
- Austin, Texas
- Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center
- Prelims: 10 a.m. EST
- Finals: 7 p.m EST (Day 1: 5 p.m. EST)
- LCM (50 meters)
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
Day 1 Heat Sheet
Welcome to the 2025 U.S. Open Championships! There are just three heats of swimming tonight with the men’s and women’s miles opening this year’s meet, but we are in for an exciting four days of competition.
World Record holder Bobby Finke is the top seed in the men’s mile, after Ahmed Jaouadi scratched the event, and he leads the rest of the field by more than 40 seconds. Ohio State’s Isaac Fleig is the 2nd seed at 15:17.43, and he comes in just four tenths ahead of Uzbekistan’s Ilia Sibirtsev, who is seeded 3rd in 15:17.89.
There is only one heat of women’s miles, and Louisville’s Leticia Fassina Romao comes in about five seconds over Ohio State’s Mila Nikanorov for the top seed. The top four swimmers have about 13 seconds between them, so the event could be very close tonight.
Women’s 1500 Free Timed Finals
- World Record: 15:20.48 – Katie Ledecky (USA), 2018
- U.S. Open Record: 15:20.48 – Katie Ledecky (USA), 2018
- Meet Record: 15:35.98 – Katie Ledecky (USA), 2019
- Mila Nikanorov (OSU) – 16:19.80
- Leticia Fassina Romao (UOFL) – 16:25.92
- Emma Finlin (OSU) – 16:37.59
- Alex Siegel (LIAC) – 16:46.19
- Adair Shaw (OSU) – 16:52.57
- Annabeth Town (HRA) – 16:59.13
- Brooke Bennett (PLS) – 17:03.48
- Samantha Anderson (LIAC) – 17:32.27
Ohio State’s Mila Nikanorov got out to a fast start in the race, splitting 2:07.37 at the 200 mark to turn seven tenths ahead of Louisville’s Leticia Fassina Romao’s 2:08.07 for 2nd. Emma Finlin sat in 3rd at 2:08.61.
At the 500 mark, Nikanorov had built a strong lead over the field, turning in 5:23.72, more than two seconds ahead of Fassina Romao’s 5:25.83 in 2nd and three seconds ahead of Ohio State teammate Emma Finlin’s 5:26.75 in 3rd
By halfway, the top three of Nikanorov (8:07.48), Fassina Romao (8:10.37), and Finlin (8:12.85) had separated themselves from the rest of the field significantly, with 15-year-old Alex Siegel from the Long Island Aquatic Club sitting in 4th at 8:16.83, four seconds back of Finlin’s 3rd place position.
Over the next 250 meters, Nikanorov and Fassina Romao pulled away from Finlin with Nikanorov splitting 10:52.23 to hold the lead by a little more than two seconds over Fassina Romao’s 10:54.76. Finlin turned at 11:00.59 at the 1000 mark to still sit seven seconds ahead of Siegel’s 11:07.39
Nikanorov had an excellent final 100, splitting 1:05.83 to Fassina Romao’s 1:06.84, earning the win in a new personal best 16:19.80. She dropped nearly seven seconds from her previous best 16:26.67 she swam in June of this year.
Fassina Romao finished 2nd in 16:25.92, and Emma Finlin was 3rd in 16:37.59.
Men’s 1500 Free Timed Finals
- World Record: 14:30.67 – Bobby Finke (USA), 2024
- U.S. Open Record: 14:40.28 – Robert Finke (USA), 2024
- Meet Record: 14:55.46 – Damien Joly (FRA), 2017
- Ilia Sibirtsev (UZB) – 15:05.51
- Bobby Finke (SPA-FL) – 15:09.21
- Ivan Puskovitch (TSM) – 15:10.91
- Luke Whitlock (IU) – 15:18.45
- Isaac Fleig (OSU) – 15:22.71
- Alexander Lyubavskiy (TEX) – 15:33.07
- James Darcy (LIAC) – 15:35.44
- Charlie Clark (OSU) – 15:36.42
Ilia Sibirtsev upset Bobby Finke in the men’s 1500 after a close first half to win the first event of the 2025 U.S. Open Championships.
Finke got out to a lead on the first 50, turning in 27.27. At the 200 meter mark, Finke split 1:57.62to sit less than half-a-second ahead of Sibirtsev who was 1:58.09
Finke extended his lead slightly to about six tenths at the 500 mark with his 4:59.70, but Sibirtsev stayed right on his hip in the next lane at 5:00.53, while open water Olympian Ivan Puskovitch was about a second back from lane one in 5:01.04. Indiana’s Luke Whitlock was also in the mix, sitting about seven tenths behind Puskovitch in 4:01.86.
