Ivan Puskovitch Secures U.S. 5K National Title, Qualifies For Singapore World Championships

2025 Open Water National/Junior National Championships

• April 4-6, 2025
• Sarasota, Florida
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The 2025 Open Water National and Junior Championships wrapped up today in Sarasota, Florida. On the schedule was the men’s 5k race, with competitors swimming three loops around the red-marked course, as shown below.

American Ivan Puskovitch, who represents TSM Aquatics, led wire-to-wire in the men’s 5k, ultimately claiming the win with a time of 56:10.

With his performance today, Puskovitch secured his spot on Team USA’s roster for the 2025 World Championships in Singapore. He narrowly missed qualifying for the 10k on Friday, finishing 3rd among Americans, with only the top two in both the 5k and 10k events earning a spot on the team.

Puskovitch is no stranger to the open water scene. At the 2024 World Championships in Doha, he competed in both the 5k and 10k events, finishing 30th in the 5k and placing 14th in the 10k. His 10k finish at that meet qualified him for the Paris Olympics, where he took 19th.

The 24-year-old took control of today’s race from the very first stroke and never looked back, holding off a strong closing push from Arizona State’s Dylan Gravley, who had already secured his spot on the World Championship roster with a bronze medal in the 10k on Friday. Australians Kyle Lee and Thomas Raymond went 1-2 in that race. Gravley finished with a time of 56:12 today, about a stroke length behind Puskovitch.

Although Gravley, the defending 5k National Champion, was unable to retain his title this year, the Logan Hirka-coached swimmer will now get to race both open water distances at Worlds — a solid consolation for falling short in his title defense.

Gravley, like Puskovitch, is a seasoned open water swimmer. He finished 28th in the men’s 5k at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, 4th in the 10k at the 2023 Pan American Games in Chile, and 13th in the 10k at the 2022 Worlds in Budapest.

Japan’s Riku Takaki was the closest competitor to the top two, finishing ten seconds behind Gravley in 56:22, a performance worthy of the bronze medal. Though he’s fairly new to the open water scene, having never competed at the World Championship or Olympic level, he has raced at a World Cup stop before. In November, he finished 28th in the 10k at the Saudi Arabia stop of the 2024 World Cup circuit.

Open water swimming at the 2025 World Championships will take place from July 14 to 19, with pool swimming beginning on the 26th.

Top 16 Finishers:

1. Ivan Puskovitch (TSM Aquatics) – 0:56:10 (Qualified For U.S. World Championship Team)
2. Dylan Gravley (Sun Devil Swimming) – 0:56:12 (Qualified For U.S. World Championship Team)
3. Riku Takaki (Japanese Swimming) – 0:56:22
4. Taishin Minamide (Japanese Swimming) – 0:56:33
5. Kaiki Furuhata (Japanese Swimming) – 0:56:38
6. Koichiro Iwazumi (Japanese Swimming) – 0:56:38
7. Gabriel Manteufel (Sandpipers Of Nevada) – 0:56:39
8. Charles Clark (Ohio State University) – 0:57:09
9. Joshua Brown (University of Michigan) – 0:57:16
10. Alexander Lyubavskiy (Longhorn Aquatics) – 0:57:19
11. Ben Wainman (Unattached) – 0:57:20
12. Will Mulgrew (Shawmut Aquatic Club) – 0:58:37
13. Trey Dickey (Texas A & M University) – 0:58:39
14. Bucky Gettys (Texas Gold) – 0:58:50
15. Colin Jacobs (Unattached) – 0:59:06
16. Max Vega Cuevas (Texas A & M University) – 0:59:25