2025 Open Water National/Junior National Championships
- April 4-6, 2025
- Sarasota, Florida
- Entry Lists
- Meet Central
- Livestream Information
- World Championships Selection Criteria
- National Junior Team Selection
The 2025 Open Water National Championships continues this afternoon in Sarasota, Florida. This event serves as the selection meet for the U.S. team heading to this summer’s World Championships in Singapore.
Today’s schedule features the men’s 10k race, which will take place at Nathan Benderson Park. Swimmers will complete five loops of the course shown below.
Course Layout
USA Swimming’s World Championship Selection Criteria
The maximum allowable team size is set at four men and four women. This means that a maximum of two men and two women will be selected to the team in each event for the World Championships (i.e., two swimmers per gender in the 5K and 10K, respectively). USA Swimming will be using the following priority system when finalizing the roster:
Priority #1: The best two finishing available swimmers from the 10K Open Water Nationals will be selected to compete in the 10K at the World Championships. However, available swimmers selected under Priority #1 must agree to swim the 10K, unless they are additionally selected under Priority #2 and instead agree to swim the 5K at the World Championships. An athlete will no longer be considered an available swimmer if they are offered positions in the 10K or 5K and do not accept at least one of those two events at the Championships. An available swimmer may choose to swim both the 5K and the 10K at the Championships.
Priority #2: The best two finishing available swimmers at the 5K Open Water Nationals will be selected to compete in the 5K at the World Championships. However, available swimmers selected under Priority #2 must agree to swim the 5K, unless they are additionally selected under Priority #1 and agree to swim the 10K at the World Championships. An athlete will no longer be considered an available swimmer if they are offered positions in the 10K or 5K and do not accept at least one of those two events at the World Championships. An available swimmer may choose to swim both the 5K and the 10K at the World Championships.
Race Recap
Just like his countrywoman Madeleine Gough in the women’s race, Australian’s Thomas Raymond and Kyle Lee surged to an early lead during the opening loop of the men’s 10K.
Raymond moved ahead after the first 100 meters, and by the end of the first loop, had built a 40-meter gap on the rest of the field. Lee held onto 2nd place, leading a large pack of swimmers closely bunched together.
Raymond was the runner-up at the Australian Nationals in January in both the 5k and 10k disciplines.
Lee has consistently delivered strong performances on the international stage across multiple distances. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, he placed 13th in the men’s 10k. Earlier in the year, at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, he finished 9th in the 10k and was part of Australia’s gold medal-winning mixed 4x1500m relay team. At the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, Lee secured an 8th-place finish in the 5km and helped Australia win bronze in the mixed 4x1500m relay. His range was further evident at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest, where he placed 5th in the extra long 25k event and 8th in the 5k.
24-year-old American Ivan Puskovitch settled into a comfortable 3rd place for most of the loop.
Puskovitch is no stranger to the open water scene. In Doha, he competed in both the 5k and 10k events, finishing 30th in the 5k and placing 14th in the 10k. His 10k finish at that meet qualified him for the Paris Olympics, where he took 19th.
The top three remained unchanged through the second loop, although Raymond’s 40-meter lead shrank to about 5 meters.
During the third loop, the Japanese trio of Taishin Minamide, Koichiro Iwazumi, and Kaiki Furuhata shot into the top group. Raymond maintained his lead, but it shrank even further to about half a meter, with a pack of around ten swimmers, including Lee and American Dylan Gravley, right behind him. Lee and Puskovitch remained in their respective positions, but Gravley moved into 4th with the Japanese trio a few meters behind him.
As they approached the end of the third loop, Puskovitch took the lead while Raymond dropped back to 5th, largely due to feed positioning. Puskovitch took his feed early at the dock and was able to get back onto the course quickly, whereas Raymond had to swim further down the dock to retrieve his drink from his coach.
At the conclusion of the penultimate loop, Raymond regained the lead, with Lee holding 2nd. Puskovitch sat in 3rd, while fellow Americans Gravley and Joey Tepper were neck-and-neck in a tie for 4th.
Tepper spent the majority of his collegiate career at the University of Tennessee before competing for Minnesota this past season. Like Puskovitch, he’s a seasoned open water veteran. He competed in the 10k at the 2023 Worlds, where he placed 36th, and also helped Team USA secure 9th place in the mixed 4x1500m relay at that same meet.
The end of the race turned into a sprint among those same five, with Lee, Raymond, Gravley, Puskovitch, and Tepper all close together during the final loop.
Lee had the best finishing kick, out-touching his countryman Raymond at the finish by just a few tenths. In the battle for the U.S. World Championship spots, Gravley and Tepper managed to out-reach Puskovitch at the finish by about two stroke lengths.
Top 8 Finishers:
- Kyle Lee (Australia) — 1:53:38
- Thomas Raymond (Australia) — 1:53:38
- Dylan Gravley (Sun Devil Swimming) — 1:53:40 (Qualified For U.S. World Championship Team)
- Joey Tepper (Minnesota) — 1:53:41 (Qualified For U.S. World Championship Team)
- Ivan Puskovitch (TSM Aquatics) — 1:53:43
- Charlie Clark (Ohio State) — 1:54:04
- William Siegel (Long Island Aquatic Club) — 1:54:26 (18 & Under U.S. National Champion)
- Kaiki Furuhata (Japan) — 1:54:26
Full results can be viewed here.
can someone direct me to the site where I can see videos of the men’s 10K race. I was a launch driver and would love to see it again.
I don’t quite understand, the USA swimming app already has replay of the 5km JNR races available but not the Open 10km races 🤔🤦…….such a shame as both open races were great to watch live but as you say would be great to replay and watch if someone was unable to watch it live or the athletes themselves want to rewatch and learn from anything they did right or wrong at certain parts of the race.
Someone with authority heard our cries, Open races are now up on the USA Swimming app for replay. 🙌.
If you’re not sure which app. There is a link up the top of this article saying “Livestream information” it’s in red and is the link with all the info you need to find that app.
Happy viewing.
patiently waiting for Canada’s results
An Aussie 1-2, looked like Kyle Lee for the win over Thomas Raymond in a near repeat of their photo finish for Australian Openwater Champs in January.
USMS is also doing a national championships at the same location this weekend.
It’s a shame I couldn’t make this but it’s awesome that the best USAS and USMS swimmers will be in Sarasota!
They have race chips for times and all that but can’t somehow translate that into a current leaderboard or something