2025 Pro Swim Series – Fort Lauderdale
- Wednesday, April 30 – Saturday, May 3, 2025
- Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center
- LCM (50 meters)
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
- Live Recaps
Whilst there were several swims on the final day at Fort Lauderdale that you won’t have missed thanks to Gretchen Walsh, Katie Ledecky, Regan Smith and Ilya Kharun, the fast swimming didn’t stop there. There were more individual World Records yesterday than in the entire Paris Olympics, and here are some other swims that may have gone under radar.
DAY 4 – SWIMS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED
Out of the early heats of the women’s 800 free, Michaela Mattes hacked 10 seconds off her best time to drop from an 8:44 to 8:34.76. That ended up ranking fifth after the final heat was swum, and she also now ranks #5 among US women so far this season. She may well have landed herself a place in the final heat at US Trials with this swim.
Jack Harvey, who swims internationally for Bermuda, dropped over a second off his entry time in the 100 backstroke to claim second in the final behind Hubert Kos. He broke his own Bermudan record in the morning with a 54.87, his first-ever swim under 55, and sliced another three-tenths off in to go 54.56 in the evening. His previous mark stood at 55.19, and he is now less than half a second off the World Aquatics ‘A’ cut.
Gavin Keogh took third in the same race, shaving 0.02 of his top-ranked 17-18 time this year to go 54.72. Keogh, an honorable mention in the 2025 recruiting class, will join NC State in the fall, adding to a backstroke group that includes Daniel Diehl, Oleksandr Zheltyakov and Quintin McCarty. McCarty swam the heats of the 100 back here, shaving half a second off his best of 55.73 to go 55.26, before scratching the final in favour of the 50 where he ended up placing third.
Leah Hayes took on a tough double tonight, swimming the 200 breast and 200 IM, placing third in both. In the first of those she set a new best time in both heats and finals, shaving eight-tenths off over the course of the day to end with a time of 2:27.60 and contribute to a Virginia 1-2-3. Hayes swam this event at both ACCs and NCAAs, finishing sixth at the conference championships before adding time at Federal Way to finish 17th. With her IM 2.5 seconds off her best of 2:08.91, she could have far more time to drop when fully tapered.
Julian Koch took a fantastic third place in the 100 fly on the final night in a time of 52.29, a hundredth slower than his prelims time. That had been a 1.42 second drop from his previous best time of 53.70 set in May 2024, and he set a 50 fly best on the first 50 as well. He was out in 23.93, only 0.36 slower than eventual winner Ilya Kharun. Koch has just finished his freshman year at Pitt, and holds a best of 46.76 in yards; if he follows the lead of swimmers like Dare Rose who have previously dropped big in yards after a summer of doing so in long course, he could crack NCAA qualification next year.
Ellen Walshe had already set one Irish record in Fort Lauderdale, and came close to two others on the final day. In the 100 fly she was 58.12, just 0.16 off her own record of 57.96 from 2016, and just 16 minutes later swam 2:11.59 in the 200 IM. She was just under seven-tenths off the record of 2:10.92, again one of hers, but was 1:08.05 on the second half, only behind winner Alex Walsh. It was also over a second faster than she came home when swimming the record, and again showcases the freestyle gains she has made this season.
Aleksas Savickas was the top seed in the 100 breast on Day 2, but didn’t quite pace the heats in the 200 right and slipped to 11th, missing out on the ‘B’ final. He made the most of the clean water there, going 2:10.34 to take the win by over five seconds in a time less than seven-tenths off his best, and was only five-hundredths of Denis Petrashov‘s winning time from the ‘A’ final.
Tolu Young set his third Fijian record in three days here, in a quintessentially Arizona State slate of 50 free, 100 free, 50 fly. He shaved 0.42 off his own 50 free record today in 22.29 in the prelims, before going under the old record again in finals with a 22.53
