{"id":613790,"date":"2025-06-06T11:12:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T18:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=613790"},"modified":"2025-06-06T11:12:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T18:12:12","slug":"u-s-nationals-tight-finals-expected-friday-night-heat-sheet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/u-s-nationals-tight-finals-expected-friday-night-heat-sheet\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Nationals: Tight Finals Expected Friday Night (Heat Sheet)"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. Nationals: Tight Finals Expected Friday Night (Heat Sheet)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Women and men will each swim three events, the 400 freestyle, 100 breaststroke and 100 backstroke, on night four of the 2025 U.S. National Championships. The five-day meet is being held at the IU Natatorium, the cathedral of swimming, in downtown Indianapolis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Click here to view the full heat sheet<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the women\u2019s 400 freestyle, American-record holder <\/span>Katie Ledecky<\/b> cruised to a 4:03.16 to take the top seed in the championship final. Ledecky comes into the final four seconds ahead of second seed <\/span>Claire Weinstein<\/b>. Ledecky remains the favorite to win another national title in the 400 and Weinstein holds an advantage over the rest of the field. Erin Gemmell<\/strong>, the third seed after prelims, opted to scratch. Olympian Bella<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0Sims<\/b> will look to break up the expected top-two pairing. It took 4:12.13 to make the championship final.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the men’s event l6-year-old <\/span>Luka Mijatovic<\/b> continues to make record0breaking look easy. He opened up his Friday morning with a new 15-16 NAG Record on the way to taking the top-seed position in the final this evening. Olympians <\/span>Luke Hobson<\/b>, <\/span>David Johnston<\/b> and <\/span>Kieran Smith<\/b> highlight a stacked field that also includes NCAA champion <\/span>Rex Maurer<\/b>, who made the team earlier in the week in the 200 freestyle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Swimming in different preliminary heats, <\/span>Kate Douglass<\/b> and <\/span>Lilly King<\/b> will battle it out in the final of the 100 breaststroke . Douglass has a three tenth edge over King after her morning swim. Other Olympians fill out the final including <\/span>Emma Weber<\/b>, who finished second in the event at last summer’s Olympic Trials and <\/span>Gabrielle Rose<\/b>. Rose, the 47 year-old Olympian, makes her first major championship final in over 20 years, after two semi-finals appearances at the 2024 Trials.<\/span><\/p>\n

Josh Matheny <\/b>got to the wall the quickest in the prelims of the men\u2019s 100 breaststroke, swimming a 59.80. Less than a second separates the rest of the field, which includes <\/span>Campbell McKean<\/b> who made the World Championship team in the 50 breaststroke on Thursday night and <\/span>Jassen Yep<\/b>, the Indiana walk-on who made history when he won the 200 breaststroke at NCAAs in March.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

A stacked women’s 100 backstroke is led by world-record holder <\/span>Regan Smith<\/b>, who swam a 58.06 just ahead of new 50 back American-record holder <\/span>Katharine Berkoff<\/b>. Two other Olympians, <\/span>Phoebe Bacon<\/b> and <\/span>Claire Curzan<\/b>, comprise a deep field where it took a sub-one-minute swim at 59.64 to reach the championship final.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the men’s event, <\/span>Daniel Diehl<\/b> leads the way after a 53.33 preliminary swim, he has a slight two-hundredths edge over <\/span>Jack Aikins<\/b>. The third and fourth seeds in <\/span>Hudson Williams <\/b>and <\/span>Keaton Jones<\/b> made the final after big swims from outside lanes, both dropping just over 1.7 seconds to make the championship final.<\/span><\/p>\n