U.S. Nationals, Day 4 Women’s Prelims: Ledecky, Douglass, Smith Take Top Seeds
Already off to her seventh World Championships, Katie Ledecky returned to the pool after a day off from racing to pace the field in the 400 freestyle. Last month, she swam the second-best time of her career in a duel with Summer McIntosh at the Fort Lauderdale Pro Series, and now she has posted the top mark by more than four seconds in Friday’s prelims.
Later in the session, world-record holders Lilly King and Regan Smith were in action in the women’s 100 breaststroke and 100 backstroke, respectively. King was the second qualifier in the 100 breast behind 200-meter gold medalist Kate Douglass while Smith cruised ahead of the field in the 100 back.
Women’s 400 Freestyle
As per her usual standard against domestic competition, Katie Ledecky jumped ahead of her competition in the final heat of the 400 free before cruising to the top qualifying time. Only one swimmer in the field has a personal best within five seconds of Ledecky, and she was able to cruise through the back half and still qualify first in 4:03.16. Ledecky’s time of 3:56.81 from last month in Fort Lauderdale is the U.S. Open record and top time in the world this year.
Second in the heats went to Claire Weinstein in 4:07.45. Weinstein is already on the team after winning the 200 free and coming from behind to take second in the 800, and her Fort Lauderdale time of 4:01.26 put her at No. 4 in the world standings. The only other swimmers to crack 4:10 were Erin Gemmell (4:09.04) and Cavan Gormsen (4:09.53), with 2023 World Championship finalist Bella Sims in fifth place at 4:10.18.
The rest of the final included Madi Mintenko (4:11.14), Mila Nikanorov (4:11.39) and Michaela Mattes (4:11.72). Meanwhile, Katie Grimes finished 14th in 4:13.38. Grimes qualified for Worlds by virtue of her runnerup finish in the 400 IM Thursday evening, but here she was more than eight seconds behind her lifetime best of 4:05.18.
Women’s 100 Breaststroke
Kate Douglass is the Olympic gold medalist in the 200 breast, but she has never competed in the 100-meter event at a major international competition, and she did not even swim the event at last year’s Olympic Trials. But Douglass is now in contention for this year after clocking 1:06.27 in prelims, her lifetime best by more than two tenths and the top time by an American thus far in 2025.
Douglass was joined in 1:06 territory in the morning by Lilly King, the world-record holder and 2016 Olympic champion competing in her final qualification meet prior to retirement. King won the 50 breast Thursday, and she will be in lane five in the final after clocking 1:06.57 for the second spot. On the other side of Douglass will be a pair of her University of Virginia teammates, Emma Weber (1:07.25) and Alex Walsh (1:07.40). Walsh was the runnerup to Douglass in the 200 breast Wednesday while Weber finished to second to King in the 100 breast at last year’s Olympic Trials.
Weber and McKenzie Siroky will both swim in this final after tying for second in the 50 breast Thursday, setting up a Saturday evening swim-off to determine the No. 2 spot on the Worlds team. Siroky was sixth in prelims here in 1:08.12. Piper Enge was fourth in 1:07.25 while Gabby Rose got into the top heat with a seventh-place time of 1:08.54. The last qualifier was Elle Scott in 1:09.31.
Women’s 100 Backstroke
Nine women went under the 1:00-barrier in the 100 back prelims, but no one was close to Regan Smith. The world-record holder with a time of 57.13 established at last year’s Olympic Trials, Smith took care of business in the final heat of the event. Her opening split of 28.25 and back-half of 29.81 were both the quickest in the field, and her final time was 58.06. Smith is the top-ranked swimmer in the world this year, having clocked 57.46 at the Fort Lauderdale Pro Series.
The second-fastest swimmer in prelims was Katharine Berkoff, fresh off an American-record-setting effort in the 50 back Thursday night. Berkoff won Olympic bronze in the event last year, and her she went 58.75 to slightly surpass her previous season-best (58.79) and remain at No. 4 in the world standings.
Kennedy Noble (59.08) and Phoebe Bacon (59.18) jumped into the top-10 in the world rankings with their swims, with Claire Curzan just behind (59.23). Leah Shackley, who clocked 58.53 last month to go to No. 3 in the world behind Smith and Olympic champion Kaylee McKeown, was sixth here in 59.33, with teens Charlotte Crush (59.49) and Rylee Erisman (59.64) also getting into the final.
Erika Pelaez finished out of the mix despite going 59.91 in the morning, and also relegated to the consolation heat were Tokyo Olympic finalist Rhyan White (1:00.08), Teagan O’Dell (1:00.17) and Isabelle Stadden (1:00.31).
