Swims You Might Have Missed on Day 1 of the 2025 Ft. Lauderdale Pro Swim Series

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
• Storylines to Watch
• Psych Sheets
• Live Results
• Day One Timed Finals Live Recap

The 2025 Fort Lauderdale Pro Swim Series kicked off with the timed finals of both the men’s and women’s 1500 freestyles, and saw current Olympic Champions Bobby Finke and Katie Ledecky take centre stage with dominant wins. There were plenty of notable swims behind them however that may not have leapt out in the same way.

DAY 1 – SWIMS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED

• 18-year-old Ryan Erisman of Laker Swim Club, older brother of National Age Group Record Holder Rylee Erisman, finished second behind Bobby Finke in the 1500 with a huge PB tonight. Coming in with an entry time of 15:39.86, swum in 2023, he hacked off 19 seconds to go 15:20.47. That took him from two seconds over the World Trials of 15:37.69 cut to well inside, and follows on from a 27-second PB in the mile at Winter Juniors East in December.
• Juan Vallmitjana finished just behind Erisman in a time of 15:24.55, an 11-second drop from his best time. Vallmitjana, a dual US-Spanish Citizen, holds the Spanish 15 years record in this event with that previous best time, 15:35.80 from last year, and is now only seven seconds off the 16-year-old record. His time tonight would also rank him 29th all-time in the US 15-16 age group.
• Finishing second behind Katie Ledecky‘s phenomenal swim tonight was Texas’ Jillian Cox. Fresh of winning the 500/1650 double at NCAAs, cox sliced three seconds off her previous best of 16:07.29 to go 16:04.13 and creep ever-closer to the 16-minute barrier. She was well under the World Aquatics ‘A’ cut in the event, and may well be the favourite to take second behind Katie Ledecky in this event at Trials, having moved up seven spots in the US all-time rankings to sit at #12. Her teammate Kate Hurst, a fellow NCAA All-American this year, took third in 16:14.26, five seconds off her best from last summer.
• Ellie Clarke swam out of lane 1 in heat 3 tonight, but absolutely smashed her entry time of 17:16 to go 16:38.64. That had not been her best time however, as just four weeks ago she had hacked 31 seconds off to go 16:45.42 at Indiana Sectionals. She sliced a further seven seconds off tonight, and was well under the Trials cut of 16:49.19. The 2009-born swimmer now jumps up into the top-100 in the 15-16 age group in the event at #78, one spot ahead of Claire Tuggle.