By Sam Blacker on SwimSwam
2026 PRO SWIM SERIES – AUSTIN
January 14-17, 2026 Austin, Texas Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center LCM (50 meters) Psych Sheet (updated) How to Watch Live Results Live Recaps Prelims: Day 1 Finals: Day 1Day 1 of the Pro Swim Series in Austin was highlighted by Katie Ledecky‘s scintillating swim in the women’s 1500 free, where she swam the #2 time in history. However, not every swim is as obviously flashy – here’s a few you might have missed.
Skyler Smith took 2nd in the women’s 100 breast in 1:07.87, less than a second behind World Champion Anna Elendt and just 0.04 seconds off her personal best from the Mare Nostrum tour two years ago. What was notable was her back half speed, as she closed eight-tenths faster this time around, 35.85 to 36.66. Primarily a 50 swimmer, that may portend some big swims in the 100 later in the year.
Benjamin Jaggers won the 100 back at Speedo Winter Juniors – West a month ago, and came in 0.17 seconds off his best time in his first long course swim of the season. He blasted 56.83 to win the ‘B’ final, fast enough to have placed 6th in the ‘A’ final.
Ryan Erisman has been having a quietly underrated freshman season at Cal so far, and continued that with a 14 second drop in the men’s 1500 free to place 3rd, just behind 2024 World and Olympic Champions, Dan Wiffen and Bobby Finke. He negative split his race, going 7:36-7:30, closing three seconds faster than any of his competitors.
His sister Rylee also set a best time in her first long course swim of the season, after setting some huge new bests at Winter Juniors in December. She shaved 0.14 seconds off her 100 backstroke time to go 59.25 and take 2ndbehind Regan Smith. Erisman stays 5th in the 15-16 rankings, but is now just 0.07 seconds behind Missy Franklin. Smith had a notable swim of her own as she broke 58 seconds again to win in 57.99, her 29th 57-point swim.
Anna Peplowski swam the 50 free/100 back double, nearing her best of 25.29 in the former with her swim of 25.41 to qualify 4th for today’s final, and setting a best time in both heats and finals of the 100 back. She was 1:00.52 in the morning to shave five hundredths of a second off her previous best of 1:00.57, before dropping another 0.34 seconds to take 3rd in the final.
She had a fantastic summer in the 200 free in 2025, lowering best from 1:57.04 to 1:55.70, and split 1:54.75 to help team USA to silver in the women’s 4×200 free relay.
Luc Dionne, a Virginia commit for the fall of 2027, shaved 0.17 seconds off his best time in the men’s 100 breast, going 1:02.73 to take 3rd in the ‘B’ final out of lane 1. That moved him up seven places in the 15-16 rankings, just ahead of Andrew Seliskar. After he delivered some big drops in yards at the Katie Ledecky meet in December, he has wasted no time in adjusting to long course.
Also in the 100 breast, a pair of former NCAA standouts continued their comebacks. Mitch Mason, formerly of LSU, came within seven-tenths of his best time from 2023 as he clocked 1:00.50 for third overall in just his second meet since the summer of 2024, but an even bigger swim came from overall winner Van Mathias.
He clocked 59.45 to match the Pool Record held by Alexei Avakov and knock 0.29 seconds off his best time of 59.74, set last summer. However, that stat alone does not show how rapid his progression has been over the past few months.
Having been a fly swimmer for most of his swimming career, including winning silver in the 200 fly at Junior Pan Pacs in 2018 behind Luca Urlando and ahead of Tomoru Honda, Mathias switched to breaststroke in his final year at Indiana. That proved an inspired decision, as he placed 2nd in the 100 breast at NCAAs that year, in what was his final meet before stepping away from competing and Indiana swimming’s Director of Operations.
Just over two years later he was back in the pool. On just eight weeks of training, Mathias blasted to a time of 26.76 in the 50 breast to win U.S. Nationals in August, becoming the third-fastest American in history and qualifying for the Pan Pacs team for this summer. He clocked 59.74 for silver in the 100 breast, a drop of 1.7 seconds from just 7 weeks previously. Prior to the summer of 2025, his best in the 100 breast stood at 1:03.48.
He competed on the World Cup tour this fall, the highlight being a 56.72 in the 100 breast which ranked him as the 4th-fastest American in history. His time in the long course 100 tonight moved him up seven places to 13th all-time among Americans, and makes him the third-fastest American over the past 12 months. He will be one to keep an eye out for in the 50 breast later this week, especially so given that he was 26.84 at the U.S. Open in December, a meet at which he was just 1:00.77 in the 100 breast.
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