Simone Manuel Fires Off Season-Finest 53.15 100 Free On Day 1 of Austin Sectionals

2026 Speedo Sectionals – Austin

• July 15-19, 2026
• Austin, Texas
• Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swim Center
• LCM (50 meters)
• Results on Meet Mobile: “2026 ST TXLA SZ LC Sectional Champs”

Simone Manuel highlighted the opening day of the 2026 Speedo Sectionals in Austin with a really spectacular efficiency within the 100 freestyle, whereas lots of her Texas professional group teammates additionally carried out properly of their house pool.

Manuel, 29, put up a time of 53.15 within the ladies’s 100 free, reducing her earlier season-best of 53.33, set on the U.S. Open in December, to maneuver up from a tie for thirteenth into eleventh on the planet this season.

After clocking 53.98 within the prelims behind splits of 26.08/27.90, Manuel was out greater than half a second sooner within the last (25.53) whereas nonetheless managing to shut a bit faster in 27.62.

Since setting her season-best in December, Manuel has produced 5 different sub-54 swims in 2026 previous to this meet: 53.55 in January, 53.88 in March, 53.94 in April, after which 53.50 and 53.67 finally month’s Longhorn Elite Invite.

Manuel is one in all many Texas professional swimmers who will characterize the U.S. at subsequent month’s Pan Pacific Championships.

Placing 2nd to Manuel within the ladies’s 100 free was rising Texas senior Erin Gemmell, who clocked 54.52, whereas rising sophomore and Hungarian native Nikolett Padar rounded out the highest three in 55.02 after going 54.52 within the prelims.

In the lads’s 100 free, it was Chris Guiliano powering to victory in a time of 48.40, with Luke Hobson the one different swimmer sub-50 in 49.98. Both are members of the Pan Pac workforce.

Guiliano is the quickest American up to now this season, rating third on the planet along with his 47.38 from the Westmont Pro Swim in March.

Other U.S. Pan Pac roster members choosing up wins had been Regan Smith, Carson Foster, Shaine Casas, Jillian Cox and Rex Maurer.

Smith received the ladies’s 200 fly in 2:06.18, topping coaching associate Lindsay Looney (2:08.65), whereas present Longhorns Angie Coe (2:10.37) and Campbell Stoll (2:11.50) additionally had sturdy swims.

Smith went out quick, delivering 59.70 on the 100, and was nonetheless inside a half-second of her American Record tempo on the 150 earlier than tightening up on the way in which house and splitting 34.20.

Stoll, the reigning NCAA champion within the 200 fly, narrowly missed her private greatest time of two:11.47, set simply over a yr in the past on the 2025 Longhorn Elite Invite.

Foster rolled to victory within the males’s 200 fly in a time of 1:55.33, slowly however certainly pulling away from Mitchell Schott (1:55.82) on the again half.

Foster owns a season-best of 1:55.09, set on the Fort Lauderdale Open in April, whereas Schott knocked 4 one-hundredths off his earlier greatest time of 1:55.86.

Tyler Ray, the current Michigan grad who introduced his transfer to the Texas professional group a couple of months in the past, was third in 1:58.03 after setting a lifetime better of 1:57.99 within the prelims. His earlier PB stood at 1:58.36, set again in the summertime of 2024.

Shaine Casas ripped a time of 24.67 en path to profitable the lads’s 50 again, with Will Modglin and Jack Wilkening tying for 2nd in 25.17. Casas at the moment ranks 14th on the planet this his season-best of 24.53 from the U.S. Open.

In the timed finals of the 800 freestyle, Cox received the ladies’s occasion in 8:24.90, with teammate Kate Hurst the one different swimmer sub-9:00 in 8:32.45.

Cox primarily even-split the race, out in 4:12.33 on the 400-meter mark after which again in 4:12.57. She improves on her season-best of 8:26.04 to maneuver up from 14th into twelfth within the 2025-26 world rankings. As for Hurst, she was lower than three seconds shy of her 8:29.58 season-best.

Maurer received the lads’s race in 7:53.90, simply shy of his 7:52.71 season-best from final month’s Longhorn Elite Invite. He was out quick, delivering 3:52.83 on the 400, earlier than falling off tempo coming house, splitting 30-plus all through the vast majority of the again half earlier than the ultimate 100.

Rising Texas sophomore Aiden Hammer positioned 2nd in 8:01.21.

OTHER EVENTS

• German native Anna Elendt dominated the ladies’s 200 breaststroke area in 2:25.01, utilizing an aggressive technique with a 1:09.09 opening 100. The time is simply shy of her 2:24.77 season-best set in April on the German Championships.
• Austrian native and former Michigan Wolverine Luka Mladenovic received the lads’s 200 breast in a time of two:11.88, outduelling coaching companions Campbell McKean (2:12.75) and Nate Germonprez (2:13.14). Mladenovic was way more conservative than the opposite two on the opening 50, however was considerably sooner on the second size after which was the one one capable of maintain his again half sub-1:09 to e-book the victory. Mladenovic owns a private greatest time of two:10.08, set final yr, and he’s been as quick as 2:10.87 up to now this yr.
• In the lone race not received by a Texas swimmer, Texas A&M’s Halina Panczyszyn claimed the ladies’s 50 again in a time of 29.29, matching her private greatest on the quantity. Rising Texas sophomore Sarah Rodrigues was the runner-up in 29.35.