Smith Rips 57.7 100 Again, Manuel Rides Momentum With 1:56 200 Free On Day 2 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”
• Recaps: Day 1

Regan Smith and Simone Manuel headlined a gaggle of 5 Texas professionals who gained their second occasion in as many days on the Speedo Sectionals in Austin on Thursday evening, each delivering spectacular performances.

Smith, who gained the ladies’s 200 fly on the opening evening, adopted up by dominating the 100 again, producing the lone sub-1:02 time of the occasion with a blistering 57.78.

Smith went 58.27 within the prelims with a robust again half (28.44/29.83) after which turned up the warmth on the primary size within the ultimate whereas coming residence roughly the identical (27.93/29.85).

The world file holder along with her 57.13 from the 2024 Olympic Trials, Smith leads the 2025-26 world rankings with the 57.49 she produced on the Fort Lauderdale Open in May.

Manuel, who set a brand new season-best en path to successful the 100 free on Day 1, outduelled Erin Gemmell to high the 200 free discipline final evening, posting a time of 1:56.70.

Manuel trailed Gemmell by almost three-tenths on the midway mark (56.44 to 56.72), however erased most of that deficit on the third 50 with a 29.90 break up. Coming residence, Manuel overtook her, out-splitting Gemmell by a slim margin (30.08 to 30.20) to earn the victory by seven one-hundredths.

Manuel’s time is 4 one-hundredths shy of her 1:56.66 season-best that ranks her twenty first on the earth this season, whereas Gemmell, who clocked 1:56.77, was simply over three-tenths again of her season-best (1:56.38) that ranks fifteenth on the earth.

Taking third was present Longhorn and Hungarian native Nikolett Padar, who out-split each Manuel and Gemmell on the again half (29.96/29.74) to clock 1:57.62, simply off her season-best of 1:57.27 from the Fort Lauderdale Open. In 4th, Lillie Nesty broke 1:59 for the primary time in 1:58.34 to shatter her earlier PB of 1:59.40 by over a second.

On the lads’s aspect, Carson Foster arguably had the most effective efficiency of the day within the 400 IM, placing up a time of 4:11.37 as he regularly pulled away from Rex Maurer (4:14.47) over the primary 300 earlier than holding him at bay coming residence.

Foster’s season-best of 4:07.02 from the U.S. Open ranks him third on the earth this season, whereas Maurer’s time from final evening takes greater than a second off his earlier season-best of 4:15.58 from the Longhorn Elite Invite and strikes him into twenty third on the earth.

OTHER EVENTS

• Chris Guiliano and Luke Hobson have been engaged in a good battle within the males’s 200 free by 150 meters, however Guiliano ran away with it on the final 50, touching in a time of 1:47.21 with a 27.97 closing break up, whereas Hobson pale in 29.49 to in the end end in 1:48.99. Guiliano ranks eleventh on the earth this season together with his 1:45.38 from the Westmont Pro Swim in March, whereas Hobson ranks third after clocking 1:44.49 on the U.S. Open in December.
• Texas A&M commit and North Texas Nadadores member Ella McWhorter gained the ladies’s 50 breast in a time of 32.53, one tenth off her lifetime greatest set final summer season on the U.S. Junior Championships after which matched eventually month’s Pro Swim in Indianapolis.
• Campbell McKean obtained one again on Luka Mladenovic within the ultimate of the lads’s 50 breast, because the 19-year-old American clocked 27.54 to high the 22-year-old Austrian’s time of 27.72. McKean was barely quicker than his season-best of 27.60 from the Longhorn Elite Invite, whereas Mladenovic was simply shy of his 27.70 from the Austrian Championships. This was a flip of the outcomes from final evening, when Mladenovic obtained the higher of McKean within the 200 breast. Another Texas-trained swimmer, Jack Kelly, rounded out the highest three in 28.32.
• Shaine Casas picked up his second win as many days within the males’s 100 again, pulling away from Mark Nikolaev (54.62) and Will Modglin (54.83) on the again half to the touch first in 54.09. All three males have been 26.0 on the 50, led by Modglin’s 26.02, however Casas had the quickest second 50 of 28.00 to safe the win. Casas’ season-best stands at 53.76, set on the Westmont Pro Swim in March.
• Fifteen-year-old Kaia Finanger of the Woodlands Swim Team edged out LSU’s Saskia Blasius to win the ladies’s 400 IM in a time of 4:58.06, reducing her private greatest time by 5 seconds. Finanger set her PB lower than a month in the past on 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 again in July 2023.