U.S. Short Course Trials, Day Three Women’s Finals: Kate Douglass Three Hundredths Off 200 IM World Record, Claims Third Victory of Meet
Thursday evening’s finals at the U.S. Short Course World Championship Trials saw veterans Katharine Berkoff, Kate Douglass, Regan Smith and Gretchen Walsh all secure victories and tickets to race at the global level in Beijing in December. Both Berkoff and Douglass set world records, Berkoff lowering the 50 backstroke mark by two hundredths while Douglass tied Walsh’s world record in the 50 freestyle.
All of those standouts returned Friday. Smith entered the 100 back final as world-record holder, with Berkoff and Claire Curzan as the primary challengers, and Curzan ended up pulling off a stunning upset, taking down Smith’s world record in the process. Douglass would race in the 200 IM and Walsh in the 50 butterfly, both events in which they hold the world record and won short course world titles two years ago. Other women’s events in the session included the 200 freestyle and 100 breaststroke.
- Day One Recap
- Day Two Prelims Recap
- Day Two Men’s Recap
- Day Two Women’s Recap
- Day Three Prelims Recap
- Live Results
Women’s 100 Backstroke
Claire Curzan pulled off a major upset in the women’s 100 backstroke, swimming away from Katharine Berkoff and Regan Smith to win in 53.92. That allowed Curzan to set the first individual world record of her career. Read more here.
Women’s 200 IM
Thursday’s finals saw Kate Douglass get to the wall first in both races she swam, the 200 breaststroke and 50 freestyle. Now, Douglass has added a third win while nearly reaching world-record territory for the second time in two days. Douglass has raced the 200 IM rarely over the past two years, but she is a two-time Olympic medalist in the event and the reigning short course world champion, having set a world record on her way to gold two years ago in Budapest.
Douglass gave a scare to her own world record Friday evening. She turned under world-record pace after each stroke, including by more than six tenths after the backstroke leg. The race long since decided as Douglass powered toward the finish, she touched in 2:01.66, three hundredths behind her own world mark but well ahead of the U.S. Open record, a 2:02.76 Douglass set two weeks earlier. Douglass will head to the Short Course World Championships as a strong gold-medal favorite in the event, particularly with Summer McIntosh and Kaylee McKeown both absent.
As they have on so many occasions for the past few years, Douglass and University of Virginia teammate Alex Walsh claimed the two U.S. slots in this event. Walsh pulled away from Torri Huske to secure a second-place result in 2:04.54. That time ended up almost two seconds behind Walsh’s a lifetime best of 2:02.65, ranking No. 5 all-time. Walsh easily eclipsed third-place finisher Torri Huske (2:07.83), with 200-yard IM NCAA champ Lucy Bell ending up fourth in 2:09.03.
Women’s 200 Freestyle
At the Short Course World Championships, the United States will depend on swimmers with little international experience in both the individual 200 free and the 800 free relay. Leading the American team individually and for relay purposes will be Liberty Clark, a sophomore at Indiana University who has just qualified for her first international squad. Clark used a stellar finish to pass veteran Simone Manuel and claim the win in Westmont, with a historic time to boot.
Clark touched in 1:51.31, taking three tenths off the American record set by Claire Weinstein in 2024. Moreover, Clark became the eighth-fastest woman in history in the event, positioning herself as medal contender in the individual race for Short Course Worlds.
Second place went to Rylee Erisman in 28.63, the teenager finishing second in an event for the second consecutive evening after previously grabbing the No. 2 spot in the 400-meter race. Erisman finished in a 28.63 split, good enough to beat Manuel to the wall by nine hundredths, 1:51.96 to 1:52.05. Camille Spink grabbed fourth in 1:54.14 to claim a Beijing spot in the 400 free relay, with Alex Shackell (fifth, 1:54.46) and Weinstein (sixth, 1:56.50) also available as relay options after previously qualifying for the team in other events.
Women’s 50 Butterfly
Women’s 100 Breaststroke
