2024 U.S. Open
With this being the first U.S. Open in short course yards in recent history and with it being the first edition after the summer Olympics and one week before World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m), the expected entrants for the 2024 U.S. Open has been everyone’s guess. But hopefully the American Thanksgiving holiday has not saturated too much of our appetite as the Psych sheets have dropped, and after the fast swimming at the collegiate invites, I’m ready for round 2 of some fast short course yards swimming,
2024 U.S. Open Psych Sheets (Pre-Scratch)
With a small but notable contingent of the US National team heading to Budapest to race at short course Words in the second week of December, the likes of Regan Smith, Kate Douglass and Michael Andrew will not be able to defend their U.S. Open victories from 2023. In their stead, a strong crop of collegiate swimmers will look to turn success here into strong run at NCAAs.
Chloe Stepanek, who returned for her 5th year at Texas A&M, finds herself as the top seed in the 50 (22.06), 100 (47.70), and 200 (1:42.41) yard freestyles. Stepanek placed 15th and 16th, respectively in the 100 and 200 freestyles at Olympic Trials, where she also placed 32nd in the 50 free and 34th in the 100 fly, the latter of which was in a new best time. Stepanek is also entered in the 500 free, 200 back, and 100 fly.
In the 500 free, Stepanek trails SwimSwam’s #10 ranked swimmer in the class of 2025, Kennedi Dobson. A Georgia commit, Dobson claimed gold at the Junior Pan-Pacs this past summer in the 400 free and enters the U.S. Open as the top seed in both the 500 free (4:37.33) and in the 200 backstroke (1:53.88). Dobson is entered in a whopping ten individual events and likely will pair that down, but at Junior Pan Pacs, she did swim six individual races.
Dobson and Stepanek may be atop the psych sheet in the 200 back, but most eyes will be on Rhyan White. The Wolfpack Elite swimmer is entered in five individual events and finds herself as the top seed in the 100 back (51.93) and 100 fly (51.47). She will also tackle the 200 IM, 200 fly, and 200 back. White, who finished 6th at Olympic Trials in the 200 back, finds herself as the 23rd seed in the event (entered with a LCM time), as like many of her fellow post-grad swimmers, White spent all of last year racing in meters and only recently returned to the yards pool this month.
UNC appears to be sending a few swimmers to make the hour of so drive to Greensboro led by Olympic Trials semifinalist Skyler Smith. Smith tops the field in both the 100 breast (58.65) and in the 200 breast (2:10.84). UNC isn’t the only collegiate program sending teams as Loyola (Maryland), Purdue, Florida Atlantic and Queens populate the relay entries.
Queens, which won the D II NCAAs from 2015-2019 and now competes at the D I level in the Atlantic Sun Conference, like UNC finds itself with swimmers atop the psych sheet. Slovak Olympian Matej Dusa, a grad student, is the top seed in the men’s 50 free (19.13).
Many of the top seeds on the men’s side are taken up by collegiate swimmers. Purdue’s Brady Samuels (42.40) will look to hold off UNC’s Patrick Hussey (42.72) in the 100 free, while Penn State’s Mariano Lazzerini is the top seed in both of the breaststroke (51.08 & 1:52.94).
Looking to hold off the collegiate swimmers is SwimAtlanta’s Bradley Dunham. The former Georgia Bulldog is the top seed in both backstroke as well as the 200 and 500 free. Dunham, who placed as high as 18th in the 200 back at Olympic Trials. He is coming off of his best showing at NCAAs, where as a 5th year, Dunham set the school record in the 200 back (1:37.58) en route to finishing 6th in a time of 1:38.43.
Fellow post-grad Danny Berlitz finds himself atop the field in both of the IMs (1:43.94 & 3:43.02) and also finds himself in both the 200 breaststroke and 200 backstroke. Berlitz is coming off of a strong showing at the Olympic Trials. The former West Virginia Mountaineer swam a personal best of 4:15.98 to make the finals of the 400 IM, where he would ultimately finish in 8th.
Like White in the 200 back, Drew Kibler, swimming under the New York Athletic Club, is entered with only long course times, belying the depth of the sprint frees. Kibler is the 53rd seed in the 50 free, entered with a long course 22.34. The same is true for the 100, 200 and 500 free, where his long course entries have him much further down the entry lists. Fellow 2024 Olympian Breno Correia, who represented Brazil at the Paris Games, is also entered in meters times, as is Hvoje Tomic, who would have been a freshman at Notre Dame this year. Tomic is a Croatian national who was a Junior Worlds semifinalist in 2023.
