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
- Full Results
- SwimSwam Preview
- Recaps:
The 2026 Open Water National Championships wrapped up on Saturday, and Ohio State’s Mariah Denigan and TSM’s Ivan Puskovitch made it a clean sweep with wins in the 5K race on the final morning.
Women’s Recap
Top 8 Finishers
- Mariah Denigan (OSU) — 1:00:46
- Ashley Twichell (TAC) — 1:00:53
- Mila Nikanorov (OSU) — 1:00:54
- Brooke Travis (TAC) — 1:01:10
- Caroline Riggs (UN) — 1:01:13
- Paige Downey (GM) — 1:01:14
- Becca Mann (TAC) — 1:01:25
- Isabella Descent (SPA) — 1:02:37
Mariah Denigan has had a huge weekend at the 2026 Open Water Nationals, and on the final morning, she picked up her 3rd win in 3 races. She swam 1:00:46 in the women’s 5k race to add a final gold to her 10k and 3k knockout gold medals.
TAC Titans’ Ashley Twichell grabbed the silver medal in 1:00:53, touching just one second ahead of Ohio State’s Mila Nikanorov, who swam 1:00:54. Twichell gave birth to her daughter in May of last year, and this was her highest finish of the weekend after she was 3rd in the 10k.
Nikanorov also earned her highest finish of the weekend, touching in 1:00:54 to come in about 14 seconds ahead of 4th place finisher Brooke Travis from TAC.
Men’s Recap
Top 8 Finishers
- Ivan Puskovitch (TSM) — 56:02
- Dylan Gravley (UN) — 56:10
- Gabriel Manteufel (SAND) — 56:14
- Alexander Lyubavskiy (TXLA) — 56:19
- Colin Jacobs (UN) — 56:22
- Joshua Brown (SAND) — 56:25
- Jackson Irwin (SRQ) — 56:13*
- Gage Mealey (JW) — 56:58
TSM’s Ivan Puskovitch repeated as men’s 5k champion after he won the same race last year in 56:10. He also earned three gold medals this week, taking the top spots in the 10k and in the 3k knockout races.
Dylan Gravley also repeated his 2nd place finish from last year, swimming 56:10 to come in eight seconds behind Puskovitch and beat Sandpipers’ Gabriel Manteufel by four seconds for the silver medal.
Manteufel, who is committed to Indiana for 2026, earned the bronze medal in 56:14. He jumped up four spots from his 7th place finish last year, though he was still the 3rd American swimmer last year with four Japanese swimmers coming in between him and Gravley at the 2025 meet.
*The official results posted by USA Swimming say 56:13 for Jackson Irwin of Sarasota Tsunami Swim Team, which appears to be incorrect. He did finish 7th overall with a time between 56:25 and 56:58.
Is Mariah still going to swim pool? I honestly think she’s one of those athletes that really could solely focus on open water, attending all the Cup meets, Europe meets, etc. Obviously she can swim a great 1500, but I wonder if we are only gonna see her swim pool once a year or so to get qualifications?