World Juniors Sees Erisman, Dobson added to the US Pan-Pac Team, Roster Appears to be Final

2025 World Junior Swimming Championships

• August 19-24, 2025
• Otopeni, Romania
• LCM (50 meters)
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  • Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6

With the dust just settling from the conclusion of the World Junior Championships, its already time to turn out collective focus to the next set of international meets for the United States, namely the 2026 Pan Pacific Championships. Set to be held in Irvine, California next summer, this will be the first Pan-Pacs since 2018 and the 14th edition overall.

In past years, as discussed here, the USA has selected its Pan-Pacs roster from a qualifying meet earlier in the summer, but this cycle have opted to select the team via performances from this summer’s major meets: the 2025 US Nationals, the 2025 World University Games, the 2025 World Championships, the 2025 USA Summer Championships and the 2025 World Junior Championships. With all five of these qualifying competitions over, the wait for the roster should not be too long as the selection procedures states that the roster will be published on or before September 8th, 2025. However, we have gone through the priorities and selection process, and barring any declined invitations, we have compiled the likely 2026 US Pan-Pac Roster below.

We covered the changes made to the roster after the 2025 Summer Championship, the addition of Van Matthias and Aaron Shackell to the men’s roster, and the World Juniors Championship also saw two swimmers earn their spots onto the Pan-Pac roster as Rylee Erisman‘s 100 free time of 52.79 and Kennedi Dobson‘s 4:06.66 400 free were swift enough to earn them a spot on the roster.

Erisman, our #2 ranked recruit in the way too early recruit rankings for the class of 2027, and Dobson, our 10th Ranked swimmer in the re-ranked class of 2025 and a Georgia commit, each had stellar performances this week.

The younger of the two, Erisman, won the 100 free final in 52.79, breaking her own Championship record, which she set twice the previous day. Her time not only made her the 6th fastest U.S. performer of all time but also would have won the bronze medal at the Singapore Worlds. The new 15-16 NAG record holder’s time ranked 3rd fastest across all of the eligible meets, earning Erisman a priority 1 spot (Top 4 in 100/200 free and fastest in all other events) on the Pan-Pac Roster. With her addition, Simone Manuel became the 4th fastest which in turn bumped Kate Douglass to 5th and therefore knocked Erin Gemmell out of the roster in the 100 free (although she still retained priority 1 status as being the 4th fastest 200 freestyler).

Erisman’s addition did mean one swimmer would have to be left off the roster to make room for her and based on our calculations using the process detailed in the selection process, Brady Kendall‘s time in the 50 fly had the lowest percentage as compared to the other athletes in the 4th priority.

Dobson dropped a massive amount of time in the 400 going from a PB of 4:09.46 from the 2024 Junior Pan-Pacs to a prelims time of 4:08.53 to a bronze medal winning time of 4:06.66. The time, the third fastest amongst Americans this year, pushed Bella Sims out of the 4th priority (3rd fastest in events that are not the 100/200 free) and her time’s percentage as compared to the A-standard was fast enough to make the team.

The men’s team saw no changes to the roster from the last update meaning the roster for Pan-Pacs, which is capped at 26 swimmers per team, most likely will be as following:

We say most likely because Lilly King, who had announced her intentions to retire from the sport after Singapore, is still technically the fastest 50 breaststroker and 2nd fastest 100 breaststroker. However, all she needs to do is not certify that she will remain available to swim at the Pan-Pacs or decline the invitation to the team and McKenzie Siroky will move up the first spot in the 50 breast, Emma Weber to 2nd and Skyler Smith to the 3rd fastest. In the 100, Alex Walsh would then become the 2nd fastest 100 breaststroker, and Weber the 3rd (see * above and below).

With Pan-Pacs having no limit on the number of swimmers per nation in the individual events, swimmer dropping events from their line-ups is less of an issue to roster selection. The selection procedure makes no specific mention to an athlete declining an event, but using keeping another one to be selected to the team, such as was the case for Katie Ledecky dropping the individual 200 free and Bobby Finke decline the 400 IM spot at Worlds.

Section 1.3.6 of the selection procedure document outlines the Selection of Swimmers for Events stating mid way through the first section:

Prior to the announcement of the Team, if an athlete declines the Event for which they were Selected to the Team and was not Selected to the Team in any other Event, they will no longer be considered an Available Swimmer and will not be Selected to the Team. If after announcement of the Team, an athlete declines the Event for which they were Selected to the Team and was not Selected to the Team in any other Event, the replacement procedures in Section 4 will apply.

As it makes no mention of an athlete selected to multiple events, it would seem that there is no process to drop one event and keep another. In looking at section 4, the replacement procedures laid out only deal with adjustments to the roster made after the announcement of the team and after the submission of entries, so there appears to be no set of directions to follow, if hypothetically, Katie Ledecky were to not use the 200 free as a qualifying event for Pan-Pacs.

All of our working through of the roster selection procedures can be found below.