\t\t\t\t\t2026 Speedo Sectionals \u2013 Austin<\/p>\n
July 15-19, 2026 Regan Smith<\/a> and\u00a0Simone Manuel<\/a> headlined a group of five Texas pros who won their second event in as many days at the Speedo Sectionals in Austin on Thursday night, both turning in impressive performances.<\/p>\n Smith, who won the women\u2019s 200 fly on the opening night, followed up by dominating the 100 back, producing the lone sub-1:02 time of the event with a blistering 57.78.<\/p>\n Smith went 58.27 in the prelims with a strong back half (28.44\/29.83) and then turned up the heat on the first length in the final while coming home roughly the same (27.93\/29.85).<\/p>\n The world record holder with her 57.13 from the 2024 Olympic Trials, Smith leads the 2025-26 world rankings with the 57.49 she produced at the Fort Lauderdale Open in May.<\/p>\n Manuel, who set a new season-best en route to winning the 100 free on Day 1<\/a>, outduelled\u00a0Erin Gemmell<\/a> to top the 200 free field last night, posting a time of 1:56.70.<\/p>\n Manuel trailed Gemmell by nearly three-tenths at the halfway mark (56.44 to 56.72), but erased most of that deficit on the third 50 with a 29.90 split. Coming home, Manuel overtook her, out-splitting Gemmell by a slim margin (30.08 to 30.20) to earn the victory by seven one-hundredths.<\/p>\n Manuel\u2019s time is four one-hundredths shy of her 1:56.66 season-best that ranks her 21st in the world this season, while Gemmell, who clocked 1:56.77, was just over three-tenths back of her season-best (1:56.38) that ranks 15th in the world.<\/p>\n Taking 3rd was current Longhorn and Hungarian native Nikolett Padar<\/a>, who out-split both Manuel and Gemmell on the back half (29.96\/29.74) to clock 1:57.62, just off her season-best of 1:57.27 from the Fort Lauderdale Open. In 4th,\u00a0Lillie Nesty<\/a> broke 1:59 for the first time in 1:58.34 to shatter her previous PB of 1:59.40 by over a second.<\/p>\n On the men\u2019s side,\u00a0Carson Foster<\/a>\u00a0arguably had the best performance of the day in the 400 IM, putting up a time of 4:11.37 as he gradually pulled away from\u00a0Rex Maurer<\/a> (4:14.47) over the first 300 before holding him at bay coming home.<\/p>\n Foster\u2019s season-best of 4:07.02 from the U.S. Open ranks him 3rd in the world this season, while Maurer\u2019s time from last night takes more than a second off his previous season-best of 4:15.58 from the Longhorn Elite Invite and moves him into 23rd in the world.<\/p>\n OTHER EVENTS<\/p>\n Chris Guiliano<\/a> and\u00a0Luke Hobson<\/a> were engaged in a tight battle in the men\u2019s 200 free through 150 meters, but Guiliano ran away with it on the last 50, touching in a time of 1:47.21 with a 27.97 closing split, while Hobson faded in 29.49 to ultimately finish in 1:48.99. Guiliano ranks 11th in the world this season with his 1:45.38 from the Westmont Pro Swim in March, while Hobson ranks 3rd after clocking 1:44.49 at the U.S. Open in December.
\nAustin, Texas
\nLee and Joe Jamail Texas Swim Center
\nLCM (50 meters)
\nResults on Meet Mobile: \u201c2026 ST TXLA SZ LC Sectional Champs\u201d
\nRecaps: Day 1<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTexas A&M commit and North Texas Nadadores member\u00a0Ella McWhorter<\/a> won the women\u2019s 50 breast in a time of 32.53, one tenth off her lifetime best set last summer at the U.S. Junior Championships and then matched at last month\u2019s Pro Swim in Indianapolis.
\nCampbell McKean<\/a> got one back on\u00a0Luka Mladenovic<\/a> in the final of the men\u2019s 50 breast, as the 19-year-old American clocked 27.54 to top the 22-year-old Austrian\u2019s time of 27.72. McKean was slightly faster than his season-best of 27.60 from the Longhorn Elite Invite, while Mladenovic was just shy of his 27.70 from the Austrian Championships. This was a flip of the results from last night, when Mladenovic got the better of McKean in the 200 breast. Another Texas-trained swimmer,\u00a0Jack Kelly<\/a>, rounded out the top three in 28.32.
\nShaine Casas<\/a> picked up his second win as many days in the men\u2019s 100 back, pulling away from\u00a0Mark Nikolaev<\/a>\u00a0(54.62) and\u00a0Will Modglin<\/a> (54.83) on the back half to touch first in 54.09. All three men were 26.0 at the 50, led by Modglin\u2019s 26.02, but Casas had the fastest second 50 of 28.00 to secure the win. Casas\u2019 season-best stands at 53.76, set at the Westmont Pro Swim in March.
\nFifteen-year-old\u00a0Kaia Finanger of the Woodlands Swim Team edged out LSU\u2019s Saskia Blasius<\/a> to win the women\u2019s 400 IM in a time of 4:58.06, lowering her personal best time by five seconds. Finanger set her PB less than a month ago at the Fran Crippen Memorial Swim Meet of Champions in 5:03.08. Blasius, a German native, was 2nd in 4:59.23. Her PB stands at 4:48.01 set back in July 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026 Speedo Sectionals \u2013 Austin July 15-19, 2026 Austin, Texas Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swim Center LCM…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,58097,50883,50885,133248,50762,53925,133249,50764,99678,50898,133250,115746,50903,58119,133251,50906,50907,58122],"class_list":["post-376893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-campbell-mckean","tag-carson-foster","tag-chris-guiliano","tag-ella-mcwhorter","tag-erin-gemmell","tag-jack-kelly","tag-kaia-finanger","tag-lillie-nesty","tag-luka-mladenovic","tag-luke-hobson","tag-mark-nikolaev","tag-nikolett-padar","tag-regan-smith","tag-rex-maurer","tag-saskia-blasius","tag-shaine-casas","tag-simone-manuel","tag-will-modglin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376893","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=376893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}