Pro Swim Series Westmont, Day 2 Finals: Sam Short Unleashes Against Olympic Champions in 800 Freestyle
The Thursday evening finals at USA Swimming’s Pro Swim Series in Westmont, Ill., began with a high-profile clash in the men’s 800 freestyle featuring the past two Olympic champions, Bobby Finke of the United States and Daniel Wiffen of Ireland, but Australian distance star Sam Short upstaged both with a stellar time of 7:40.98. The program also featured Olympic champion Summer McIntosh racing in one of her signature events, the 200 butterfly, while Regan Smith starred in a rare appearance in the 400 IM.
Leon Marchand opted out of the day’s racing following his two wins Wednesday, but his signature 400 IM still featured a big name in Olympic bronze medalist Carson Foster. Concluding the night were finals in the 100 freestyle, with Kate Douglass, Simone Manuel and Rylee Erisman in the center lanes for the women’s event before Chris Guiliano sought his third impressive race in two days after swimming times of 47.38 and 47.54 in Wednesday’s qualifying rounds.
Men’s 800 Freestyle
Australia’s Sam Short made quick work of the only two men who have won Olympic gold medals in the 800 freestyle. Racing against Bobby Finke and Daniel Wiffen, Short was ahead by 1.61 seconds at the 100-meter mark and then by more than four seconds just a quarter of the way through the race. Short then pulled away for a dominant performance and the fastest time in the world thus far in 2026.
Short touched in 7:40.98, not far off the U.S. Open record of 7:40.34 set by Finke in 2023. Short, 22, was the silver medalist in the event at the 2023 World Championships, and he likely would have contended for the podium again at last year’s Worlds before he was forced to withdraw from the event due to illness. Short was about three seconds off his best time of 7:37.76, which ranks him fifth all-time.
Finke ended up second here in 7:58.35, five seconds quicker than his prelims time but still more than half a pool length behind Short. Wiffen claimed third in 8:07.21.
Women’s 100 Breaststroke Semifinals
Kate Douglass is now the clear-cut top 100 breaststroker in the United States, having made her international debut in the race at the 2025 World Championships and emerging with a silver medal. She will go into the final as the top seed after notching a semifinal time of 1:06.41 to easily clear the second-place time of Mona McSharry, the Irish Olympic bronze medalist in the event who trains at Tennessee. McSharry finished in 1:07.054 while Canada’s Sophie Angus was the third seed (1:08.27).
Men’s 100 Breaststroke Semifinals
Jack Kelly got under the 1:00-barrier for the first time. The former Brown University swimmer now training at Texas went 59.97 in the semifinal round to take the top spot into the final, eight hundredths ahead of former Louisville swimmer and World Championships bronze medalist Denis Petrashov at 1:00.05. Josh Matheny, a Worlds finalist for the U.S. last year, placed third in 1:00.20. Six other men finished in the 1:00-range, including American-record holder Michael Andrew at 1:00.71.
Women’s 200 Butterfly
As expected, no one was anywhere close to Summer McIntosh in the 200 butterfly, one of the events she has utterly dominated on the global stage for the past four years. McIntosh has won world titles in 2022, 2023 and 2025 along with Olympic gold in Paris, and last year, she came within 0.18 of knocking off the world record in the event that has lasted since 2009.
In Westmont, no one was keeping pace with McIntosh, especially with Paris silver medalist Regan Smith skipping the race. McIntosh ended up winning by more than four seconds with a time of 2:04.72. Only nine women have ever beaten that time, with McIntosh and Smith the only active swimmers on that list.
Lindsay Looney, who trains alongside McIntosh (and Smith) at the University of Texas, placed second in 2:09.03, with Samantha Banos well back in third (2:11.79).
Men’s 200 Butterfly
A trio of swimmers with Cal-Berkeley ties swept the top-three spots in the 200 fly, and leading the way was Gabriel Jett. Jett, 23, is coming off a breakout 2025 season in which he qualified for his first World Championships team in the 200 free, but the 200 fly has been his best event throughout his career, with a national title coming back in 2022. Here, Jett dominated with a time of 1:55.07, just two tenths off his seed time of 1:54.87 from last summer. Jett was on track for an even quicker time after splitting 1:23.90 at the 150-meter mark, but he faded slightly with a 31.17 on the way home.
Trenton Julian, a former Cal swimmer now at Mission Viejo, took second in 1:58.07, while Lucas Henveaux made a rare appearance in the 200 fly with a third-place time of 1:58.18.
Women’s 50 Backstroke
The world champion in the women’s 50 back set the world’s quickest time to this point, but the victory did not come easily. Katharine Berkoff blasted a mark of 27.24, which was within three tenths of the American record of 26.97 she set last June and two tenths of her gold-medal time of 27.08 from Singapore. But just behind her was Isabelle Stadden, who went 27.29 for second. Mexico’s Celia Pulido placed third in 27.88.
