The 2025 USA Swimming National Championships concluded in Indianapolis, Indiana, but for several Texas swimmers and divers, this meet marked more of a beginning than an end.
Eleven Longhorns Aquatics swimmers qualified to compete for Team USA on the World Championship Team due to their success at Nationals, and their names read as follows: Carson Foster, David Johnston, Chris Guiliano, Regan Smith, Simone Manuel, Erin Gemmell, Luke Hobson, Rex Maurer, Shaine Casas, Jillian Cox and Campbell McKean.
Four divers also made the cut: Hailey Hernandez, Bayleigh Cranford, Nick Harris and Grayson Campbell.
These athletes will travel to Singapore for the World Aquatics Championships, which take place from July 11 through Aug. 3.
This opportunity creates a unique environment where collegiate opponents compete alongside one another as teammates. Texas’s rising junior Erin Gemmell secured a spot on both the 4×100 and 4×200 relay teams, and between these two relay lineups alone, five different colleges will be represented.
That being said, Texas swimmers won’t lack the comfort of seeing familiar faces, as 11 out of 47 total roster spots on the swimming side have been claimed by Longhorns Aquatics swimmers.
Those returning to Texas can also take pride in the fact that several more of their teammates will be competing on a different stage this summer. While the World Aquatics Championships serve as the biggest event of the summer in the world of swimming, the 11 Longhorns who qualified for Team USA aren’t the only ones who will have the chance to develop at the national level throughout these next few months.
Ten more athletes qualified for the World University Games, a competition in which college swimmers and divers worldwide will come together and compete in Germany from July 16-27. Eight swimmers earned spots in this competition: Camden Taylor, Kate Hurst, Will Modglin, Nate Germonprez, Baylor Nelson, Piper Enge, Lindsay Looney and Alec Enyeart will all be participating. The other two athletes, Taylor Fox and Jacob Jones, qualified on the diving side.
Although preseason training for collegiate swimmers doesn’t technically begin until school starts back up at the end of August, this period of the offseason can be pivotal for the development of collegiate swimmers and divers.
This overlap between college and national rosters fosters community within the swimming world, and the raised level of competition that these 19 Longhorns swimmers and six divers will embrace this summer could help give them an edge as the fall season approaches.
