2025 YMCA Short Course Nationals
- March 31 – April 5, 2025
- Greensboro Aquatic Center, NC
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheet
- Live Results: “2025 YMCA Short Course Nationals” on Meet Mobile
The first full day of competition at 2025 YMCA Nationals concluded with major best times for several event winners and one new meet record. Powerhouse teams Schroeder and Cavalier Aquatics distanced themselves from the rest pointwise and will be contending for the combined team title.
The two names at the meet with the most star power, Thomas Heilman and Alana Berlin, both claimed their first individual victories of the meet in the 100 fly. Heilman earned a two-second victory in 45.04. This is off his 43.86 best from 2024 Winter Juniors – East but still fast enough to erase Brendan Burns’ 46.10 meet record from 2019 off the books.
Berlin notched her second fastest time ever en route to her win, touching in 51.59. The Stanford commit’s best remains a 51.46 from 2024 Winter Juniors – West.
Shroeder’s Maggie Dickinson started off her meet on the right foot, running away from the rest of the 200 back final with a 1:53.40. This slashes over two seconds off the 1:55.80 personal best the 15-year-old registered at Wisconsin Senior Champs one month ago.
The boy’s 200 back winner, Connor Johnson of Lakeland Hills, had a steep time drop of his own. The Virginia Tech commit came into the meet with a pb of 1:45.01 from this meet last year. In finals, he clocked a 1:42.95 to earn a victory.
The most thrilling race of the night occurred in the boy’s 200 breaststroke. Winner Drew Gaerthofner and runner-up John Rusnock both smashed the 2:00 barrier for the first time yesterday, going 1:56.69 and 1:56.86 respectively. Gaerthofner got out to a fast 55.98 at the 100 and nearly got reeled in by Rusnock at the end, but prevailed for first by .17. Going into the meet, Gaertofner’s best time stood at 2:01.05 while Rusnock was 2:02.85.
Molly Yacoviello topped the podium in the girl’s 200 breaststroke with a 2:11.66 effort. This defended the York swimmer’s title from last year, when she won in 2:10.87, which remains her lifetime best.
After taking the top seeds in the 200 medley relay prelims yesterday, the Cavalier boys and Schroeder girls retained their top seeds with even faster times. Schroeder won in 1:39.56 after turning in a 1:39.89 in prelims. The biggest difference-maker for them came from backstroker Maggie Dickinson, who lowered her 50 from 25.07 down to 24.52. Amy Hu threw down a 29.42 breaststroke split, and Alana Berlin once again turned in the fastest fly split of the field in 22.54. Schroeder swapped Ari Zhao for Anne Dickinson as anchor in the finals, and Dickinson brought them home in 23.08.
Lakeland Hills dropped 1.5 seconds to get the second-place finish (1:42.12), in large part propelled by their breaststroker Alexa Davies. Davies went from 29.02 in the prelims to 26.79 in the final. She was the only breaststroker in the field under 28 seconds.
The Cavaliers improved a half second on their prelims time to win the last event of the night in 1:28.78. The squad remained the same as the previous day, and like the Schroeder women, the backstroker made the time difference. Chase Easton led off in 23.48 compared to 24.19 on Monday. Up next came Jack Hathaway on breaststroke (25.43) followed by Heilman (20.19) and Will Browne (19.68). Heilman improved .04 on his butterfly split from prelims but remained off his 19.87 all-time best from 2023 Winter Juniors – East.
Team Scores After Day 2
Combined
- Cavalier Aquatics – 272.5
- Schroeder – 259
- Spartanburg
Men
- Cavalier Aquatics – 150.5
- Spartanburg – 145
- Schroeder – 93
Women
- Schroeder – 166
- Cavalier Aquatics – 122
- Upper Main Line – 112
