2025 World University Games: Leah Shackley Leads Meet Entries With Four Top Seeds

2025 World University Games

• July 17th-23rd, 2025
• Berlin, Germany
• LCM (50 Meters)
• Meet Central
• Entries List
• Live Results

The 2025 World University Games start tomorrow and the international University Sports Federation (FISU) has officially released the meet entries.

The United States leads the entries with the top seeds in 13 women’s events and 8 men’s events. The only other countries with multiple top seeds are Japan (Yumeno Kusuda– Women’s 200 Breaststroke and Riku Yamaguchi– Men’s 400 IM), South Africa (Pieter Coetze– Men’s 100 Backstroke and Michael Houlie– Men’s 50 Breaststroke), and the Individual Neutral Athletes (Aleksei Sudarev– Men’s 200 Breaststroke and Aleksandr Stepanov– Men’s 800 & 1500 Freestyle).

American Leah Shackley, from NC State has the most top seeds, coming in as the fastest swimmer in the 100 fly, 50 back, 100 back, and 200 backstroke events.

She will start the meet with the 200 backstroke on day one where she is the only swimmer under 2:07, coming in at 2:06.66. Fellow American Kennedy Noble, also from NC State, is the 2nd seed at 2:07.52.

The 50 and 100 backstrokes are a similar story with Shackley holding the top seed in the 100 at 58.53 and Noble being the 2nd seed as the only other athlete with a seed time faster than 1:00 in the event. In the 50, they are again the top two seeds and the only athletes under 28 seconds.

In the 100 fly, Shackley comes in about half a second ahead of Spain’s Juste Sanchez in 57.92 to Sanchez’s 58.48. Ella Welch, Louisville, is the other American in the event, and she is seeded 3rd in 58.57.

On the men’s side, there are two men who are the top seeds in two individual events, and both of them are freestylers.

American Matt King, from Indiana, has the lead in the 50 and 100 freestyles, both of which he comes in pretty far ahead of the rest of the field. In the 100 free, King’s 47.94 is almost a second ahead of South Africa’s Peter Coetze’s 48.63 as the 2nd seed. He sits about three tenths ahead in the 50, coming in with the 21.70 he swam at last summer’s Olympic Trials. The 2nd seed Lucas Piexoto sits at 22.02.

Aleksandr Stepanov is competing at the games as an Individual Neutral Athlete, but he is from Russia, and he also has two top seeds in the 800 and 1500 freestyle. In the 800, he sits about four seconds ahead of 2nd seed Davide Marchello from Italy, and in the 1500, he is less than two tenths ahead of 2nd seeded American Carson Hick, Kentucky. The meet will run from Thursday July 17th through Wednesday July 23rd with all the finals sessions being livestreamed on the FISU.tv website.

Top Seeds By Event

Women:

• Women’s 50 Butterfly: Daryna Nabojcenko (Czech Republic) – 25.92
• Women’s 100 Butterfly: Leah Shackley (USA) – 57.92
• Women’s 200 Butterfly: Tess Howley (USA) – 2:06.79
• Women’s 50 Backstroke: Leah Shackley (USA) – 27.43
• Women’s 100 Backstroke: Leah Shackley (USA) – 58.53
• Women’s 200 Backstroke: Leah Shackley (USA) – 2:06.66
• Women’s 50 Breaststroke: Emma Weber (USA) – 30.43
• Women’s 100 Breaststroke: Emma Weber (USA) – 1:06.10
• Women’s 200 Breaststroke: Yumeno Kusuda (Japan) – 2:25.02
• Women’s 50 Freestyle: Maxine Parker (USA) – 24.41
• Women’s 100 Freestyle: Maxine Parker (USA) – 53.56
• Women’s 200 Freestyle: Ge Chutong (China) – 1:57.04
• Women’s 400 Freestyle: Julie Brousseau (Canada) – 4:08.12
• Women’s 800 Freestyle: Kate Hurst (USA) – 8:28.92
• Women’s 1500 Freestyle: Kate Hurst (USA) – 16:09.77
• Women’s 200 IM: Leah Hayes (USA) – 2:10.62
• Women’s 400 IM: Leah Hayes (USA) – 4:38.46

Men:

• Men’s 50 Butterfly: Lorenzo Gargani (Italy) – 23.32
• Men’s 100 Butterfly: Kamal Muhammad (USA) – 51.89
• Men’s 200 Butterfly: Mason Laur (USA) – 1:54.97
• Men’s 50 Backstroke: Yoon Jihwan (South Korea) – 24.48
• Men’s 100 Backstroke: Pieter Coetze (South Africa) – 52.71
• Men’s 200 Backstroke: Daniel Diehl (USA) – 1:55.08
• Men’s 50 Breaststroke: Michael Houlie (South Africa) – 26.90
• Men’s 100 Breaststroke: Denis Petrashov (Kyrgyzstan) – 59.42
• Men’s 200 Breaststroke: Aleksei Sudarev (Individual Neutral Athletes) – 2:09.84
• Men’s 50 Freestyle: Matt King (USA) – 21.70
• Men’s 100 Freestyle: Matt King (USA) – 47.94
• Men’s 200 Freestyle: Jake Mitchell (USA) – 1:46.34
• Men’s 400 Freestyle: Ryan Erisman (USA) – 3:46.01
• Men’s 800 Freestyle: Aleksandr Stepanov (Individual Neutral Athletes) – 7:49.36
• Men’s 1500 Freestyle: Aleksandr Stepanov (Individual Neutral Athletes) – 15:05.69
• Men’s 200 IM: Owen McDonald (USA) – 1:57.51
• Men’s 400 IM: Riku Yamaguchi (Japan) – 4:12.33