Pre-Scratch Entry List for the Westmont World Cup Released: NCAA Teams Look to Shake Things Up

2025 WORLD AQUATICS SWIMMING WORLD CUP – Westmont

With Leon Marchand announcing that he would only contest one stop of the 2025 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup and with Summer McIntosh revealing that she was forced to withdraw from the finals two stops due to the same illness that caused her to withdraw from the first stop last weekend, the 2nd World Cup stop may seem a little lackluster with two of the biggest swimming stars absent.

However, with several high-profile NCAA meets occurring last weekend, several teams now find themselves with free weekends and have taken the opportunity to jump into some short course meters racing, with swimmers from Virginia, Indiana, and USC making the trip to the Chicago suburb.

Westmont Pre-Scratch Entry Lists

While the UVA pro group led by Kate Douglass, Alex Walsh and Gretchen Walsh will look to continue their winning ways, the addition of Katie Grimes, Sara Curtis and Claire Curzan (amongst others) may throw some wrenches in some triple crown plans. Grimes, a two-time Olympian, is set to take on the 200/400 free, 400 IM as well as the 200s of back and fly. A top-10 seed in all of her events, Grimes could break Great Britain’s Abbie Wood‘s chances of repeating as the 400 IM champion, as the American is not only seeded ahead of her but also is the defending SC Worlds silver medalist in the event.

After getting her second taste of yards racing last weekend, Italian National record holder and UVA swimmer, Sara Curtis, is entered in three events in the more familiar short course meters. The Italian will have a tough but not impossible chance of reaching the top of the podium as she competes against the likes of Gretchen Walsh, Kate Douglass and Regan Smith in the 50 free, 100 free and 50 back, respectively.

Coming off a strong performance against Florida last weekend and two World medals from Singapore, Curzan is entered in five events, but like Curtis, she runs into the fastest in the world as she is set to swim the 50s free, back and fly in addition to the 100 and 200 back. Curzan won’t be the only swimmer with strong results from the split-decision with Florida, as Thomas Heilman and Max Williamson will try their hand at short course meters, as will Anna Moesch, who is seeded dangerously low in the 200 free, ranked 14th, but is coming off of the fastest 200 yard free swim in October, posting a time of 1:41.42. Using SwimSwam’s time converter, Moesch SCY result would equal a SCM time of 1:52.46 which would be the third fastest, behind only Mary-Sophie Harvey and Lani Pallister. Mollie O’Callaghan won the event last weekend in a new US Open Record of 1:50.77.

It’s not just UVA that is bringing in their teams, as Indiana and USC, who locked horns last weekend, will bring strong contingents as the likes of Zalan Sarkany, Miroslav Knedla and Owen McDonald join their fellow Indiana training partners, Finley Brooks and Van Mathias. Sarkany, a native of Hungary, is the top seed in the men’s 800 free, but with no Carson Foster in the 400 free, could be in line for the distance double. His biggest challenger in the 800 figures to be Belgian Lucas Henveaux (seeded 2nd), who will be looking to continue his country’s momentum after compatriots Florine Gaspard and Roos Vanotterdijk rewrote the national record books last weekend. However don’t out the likes of Sam Short.

USC’s Krzystof Chmielewski and Michal Chmielewski, along with Minna Abraham and Justina Kozan, will look to add depth to events and challenge for podium positions as the brothers are seeded 3rd and 6th, respectively, in the 200 fly, while their fellow Trojan sits as high as 5th in the 200 free.

As the table below shows all of the event winners, save Carson Foster, Chris Smith and Eneli Jefimova will make the trip to Westmont, meaning that Hubert Kos‘s chances of the triple-triple crown (sweeping all three backstroke events at all three stops) is still possible, as is Gretchen Walsh‘s 50/100 fly double crown, events upon which all eyes will be focused on as she hunts for more world record prize money.

