What’s At Stake At U.S. Open Water Nationals This Week?

2026 Open Water National and Junior National Championships

• Thursday, April 2 – Saturday, April 4
• Sarasota, Florida
• Nathan Benderson Park
• Open Water
• Meet Central
• Start List

The 2026 U.S. Open Water National and Junior National Championships will get underway later this week from Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, and there will be more than national titles on the line.

The competition will serve as the selection meet for USA Swimming’s 2026-27 Open Water and Junior Open Water National Teams, along with the 2026 Junior Open Water Swimming Championships.

It will also be the first stage of a three-meet qualifying process for the 2026 Pan Pacific Open Water Championships.

MEET SCHEDULE (EST)

• 10K National Championships – Thursday, April 2, 2026
  • Women’s Race: 8:00 am
  • Men’s Race: 10:30 am
• 5K Junior National Championships (16-U Age Group) – Friday, April 3, 2026
  • Men’s Race: 8:00 am
  • Women’s Race: 8:50 am
• 3K Knockout National Championships – Friday, April 3, 2026
  • Women’s Race: 10:30 am
  • Men’s Race: 12:00 pm
• 5K National Championships – Saturday, April 4, 2026
  • Men’s Race: 8:00 am
  • Women’s Race: 8:10 am
• 3K Knockout Junior National Championships (16-U Age Group) – Saturday, April 4, 2026
• Women’s Race: 10:00 am
• Men’s Race: 11:30 am

SELECTION ON THE LINE

• 2026 Open Water Pan Pacs: The top six American finishers in the women’s and men’s 10km events in Sarasota will qualify for the Open Water World Cup stops in Golfo Aranci and Ibiza. Using the World Aquatics open water scoring system, those six swimmers will get one cumulative score for their performances from Nationals, Golfo Aranci and Ibiza, and then up to four men and four women will be named to the Pan Pac team by May 4 at the latest. The open water competition at the Pan Pacific Championships will run on August 10 in Long Beach, two days before the pool swimming starts in Irvine.
• 2026 Junior Open Water Championships: The top two 14-15 male and female swimmers in the junior 5km will qualify for the 5km event at the Junior Open Water Championships. In the 10km event in Sarasota, the top two 16-17-year-olds will qualify for the 7.5km at Junior Worlds, while the top two 18-19-year-olds will qualify for the 10km. The 2026 Junior Open Water Swimming Championships will run in early September in Santa Fe, Argentina.
• 2026-27 Open Water National Team: The National Team won’t officially be named until September, though swimmers can lock up spots this week. The top four swimmers in the 10km in Sarasota will automatically earn National Team berths, and then the #2 Priority for selection is for any medalist in the 10km at Pan Pacs—which theoretically could be someone who finishes 5th or 6th in Sarasota. The winner of the 5km at Nationals is the next priority for the National Team, followed by the 5th and 6th place finishers in the 10km.
• 2026-27 Junior Open Water National Team: Up to six boys and six girls can be named to the Junior Open Water National Team, where swimmers must be 18 on December 31, 2026, in order to be eligible. The top four eligible swimmers in the 10km at Nationals will be the first priority for selection, followed by the top finisher in the junior 5km, and then the 5th and 6th-place finishers in the 10km.

NAMES TO WATCH

Women’s Field

The women’s 10km field is headlined by defending champion Brinkleigh Hansen, the 17-year-old standout who edged out Claire Weinstein by two seconds for the title last year.

Hansen went on to finish 24th in the 10km at the 2025 World Championships, while fellow American Mariah Denigan, who was 3rd at the 2025 Nationals, placed 14th at Worlds. She also took 16th at the 2024 Olympics in the 10km.

Another swimmer in the women’s field who raced at the World Championships last summer was Emma Finlin, the Canadian native who is coming off her sophomore year at Ohio State.

Finlin was 9th in the 1650 free at the Women’s NCAA Championships earlier this month, while her Buckeye teammate, Mila Nikanorov, was 5th and will also be in the field this week in Sarasota.

Also racing in the women’s 10km is 37-year-old Olympian Ashley Twichell, a five-time World Championship medalist and former 10km national champion. She most recently placed 5th in the 10km at Open Water Nationals in 2022.

Becca Mann, 2014 and 2015 10km open water national champion, is also on the start list.

Men’s Field

The men’s field is headlined by Dylan Gravley, the reigning national champion after he was 3rd last year but the top American.

Gravley placed 22nd in the 10km at the 2025 World Championships, while Joey Tepper, the #2 American in last year’s nationals, was the top American in Singapore, placing 12th.

Ivan Puskovitch, who represented the U.S. at the 2024 Olympics and finished 19th in the 10km, is on the start lists, as is multi-time U.S. World Championship team member Charlie Clark, who trains out of Ohio State.

Puskovitch should be particularly dangerous in the 3km knockout sprint event after taking 7th at the 2025 World Championships.

Among the key names who will be coming to Nationals directly off the Men’s NCAA Championships, we’ve got Indiana’s Luke Ellis, Texas’ Aiden Hammer, LSU’s Jacob Pishko and Kentucky’s Levi Sandidge.

Sandidge was 3rd in the 1650 free last week at NCAAs, closing out his senior year with a bang, while Hammer narrowly missed out on scoring in 17th in his freshman year. Pishko was a late entry into the meet and had a respectable showing in 21st, while Ellis was 22nd.

Two other names to watch will be Gabriel Manteufel, Ellis’ former Sandpipers of Nevada teammate and future training mate at Indiana, and Colin Jacobs, the 18-year-old who won the 1000 and 1650 free at Winter Juniors – East in December.