\t\t\t\t\t2026 PRO SWIM SERIES \u2013 AUSTIN<\/p>\n
A revised version of the heat sheets for this weekend\u2019s Pro Swim Series opener in Austin, Texas is absent a number of big names, with a handful of other significant scratches revealed by the Wednesday morning heat sheets.<\/p>\n
Out of the Meet<\/p>\n
The biggest names to have fully withdrawn from the meet include US National Team members\u00a0Hunter Armstrong and\u00a0Grant House<\/a>.<\/p>\n The two-time Olympian and three-time Olympic relay medalist Armstrong has raced sparingly since the Paris Olympics, citing financial hardship behind the hiatus<\/a>. That included skipping the World Championship Trials in 2025.<\/p>\n He did race at the U.S. Open in December, but only briefly: he finished 14th in the 50 free final (22.35) and 14th in the 50 back prelims (25.65) before scratching the B-Final.<\/p>\n In Austin this week, he was scheduled to race the 50 free (#8 seed), 100 back (#2 seed), 50 fly (#8 seed), 50 back (#2 seed), and 100 free (#6 seed).<\/p>\n Fellow U.S. National Team member\u00a0Grant House<\/a> has also pulled out of the meet. He had 5 entries in the meet including 5th in the 200 IM and 6th in the 100 fly.<\/p>\n House recently posted a video of a \u201cspeed practice\u201d at Arizona State<\/a>, so the reason behind his withdrawal is not obvious.<\/p>\n Other full-meet withdrawals include:<\/p>\n 17-year-old\u00a0Addison Bitel<\/a> from Laker Swim in Florida, who was the #5 seed in the thin women\u2019s 50 and 100 meter breaststroke fields, plus 6th in the 200 breast. Her teammate\u00a0Brynn Lavigueur<\/a>, the #6 seed in the 50 back and #7 seed in the 100 back, also scratched the meet. Last-Minute Additions<\/p>\n In addition to the scratches, there were some last minute additions to the meet entries. That includes breaststrokers\u00a0Luke Barr<\/a> and\u00a0Mitch Mason<\/a>, who are both training with Coley Stickels<\/a>\u2018 pro group at Texas Ford Aquatics.<\/p>\n They are the #7 and #8 seeds in the 100 breaststroke, with the versatile Barr also holding high seeds in the 50 fly (#9), 100 fly (#7), and 50 back (#6).<\/p>\n Wednesday Scratches<\/p>\n The most significant scratch from the final psych sheet to Wednesday\u2019s heat sheet is French international\u00a0Pauline Mahieu<\/a>. Part of a large contingent of French swimmers at the meet, Mahieu was the #2 seed in the 100 back.<\/p>\n That is her only entry of the meet, so in essence she has scratched the meet.<\/p>\n While one recent Instagram post from last week said that she planned to leave for Los Angeles for a camp with the French team on January 5, her Instagram story on Tuesday shows her dragging a sled with groceries across the snow with the caption \u201cchange of scenery.\u201d<\/p>\n The women\u2019s 1500 free also saw scratches from the #2, #3, and #4 entries behind the event\u2019s most dominant swimmer ever\u00a0Katie Ledecky<\/a>.<\/p>\n The #2 seed\u00a0Claire Weinstein<\/a>, the #3 seed\u00a0Ashley Twichell<\/a>, and the #4 seed\u00a0Caroline Pennington<\/a> are all absent from the heat sheets in a field that has been reduced to only its 8 swimmer \u2018fastest heat.\u2019<\/p>\n Weinstein, a freshman at Cal, is still entered in the 50 free as the #11 seed, while Twichell and Pennington won\u2019t race on Wednesday at all.<\/p>\n The other big scratch from Wednesday\u2019s heat sheets is\u00a0Kato Trinquesse, another Denver Hilltopper drop from the women\u2019s 100 breaststroke field. She was promoted to the #7 seed after her teammate withdrew from the meet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026 PRO SWIM SERIES \u2013 AUSTIN A revised version of the heat sheets for this weekend\u2019s Pro Swim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[53314,52932,132,134,133,53315,53316,50886,53317,53318,50891,50894,53319,53320,53321,53322,53323],"class_list":{"0":"post-122813","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-addison-bitel","9":"tag-ashley-twichell","10":"tag-austin","11":"tag-austin-headlines","12":"tag-austin-news","13":"tag-brynn-lavigueur","14":"tag-caroline-pennington","15":"tag-claire-weinstein","16":"tag-coley-stickels","17":"tag-grant-house","18":"tag-hunter-armstrong","19":"tag-katie-ledecky","20":"tag-kato-trinquesse","21":"tag-luke-barr","22":"tag-mitch-mason","23":"tag-natalie-bradac","24":"tag-pauline-mahieu"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n16-year-old\u00a0Natalie Bradac from the University of Denver Hilltoppers club team, the #9 seed in the 100 breast<\/p>\n