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Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
Rising Penn State junior Alexander Karahalis had a standout performance in his first long course meet of the season last week in Fort Lauderdale.
Karahalis, 19, set a pair of best times in the men’s 100 and 200 fly, earning consolation final berths in both amongst a loaded field.
In the 100 fly, Karahalis, who hadn’t raced the event in long course meters since July 2023, clocked 53.54 in the prelims to advance 10th into the ‘B’ final, obliterating his previous best time of 55.40 by nearly two seconds.
In the final, he produced a time of 53.80 to finish 12th overall. Despite adding a bit of time from the morning, his opening 50 split of 24.78 marked his fastest-ever 50 fly—his 24.99 opening split in the prelims was his first time sub-25.
Split Comparison
| 2023 YMCA LC Nationals | 2025 PSS – Fort Lauderdale (Prelims) | 2025 PSS – Fort Lauderdale (Final) |
| 25.10 | 24.99 | 24.78 |
| 55.40 (30.30) | 53.54 (28.55) | 53.80 (29.02) |
Karahalis ranks 11th among Americans in the 100 fly this season and 1st among U.S. swimmers under 20.
He also set a big best time in the 200 fly in Fort Lauderdale, putting up a time of 2:00.58 in the prelims to knock three seconds off his previous PB of 2:03.65 set last April. He followed up by clocking 2:00.70 in the final to finish 15th overall.
The 200 fly swim also qualified him for U.S. Nationals (World Trials).
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In his sophomore year at Penn State, Karahlis placed 11th in the men’s 200 fly (1:43.47 prelims), 23rd in the 200 IM (1:44.49 prelims) and 18th in the 400 IM (3:46.68) at the Big Ten Championships, setting best times across the board.
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I guess setting world records isn’t worthy of a swim of the week….
Bro can’t be bothered to read the disclaimer