At the halfway mark, Finke (7:32.05) sat about four tenths ahead of Sibirtsev (7:32.41) and Puskovitch (7:32.69)and at the 850 mark that lead fell to just two hundredths over Sibirtsev. They split the exact same 30.58 on the next 50 to leave Finke in a two hundredth lead after 900 meters.
Sibirtsev moved into the lead at the 950 turn, coming in at 9:34.01, two tenths ahead of Finke’s 9:34.24, after splitting 30.18 to Finke’s 30.43.
From there, Sibirtsev only continued to build his lead as he descended his splits. By the 1300 meter mark, he sat at 13:03.95, more than three seconds ahead of Finke, who was 13:07.37, with only 200 to go.
Sibirtsev touched in 15:05.51, setting a new pool record in the event. He has been 15:05.17, which he swam in August of 2019 at the World Junior Championships in Budapest.
Finke finished 2nd in 15:09.21, while Puskovitch finished 3rd in 15:10.91, a personal best by more than 12 seconds form the 15:23.03 he swam at the 2024 Olympic Trials
How much technique work do American coaches do?
BROOKE BENNETT????
Yeah, it messes with my brain every time. Different person though.
Wow. When’s the last time Finke lost a distance freestyle race on US soil?
Probably this
This was more recent (we’re calling the 800 distance yeah?). He was 3rd in the 800 in Knoxville 2024, 4th at the US Open in 2023. He actually doesn’t win the 800 domestically all that often. I agree that FLL 2023 was his last 1500 loss.
I’ll admit I stopped looking when I saw this 2023 result.
Would have been great if they’d added the 200 fly OR back to tonight’s schedule-
Swimming is boring. Way more interested in personalities. Give me a reality tv youtube show 40-60 minutes a week of casas, marchand, and foster duking it out and talking shit intersperesed with mcintiosh and regan just being girls (who happen to be killers). The drama mixed with showcasing the bloodbath that is the reality of training for this sport will hold me over until the one meet a year these guys actually decide to care about high performance
2.5/10 Ragebait
A swimming show where two women are killers but neither of them is Kaylee “Killer” McKeown? No way
Well good thing the athletes aren’t striving everyday to solely entertain you.
They’d make a lot more money if we saw them without a swim cap on or without wet hair in an interview with crap audio and swim meet noises in front of a hastily built sponsor tarp backdrop.
Let’s see these guys vibing and stressing about micro goals and eating breakfast tacos and worrying about life and relationships and love/ hating bob torturing them. They live and breathe this sport for a 1000+ days to get to a special level every year or 4 years. But we only really get to see it once a year at most.
Everybody’s talking about money in the sport. It will come if you build a storyline week in/ week out for… Read more »
You’re not wrong about needing to peel back the curtain and know more about the athletes. We need to see the trials of the swimmers before we see them at the Trials to get to know them. It doesn’t have to center on Bob’s group. It could rotate between different pro groups. I’d also like to learn more about the elite NCAA swimmers. How do they balance school, training, and life? This type of series would be a fantastic interface between the general public and the sport. Seems like people have to work too hard to be fans right now.
A swimming version of Hard Knocks is not as horrible of an idea as your first comment made it sound
A university of texas pro group reality show would feed families
See their jobs are effectively entertainment though… not reality TV but if nobody watched they wouldn’t be swimming
I mean, almost nobody watches as it is. How many people watched this 1500? 10s of people? They don’t have these meets because people are watching.
Theres no point preaching an idea like this on SwimSwam. Everyone in this comment section are stubborn traditionalists. They cry when the sport is lacking in viewership and becoming stale, but instantly reject any proposed change or disruption. I think you are exactly right in this is what the sport needs. The ISL was probably the biggest risk anyone has taken, and I thought the viewing experience was rather enjoyable. It’s a shame it ended up being such a financial disaster, because I feel like that scared anyone else off from trying something new. I think if Espn or someone decided to pick up broadcasting rights of an ISL attempt 2 (but with more in depth on the athletes personalities… Read more »
I bet Charlie Clark would’ve broken 15:00 of he was being more efficient in practice at not wasting time by swimming two practices per day. Time to release himself from the shackles of the old school coaching philosophy of the 1800s!
#iykyk
Michael Andrew?
he’s a good kid
Well zzzz. guess the meet starts tomorrow, really.
I will never understand why so-called swim fans do this with the 1500m.
I mean, normally with ya but there wasn’t much of a showing here…
Well, Bobby forgot to show up.
When it’s a whole session just for two events and they’re both mediocre…
whole session… 3 heats total
Does anyone think it is sad about how few swimmers are swimming the distance events at this meet?