St. Petersburg Aquatics Qualifies Three To 2026 Junior Open Water Worlds

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:
  • Men’s 10K | Women’s 10K | Junior 5Ks | 3K knockouts | Senior 5ks

The dust has settled on the 2026 U.S. Open Water National Championships, which laid the foundation for what American representation looks like on the global stage of open water for the rest of the year. While we have to wait for the next two stops of the Open Water World Cup to get a finalized Pan Pac roster, we do know which junior swimmers qualified to rep the stars and stripes.

To see the international meet qualifying criteria for both juniors and seniors, click here.

The U.S. is slated to send 12 athletes aged 19 and under to Santa Fe, Argentina, to compete at the 2026 Junior Open Water World Championships. The meet will take place September 3-6, which does not coincide with any international pool championship meets.

U.S. Qualifiers For 2026 Junior Open Water World Championships

• 14-15 girls: Grace Gannon (FAST), Ansley Bess (St. Petersburg Aquatics)
• 14-15 boys: Sawyer Hansen (St. Petersburg Aquatics), Bradshaw Shoemaker (Sarasota Tsunami)
• 16-17 girls: Brinkleigh Hansen (St. Petersburg Aquatics), Alex Siegel (Long Island Aquatic Club)
• 16-17 boys: Joey Eaddy (Revolution), Nicholas Liberty (Rockville Montgomery)
• 18-19 women: Paige Downey (Gold Medal), Lolly Milbaum (Sarasota Sharks/University of Alabama)
• 18-19 men: Colin Jacobs (CN Antibes), Aiden Hammer (University of Texas)

Of the 12 athletes who qualified for the meet, three of them hail from the club team of St. Petersburg Aquatics (SPA) in the club’s namesake Floridian town. This includes the Hansens, Brinkleigh and Sawyer. The former is a multi-time defending Junior World Open Water Champion. Rounding out SPA’s representation is 15-year-old Ansley Bess. For Sawyer and Bess, this marks the biggest stage of their young careers so far.

St. Petersburg’s head coach Fred Lewis confirmed to SwimSwam that all three athletes will be accepting their spots to Argentina. 

Three swimmers based out of Sarasota qualified for Junior Worlds, combining with St. Petersburg to make the Tampa Bay region account for half of Team USA. The three Sarasontians are Bradshaw Shoemaker, Colin Jacobs, and Lolly Milbaum. Jacobs now trains in France and Milbaum at the University of Alabama, but both athletes swam in Sarasota until recently. Sarasota was the host city of the National Championships.

Apart from the three SPA swimmers, it is not confirmed if these swimmers will accept their spots for the meet.