National Teamers Hunter Armstrong, Grant House Withdraw from Pro Swim Series

2026 PRO SWIM SERIES – AUSTIN

A revised model of the warmth sheets for this weekend’s Pro Swim Series opener in Austin, Texas is absent plenty of large names, with a handful of different vital scratches revealed by the Wednesday morning warmth sheets.

Out of the Meet

The greatest names to have totally withdrawn from the meet embrace US National Team members Hunter Armstrong and Grant House.

The two-time Olympian and three-time Olympic relay medalist Armstrong has raced sparingly for the reason that Paris Olympics, citing monetary hardship behind the hiatus. That included skipping the World Championship Trials in 2025.

He did race on the U.S. Open in December, however solely briefly: he completed 14th within the 50 free ultimate (22.35) and 14th within the 50 again prelims (25.65) earlier than scratching the B-Final.

In Austin this week, he was scheduled to race the 50 free (#8 seed), 100 again (#2 seed), 50 fly (#8 seed), 50 again (#2 seed), and 100 free (#6 seed).

Fellow U.S. National Team member Grant House has additionally pulled out of the meet. He had 5 entries within the meet together with fifth within the 200 IM and sixth within the 100 fly.

House lately posted a video of a “speed practice” at Arizona State, so the rationale behind his withdrawal is just not apparent.

Other full-meet withdrawals embrace:

• 17-year-old Addison Bitel from Laker Swim in Florida, who was the #5 seed within the skinny girls’s 50 and 100 meter breaststroke fields, plus sixth within the 200 breast. Her teammate Brynn Lavigueur, the #6 seed within the 50 again and #7 seed within the 100 again, additionally scratched the meet.
• 16-year-old Natalie Bradac from the University of Denver Hilltoppers membership group, the #9 seed within the 100 breast

Last-Minute Additions

In addition to the scratches, there have been some final minute additions to the meet entries. That contains breaststrokers Luke Barr and Mitch Mason, who’re each coaching with Coley Stickels‘ professional group at Texas Ford Aquatics.

They are the #7 and #8 seeds within the 100 breaststroke, with the versatile Barr additionally holding excessive seeds within the 50 fly (#9), 100 fly (#7), and 50 again (#6).

Wednesday Scratches

The most vital scratch from the ultimate psych sheet to Wednesday’s warmth sheet is French worldwide Pauline Mahieu. Part of a giant contingent of French swimmers on the meet, Mahieu was the #2 seed within the 100 again.

That is her solely entry of the meet, so in essence she has scratched the meet.

While one current Instagram put up from final week mentioned that she deliberate to go away for Los Angeles for a camp with the French group on January 5, her Instagram story on Tuesday reveals her dragging a sled with groceries throughout the snow with the caption “change of scenery.”

The girls’s 1500 free additionally noticed scratches from the #2, #3, and #4 entries behind the occasion’s most dominant swimmer ever Katie Ledecky.

The #2 seed Claire Weinstein, the #3 seed Ashley Twichell, and the #4 seed Caroline Pennington are all absent from the warmth sheets in a subject that has been lowered to solely its 8 swimmer ‘fastest heat.’

Weinstein, a freshman at Cal, continues to be entered within the 50 free because the #11 seed, whereas Twichell and Pennington gained’t race on Wednesday in any respect.

Also dropping as a excessive seed is teen phenom Rylee Erisman from the ladies’s 200 IM. She was the 4th seed in that occasion, however it was one in all two doable races on her schedule for the day. She will nonetheless race an excellent subject within the girls’s 100 again, the place she’s the 4th seed, however was by no means entered within the 50 free, which is one in all her main occasions.

The different large scratch from Wednesday’s warmth sheets is Kato Trinquesse, one other Denver Hilltopper drop from the ladies’s 100 breaststroke subject. She was promoted to the #7 seed after her teammate withdrew from the meet.