Event Winners from Carmel

Women’s Carmel Winner Entered In Westmont Event Men’s Carmel Winner Entered In Westmont
Katarzyna Wasick (POL) — 23.29 YES 50 Freestyle Chris Guiliano (USA) — 20.83 YES
Kate Douglass (USA) — 50.83 YES 100 Freestyle Jack Alexy (USA) — 45.32 YES
Mollie O’Callaghan (AUS) — 1:50.77 YES 200 Freestyle Luke Hobson (USA) — 1:41.19 YES
Lani Pallister (AUS) — 3:54.38 YES 400 Freestyle Carson Foster (USA) — 3:37.80 NO
Lani Pallister (AUS) — 8:02.02 YES 800 Freestyle
1500 Freestyle Samuel Short (AUS) — 14:30.00 YES
Kaylee McKeown (AUS) — 25.42 YES 50 Backstroke Hubert Kos (HUN) — 22.65 YES
Regan Smith (USA) — 54.92 YES 100 Backstroke Hubert Kos (HUN) — 49.08 YES
Kaylee McKeown (AUS) — 1:58.86 YES 200 Backstroke Hubert Kos (HUN) — 1:46.84 YES
Eneli Jefimova (EST) — 29.33 NO 50 Breaststroke Chris Smith (RSA) — 25.75 NO
Kate Douglass (USA) — 1:02.90 YES 100 Breaststroke Caspar Corbeau (NED) — 56.67 YES
Kate Douglass (USA) — 2:13.97 YES 200 Breaststroke Caspar Corbeau (NED) — 2:01.63 YES
Gretchen Walsh (USA) — 23.72 WR YES 50 Butterfly Ilya Kharun (CAN) — 21.86 YES
Gretchen Walsh (USA) — 53.69 WC YES 100 Butterfly Noè Ponti (SUI) — 48.53 YES
Regan Smith (USA) — 2:00.28 WC YES 200 Butterfly Ilya Kharun (CAN) — 1:50.65 YES
Gretchen Walsh (USA) — 55.91 WC YES 100 Individual Medley Shaine Casas (USA) — 50.86 YES
Alex Walsh (USA) — 2:04.76 YES 200 Individual Medley Shaine Casas (USA) — 1:49.43 AM YES
Abbie Wood (GBR) — 4:27.14 YES 400 Individual Medley Carson Foster (USA) — 3:59.58 NO

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Swimfan27
8 months ago

Wish Alex Walsh would try on some other events in SCM. See what she’s capable of in the 200 fly, 200 free

captain bubbles
Reply to  Swimfan27
8 months ago

She’s kind of the anti-Kate Douglass. Both insanely versatile, but it feels like A Walsh only wants to swim the 200 IM, while KD will swim anything but the 200 IM.

Yswim
Reply to  Swimfan27
8 months ago

agree, 200 back, and even 400 IM
(I believe her 400IM is the second best NCAA time ever to Eastins record, and Alex held the NCAA 200 fly record
until this past championship)
since her DQ in Paris, knee surgery, starting her final NCAA season late, and don’t know how affected she was
at Worlds by the GI virus, she just seems to go 200IM and 200Br
maybe some excitement in other events would put the spark back in her 200IM

Rich Teller
Reply to  Yswim
7 months ago

She’s said a number of times that she just doesn’t love 400 IM. She is upper tier on a lot of things and I’m sure thinking about events to focus on.

Tani
Reply to  Swimfan27
8 months ago

Yes wouldn’t that be interesting to see!

I miss the ISL (go dawgs)
Reply to  Swimfan27
8 months ago

She went a 1:43 low in the 2 free scm at short course worlds which I feel like she definitely could improve on!

MDS
Reply to  I miss the ISL (go dawgs)
8 months ago

1:53.25, not 143.

Tani
Reply to  I miss the ISL (go dawgs)
8 months ago

You mean 1:53.25

Swimmingly Dory
Reply to  I miss the ISL (go dawgs)
8 months ago

“She went a 1:43 low in the 2 free scm at short course worlds which I feel like she definitely could improve on!”

She broke Haughey’s WR by 13 seconds??

How did I not hear about this??

I miss the ISL (go dawgs)
Reply to  Swimmingly Dory
8 months ago

that’s my bad 😭

Swimmingly Dory
8 months ago

“Sarkany, a native of Hungary, is the top seed in the men’s 800 free, but with no Carson Foster in the 400 free, could be in line for the distance double. His biggest challenger in that event figures to be Belgian Lucas Henveaux”

Huh?

Is Sam Short not swimming?

Swimmingly Dory
Reply to  Mark Wild
8 months ago

my money is on Sam Short to win 400-800 double.

Last edited 8 months ago by Swimmingly Dory
Swimmingly Dory
8 months ago

“posting a time of 1:41.42. Using SwimSwam’s time converter, Moesch SCY result would equal a SCM time of 1:52.46 which would be the third fastest,”

Lol

This time converter is useless.