Stadden is in the midst of a career meet in Westmont. Fresh off a time a second-place performance in the 200 back, her time of 2:05.91 blasting her previous best by more than a second, Stadden clocked 27.29 in the 50. She has now crushed her best time twice in one day; entering with a top mark of 27.64, Stadden went 27.42 in prelims and now 27.29 at night, quicker than the bronze-medal-winning time from Worlds.
Men’s 50 Backstroke
One swimmer got under 25 seconds in the men’s 50 back, Auburn’s Ivan Tarasov. The native of Russia hit the wall in 24.90 to beat the field by more than three tenths. The Tigers picked up a 1-3 finish here as Kalle Makinen touched in 25.33 while veteran Michael Andrew came in second at 25.23. Andrew is in the midst of a solid meet in Westmont, having previously won the 50 fly and qualified for the 100 breast final.
Women’s 400 IM
Long established among the best in the world in the backstroke events and the 200 fly, Regan Smith has made occasional appearances in the individual medley events since she began training with coach Bob Bowman in late 2022. Smith has a strong freestyle to go along with her world-class speed in the first two strokes, but breaststroke remains a weakness, largely dissuading Smith from pursuing medley on the international level. But her latest performance in the 400 IM might give her something to think about.
Smith’s appearance in the 400 IM marked only the third time ever she has raced the event in a sanctioned long course competition, having most recently done so in 2023. Smith swam a solid mark of 4:43.34 in the morning, but she crushed that at night. She jumped out in front of the field with splits of 1:01.75 on butterfly and 1:07.66 on backstroke. Smith managed a 1:23.65 breaststroke split before coming home in 1:02.73.
The final result was a time of 4:35.79, three seconds under Smith’s previous personal best and good enough to make Smith the 16th-fastest American ever in the event. The time would have been good enough for second place at last year’s U.S. Nationals.
Agostina Hein, a 17-year-old from Argentina, swam a strong time of 4:38.84 to take second while Emma Weyant, a two-time Olympic medalist in the event, was third in 4:39.24.
Men’s 400 IM
Subtract Leon Marchand from the mix, and no one has been more consistent in the men’s 400 IM in recent years than Carson Foster. An ankle injury knocked him out of the event at the 2025 World Championships, but Foster owns a pair of Worlds silvers in the event plus 2024 Olympic bronze. In December, he came within six tenths of his best time with a 4:07.02 at the U.S. Open, and now Foster has notched the first sub-4:10 performance of the year.
His dominant effort in Westmont resulted in a time of 4:09.49, annihilating the previous world best of 4:13.21 posted by Marchand at the Austin Pro Series. Foster has developed world-class abilities in all four strokes, as evidenced by his 2:11 effort in the 200 breast Wednesday evening, and he looks poised to return to 4:06-territory or even better in 2026.
Second place here went to Shaine Casas in 4:16.37. The versatile Texas-trained swimmer had success in the short course 400 IM during his college career and the World Cup season, but Thursday’s prelims marked his first time racing a long course 400 IM in official competition since he was 13 years old. Accordingly, his prelims mark of 4:27.08 was a lifetime best by more than a minute, and he lobbed off another 10 seconds at night. Bobby Finke, returning to the pool after the 800 free, grabbed third in4:21.57.
Women’s 100 Freestyle
Three of the country’s elite 100 freestylers raced in the Westmont final, and the race came down to the touch, with one of the U.S. team’s most versatile performers holding off one of its brightest young stars by less than a tenth. Kate Douglass, who set a short course world record in the 100 free in October, had the lead throughout the race but had to hold on down the stretch as Rylee Erisman closed in. Douglass touched in 53.45 to take the win, just ahead of Erisman in 53.54.
Third place saw a tie between Canada’s Taylor Ruck and American-record holder Simone Manuel in 53.88. In 2025, Manuel broke 53 in the 100 free for the first time since 2019 while Erisman, 16, reached that speed for the first time. The group of Douglass, Erisman, Manuel, Torri Huske and Gretchen Walsh are expected to give the American women a chance at knocking off Australia in the 400 free relay at this year’s Pan Pacific Championships. The U.S. women have not beaten Australia internationally since 2017.
Men’s 100 Freestyle
Chris Guiliano could not surpass his speed from Wednesday’s rounds of the 100 free, but he has come through with three straight 47-second performances. Guiliano clocked 47.38 in the prelims, the fastest time ever at a Pro Series meet, and he followed that up with a 47.54 in the semifinal round. Thursday brought a bit more of a challenge getting home, but Guiliano still came in at 47.84 to secure the win by four tenths.
Behind Guiliano were four swimmers in the 48-second range. Brooks Curry, a two-time Olympian on relays for the United States, grabbed second in 48.24, with Matt King just two hundredths back at 48.26. Canadian Ruslav Gaziev placed fourth in 48.62 while Luke Hobson went 48.91 for fifth. Hobson, the World Championships silver medalist in the 200 free, was within a half-second of his best time of 48.50.