U.S. Open, Day Four Finals (Men’s): Hubert Kos, Jack Alexy, Leon Marchand Lower Meet Records; Luka Mijatovic Blasts NAG
Hungarian star Hubert Kos concluded what has been a brilliant fall season Saturday evening in Austin, Texas, with a dominant performance in the 200 backstroke at the U.S. Open. Joining Kos in achieving sizzling performance Saturday night were Jack Alexy and Leon Marchand; Alexy lowered the meet record in the 100 freestyle while Marchand put on a show in the 200 butterfly.
Those three are established international performers, and Luka Mijatovic could soon join them after another star performance in a freestyle race. Mijatovic crushed the 15-16 National Age Group record in the 800 free on the way to a victory over a field that included Tokyo Olympic champion Bobby Finke. In other events, Ilya Kharun took care of business in the 50 fly while Jack Kelly had a breakthrough performance in the 200 breaststroke.
- Results
- Day One Recap
- Day Two Women’s Recap
- Day Two Men’s Recap
- Day Three Women’s Recap
- Day Three Men’s Recap
Men’s 800 Freestyle
Days after lowering his own National Age Group record in the men’s 400 free, Luka Mijatovic had another stellar performance in store for the 800-meter event. Racing against the likes of Tokyo Olympic champion Bobby Finke, Mijatovic dominated the race and blasted his previous best time of 7:53.80 by five seconds. The Pleasanton Seahawks swimmer hit the wall in 7:48.28. He had been on the verge of taking down Larsen Jensen’s 800-meter 15-16 NAG record of 7:52.05, but here he utterly clobbered the mark with a time of 7:48.28. In the process, Mijatovic became the second-quickest American swimmer this year behind Finke.
Uzbekistan’s Ilia Sibirtsev had the second-best time of the night in 7:51.85 while Indiana’s Luke Whitlock claimed third in 7:54.66. Whitlock, who posted his time out of the early heats, was the second-place finisher in the event at the 2024 Olympic Trials. Carson Foster, fresh off a dominant effort in the 400 IM Saturday, placed fourth (7:55.51) while Finke ended up fifth (7:57.68).
Men’s 50 Butterfly
Even a star-studded sprint field could not keep pace with Ilya Kharun in the 50 butterfly. The Canadian who competes collegiately for Arizona State University was the only swimmer under 23 in the event Saturday evening, touching in 22.98 to defeat the best Americans in the event by two tenths.
Dare Rose placed second in 23.17 while Matt King edged Santo Condorelli for third, 23.22 to 23.23. Caeleb Dressel, a two-time world champion in this race, fell to fifth in 23.49. His morning time of 23.19 would have been third here.
Men’s 200 Backstroke
As expected, no one in the field in Austin was close to Olympic and world champion Hubert Kos. Already one-and-a-half seconds up at the 50-meter mark, the only question was the margin of victor for the Hungarian in his current training home. In the end, Kos pushed well under the 1:55-barrier on the way to a time of 1:54.21, faster than he swam to win Olympic gold last year and a second behind his world-title time from this summer. This latest time surpassed the meet record, a 1:54.59 from Nick Thoman in 2009.
Canada’s Blake Tierney placed second here in 1:58.21, four seconds behind Kos, while Ohio State’s Cornelius Jahn came through for third in 1:59.06. The third-quickest time of the evening belonged to NC State’s Daniel Diehl, the winner of the B-final in 1:58.40.
Men’s 200 Breaststroke
Jack Kelly, a former collegiate swimmer at Brown who placed eighth in the 200-yard breast at last season’s NCAA Championships, has broken through with a big win in the event at the U.S. Open. Kelly did not even have a long course meters entry time prior to the meet, but now he is under 2:10 in the 200 breast. Kelly dominated the U.S. Open final, a field that included the two swimmers who represented the U.S. in the event at this year’s World Championships.
Kelly clocked 2:09.90, becoming the sixth-quickest U.S. swimmer this season. He finished almost one-and-a-half seconds ahead of the field as Indiana’s Noah Cakir placed second in 2:11.38. Hoosier-trained veteran Josh Matheny was third in 2:11.98, followed by World Championships finalist AJ Pouch in fourth (2:12.50).
Men’s 100 Freestyle
The top American sprinter of the past several years has been Jack Alexy, a former Cal Bear with World Championships silver medals in the 100 free in 2023 and 2025. Alexy struggled in the 50 free Thursday, ending up fifth in the event, but he bounced back with a strong 100-meter race here. Alexy went out in 22.47 and returned in 24.93, holding off chief freestyle rival Chris Guiliano down the stretch.
Alexy’s final time was 47.40, about six tenths behind the American record of 46.81 he set in the World Championships semifinals this summer. Guiliano came in second in 47.63 while Patrick Sammon, who joined Alexy in the Worlds final, placed third in 48.05. Kaii Winkler (48.27) and Jonny Kulow
Men’s 200 Butterfly
In the final race of the U.S. Open, Leon Marchand issued a reminder of his abilities in the 200 fly after sitting out the event at this summer’s World Championships. Facing challenges from Olympic bronze medalist Ilya Kharun and backstroke dominator Hubert Kos, Marchand cruised through the early stages of the race before he turned on the jets through the middle portion and down the stretch. The result was his second eye-popping performance of the week after a 3:44 in the 400 free Thursday.
Marchand won the event in 1:52.57, becoming the second-fastest swimmer in the world for 2025 and beating Kharun’s 2023 meet record of 1:54.66. The Frenchman surpassed the 1:52.64 that Poland’s Krzysztof Chmielewski swam for silver in the event at the World Championships, with only Luca Urlando (1:51.87) quicker this year. Marchand’s best time of 1:51.21 ranks him as the second-fastest man in history.
Kharun, the 50 fly winner earlier in the night, finished second in 1:55.71. Kos, in second place for most of the distance, held off Gabriel Jett for third, 1:56.01 to 1:56.16.
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