GOATKeown
8 months ago

Not sure where to post but in other news, the wave of fake news stories about MOC got so bad that Swimming Australia has had to release a statement saying they’re fabricated: https://7news.com.au/sport/swimming/swimming-australia-forced-to-release-statement-over-fake-quotes-attributed-to-mollie-ocallaghan-c-20324676

The Facebook page that is creating them is still up and running though

Admin
Reply to  GOATKeown
8 months ago

That’s brutal.

It’s crazy the number of people I see sharing them to tell their followers that they’re fake stories. Like…that’s what juices the algorithm and gives them more reach.

Troyy
8 months ago

Which of these are you expecting to “throw some wrenches in some triple crown plans”? I don’t see it.

GOATKeown
Reply to  Troyy
8 months ago

Grimes in the 400IM and Sarkany in the 800 are the only ones that seem realistically possible to me

Snowpipers of Alaska
Reply to  GOATKeown
8 months ago

curzan in 2 back? a smaller chance

Last edited 8 months ago by Snowpipers of Alaska
Alex Dragovich
Reply to  Snowpipers of Alaska
8 months ago

Zero chance is definitely smaller.

GOATKeown
Reply to  Snowpipers of Alaska
8 months ago

Curzan’s PB is 1.7 slower than Kaylee went yesterday. Certainly possible but extremely unlikely. Curzan would need a massive PB and Kaylee would need to get slower basically.

I’ve got Kaylee breaking the WR either next week or Toronto

MDS
Reply to  GOATKeown
8 months ago

“I’ve got….” It is as though you are taking credit for an as yet to be broken record. Cool your jets, GOATKeown, unless you have been having a REALLY good training cycle.

Kaylee is certainly skilled enough to do that if she is ready but leave the credit to her and her coaches, okay?

Also, underestimate Curzan in a 200 Back short course at your peril. Even with her 2:00+ swim at the most recent short course worlds, she has nary a time in the top 25 all time SCM performances. But in the SCY version which she swims more often, she has not only the fastest ever performance she has 6 of the top 16 performances ever, all within… Read more »

Joel
Reply to  MDS
8 months ago

“I’ve got ” is just a saying like “I bet” so they are not taking credit.
And using the time converter is really not reliable at all – we all know that. McKeown and Smith are just a class above everyone else.

Last edited 8 months ago by Joel
Jeff
Reply to  MDS
7 months ago

please dont use SCY times to tell us not to underestimate her chances of beating Kaylee. SCY can be relevant but not when the other person has never raced SCY. Curzan can likely do some great times in 200 back SCm but WILL nOT beat Kaylee unless something significant goes wrong for Kaylee, ie DQ or injury.

Swimmingly Dory
Reply to  Snowpipers of Alaska
8 months ago

Let’s be honest, Curzan is not beating McKeown in 2 back.

MDS
Reply to  Swimmingly Dory
8 months ago

Let’s be honest, Swimmingly Dory; you are simply a fan, without reliance on any rational, legitimate analysis.

Swimmingly Dory
Reply to  Troyy
8 months ago

Me neither. I don’t see it.

Joel
8 months ago

So Moesch will be third seed behind Pallister and MSH but what about MOC who won the 200? Surely MOC has a great chance of winning it?
And Sarkany’s biggest challenger will be some Europeans ? With all due respect, maybe Sam Short could be a challenger since he won the 1500 at Carmel.

GOATKeown
Reply to  Joel
8 months ago

They’re just referring to entry times. MOC is entered with a LCM time so Moesch’s entry would be third fastest if she could use a converted SCY time. I don’t think they’re suggesting that MOC won’t win.

Short missing is a bit of an oversight. His times from SCM nationals last week would make him top seed in the 400 and second in the 800 but they don’t appear on WA’s website yet so the writer might have missed them.

sjostrom stan
8 months ago

Wish we can see Huske give SCM a go

Bevo’s Horns
Reply to  sjostrom stan
8 months ago

I think she did the world cups leading up to Paris 2024! I remember seeing her race a lot of randomish stuff like the 50 back, etc.

Agreed on seeing her do more international races now, though! Hopefully after she graduates

xuswimmer13
8 months ago

Does Carson Foster know he’s not entered this week?? World Aquatics and his Instagram both posted that he was swimming???