By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
2025 SWIMMING WORLD CUP – CARMEL
October 10-12, 2025 Carmel, Indiana SCM (25 meters) Meet Central Psych Sheets Live Results All The Links Live Recaps Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2 Finals: Day 1 | Day 2A pair of American swimmers picked up important wins on day 2 of the Swimming World Cup in Carmel as swimmers gear up for the crucial second year of the Olympic quad.
Shaine Casas beat the world’s best male swimmer, Leon Marchand, in the 200 IM, Regan Smith broke a losing streak to Australian Kaylee McKeown in the 100 backstroke final, and Bella Sims showed signs of recovery in her new training at the University of Michigan after a couple of years of tough results at big meets.
Casas swam 1:49.43 in the 200 IM, breaking the American and U.S. Open Records and beating out the World Record holder Leon Marchand of France by three-tenths of a second.
An aggressive Casas took out the race hard ahead of Marchand, and maybe most surprisingly out-split the Frenchman on the breaststroke leg. That leg is both Casas’ weakest stroke and a strength of Marchand, the defending Olympic Champion in the 200 breaststroke.
The swim is .08 seconds better than Casas’ previous best from December’s World Short Course Championships.
Casas and Marchand are now training partners at the University of Texas and are clearly emerging as the world’s two best 200 IMers, separating from the world, under arguably the best men’s 200 IM coach in history Bob Bowman.
Regan Smith, another Bowman trainee in the pro group at Texas, picked up a momentous win in the 100 backstroke in 54.92, winning head-to-head against her Australian rival Kaylee McKeown (55.05).
While neither time was close to either swimmer’s best, it could be an important mental hurdle for the 23-year-old Smith en route to a home Olympic Games.
That was Smith’s first head-to-head win over McKeown in an individual races, short course or long course, since 2019. That streak included silver medals for Smith in both backstroke races at the 2024 World Championships, and in all three backstroke races at the 2025 and 2023 World Championships (though it was Katharine Berkoff who won the 50 back earlier this year in Singapore).
While this race is less significant than all of those, it still could be meaningful for Smith’s confidence. The ability to go faster than McKeown has never been the issue. After all, Smith is the World Record holder in four of the six backstroke races.
It’s winning the individual races when lined up next to McKeown that has been her insurmountable hurdle.
While Smith’s swim on Saturday was nine-tenths slower than her own World Record in the event, and even .65 seconds slower than her World Cup Record from last year’s series, it shows the value of swimming in these meets and getting racing experience against your primary rivals.
The third American to get a potential boost was Bella Sims. Once one of the United States’ top prospects, Sims largely struggled to maintain her trajectory in meters pools while at the University of Florida. Her best finish was 3rd at the 2025 World Championship Trials in the 400 free in 4:07.11, about four seconds slower than her best, and her Olympic Trials meet in 2024 was even worse.
But now training at the University of Michigan, Sims’ first swims of the new season show she might be back on track. Her 3rd place finish in the 100 back in 55.27 is a new lifetime best by half-a-second and moves her to 12th place in the all-time rankings. While her 200 free earlier in the session (1:55.57 for 7th) was not as good, that time on the back-half of a tough double separated by only 14 minutes will build her confidence in her training.
Team USA has hit some rocky roads in recent years, unable to top podiums at the same pace as they used to. But these swims, especially Smith and Casas picking off the undisputed world #1s in those races headed toward Los Angeles, could be the beginning of a turn of momentum for the Americans.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Big Wins for Casas, Marchand Over The World’s Best Could Jump Start American Momentum to LA28
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