U.S. National Championships: Luca Urlando Pulls Away to Win Men’s 200 Butterfly
The first men’s final of the 2025 U.S. National Championships kicked off in Indianapolis with the finals of the men’s 200 butterfly.
There haven’t been a slew of challengers in the men’s 200 butterfly since Luca Urlando has come back strong from injury.
Gabriel Jett, Carson Foster and Trenton Julian have been mainstays and young gun Thomas Heilman has inched closer to crashing the party.
Julian took the lead after the first 50 then Urlando started to take control of the race. He was ahead at the final turn and went on to win in 1:53.42 continuing his sensational year that started strong with an NCAA Championship. Now his success has transitioned to the highest level in long course at the U.S. National Championships.
Foster pulled into second just before the final turn and hung on to take the second spot in 1:53.70.
Heilman had some outside smoke to pull within third at 1:54.03, finishing ahead of Julian (1:55.26) and Jett (1:55.47).
Mason Lauer finished sixth in 1:55.63, ahead of Jack Dahlgren (1:55.97) and Mitchell Schott (1:56.47) to round out the top eight finalists.
