By Sophie Kaufman on SwimSwam
See the women’s edition here.
The 2025 U.S. Nationals are fast approaching, which means it’s time for the Men’s edition of “Rising Names To Watch The Rest Of This Olympic Quad.” Several international rosters will be chosen based on results from the 2025 U.S. Nationals next month in Indianapolis, most immediately the 2025 World Championship team.
This will be the first international team in the new Olympic quad, the first typical four=year cycle since the one that culminated with the 2016 Rio Olympics. It’s an important moment for USA Swimming as this time, the Olympic cycle ends with a home Games in Los Angeles. There’s also new leadership for the USA Swimming National team including its director, Greg Meehan. And the results from the 2025 U.S. Nationals won’t just be used for picking the team heading to Singapore, there are other roster spots on the line in Indianapolis and the results will also play a part in USA Swimming’s selection of the 2026 Pan Pacific Championship roster.
This is an important moment for USA Swimming as it builds towards the 2028 Games, but its biggest stars are in varying places in their lives and in their relationship to the sport. Many of the biggest names on the men’s U.S. roster, Ryan Murphy, for example, are sitting out this season. Then, there are cases like Paris Olympian Luke Whitlock, who is sitting out U.S. Nationals as he rehabs an injury.
Coming off a single individual gold in Paris, the American men are looking for which swimmers in the next generation could join the current stars and make the home Olympics one to remember. Let’s take a look at some of the most likely candidates to do just that—focusing not just on those looking to rise this year but with an eye on the next three years.
Teen Phenoms
The U.S. men’s team is desperately in need of some fresh faces.
When looking three years into the future, the most obvious place to start is by looking at the junior ranks. Whitlock wasn’t the only teenager on the U.S. Olympic team for Paris, Aaron Shackell and Thomas Heilman also made their Olympic debut last summer. Let’s look a little further though as those two have already made an Olympic team, though certainly, fans will be hoping to see Heilman grow into playing a bigger role on an international roster.
Heilman’s future college teammate Maximus Williamson is a clear swimmer to add to this kind of list. Williamson has been rewriting records—including those set by Michael Phelps–from a young age and is about to head to college this fall. He didn’t have the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials many were perhaps expecting from him, but he rebounded with strong efforts in the yards pool this past season, culminating in national public high school marks in the 100/200 free (41.56/1:30.46) during a now under investigation UIL 6A State Championship meet. As Williamson focuses on bringing those improvements back to long-course, the hope will be that a tough Olympic Trials will have taught him a lot for how he wants to approach this year and the rest of the cycle.
Another quickly rising star is teen distance phenom Luka Mijatovic. He’s also taken down historic National Age Group Records and has spent the better part of the year continually pushing the pace in the distance freestyle events in the yards and meters pool. He swam a 4:10.96 500-yard freestyle to shatter the American boys’ 15-16 NAG. This month, he broke Rex Maurer’s National High School Record in the event with a 4:11.91 to finish out his sophomore season.
Mijatovic clearly has what it takes to be a star but he’s taking his growth one step at a time. He went to Junior Pan Pacs last summer and told SwimSwam during this CIF postseason his goal is to make the World Junior Championship team. He’ll only be 18 when the 2028 U.S. Olympic Trials come around, which means he has plenty of time to continue to develop.
The 2024 Junior Pan Pacific Championship roster is a good place to look for these juniors that could be an important piece of an LA 2028 squad. Mijatovic’s fellow distance swimmer Luke Ellis is one such name. He was one of the team captains of that team, along with senior and Stanford commit Jason Zhao. While Mijatovic won the 200/400 freestyle (1:48.05/3:49.24), Ellis earned gold in the 800 freestyle with a championship record and lifetime best 7:52.40. He also won silver in the 1500 freestyle with a 15:00.24.
Bobby Finke has cornered the market on the top spot in American men’s distance swimming, but the second roster spot has been a revolving door of athletes. It isn’t too difficult to see a world where it’s Ellis and Mijatovic pushing the pace in an Olympic Trials final in three years. Long Island Aquatic Club’s Sean Green was part of the 800 freestyle final at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials and should be back in the action at the next one too. Harvard commit William Mulgrew also made a lot of improvement in the past year after a fifth-place finish in the 1500 freestyle at Olympic Trials and a Junior Pan Pac appearance.
Other names to watch from that roster that haven’t yet headed to the NCAA ranks are Zhao, Josh Howat, Rowan Cox, and Norvin Clontz, and Gavin Keogh.
NCAA Stars
The biggest name under this section is two-time NCAA champion Rex Maurer. Maurer has had a transformative year since transferring to Texas. He broke the 500-yard freestyle American record in November, then won two NCAA titles a year after not making an individual final. His 500 free and 400 IM titles helped Texas win the 2025 NCAA title. Now, he’s looking to bring those improvements to Indianapolis and make his first senior international roster.
Maurer’s timeline, like many of these NCAA stars, is a little different than many of the junior stars—we could see them making an impact much more quickly because of where they are at in their development. But even for these swimmers, the aim will be to get the experience now to serve them in three years as they aim to make it to the sport’s biggest stage.
Two names from the 2024 Junior Pan Pacific team now in the NCAA are Gregg Enoch and Quin Seider. Enoch just wrapped his freshman season at Louisville and Seider did the same in Tempe at Arizona State University. Particularly this year, the American men’s roster has a lot of gaps, so it’s possible we could see athletes like these swimmers have a big swim and exactly the right time and parlay that into consideration for two years of national teams. Then suddenly, they have a ton of international swimming experience on their resume for the back half of the Olympic quad.
Men’s Breaststroke
Like the women’s list, we’ve broken breaststroke out into its own category. Men’s breaststroke is in an interesting state. Nic Fink seems to be taking the year off and Matt Fallon recently announced he’s not competing this summer as he pursues a professional opportunity. That leaves Josh Matheny and Michael Andrew as the biggest breaststroke stars arriving in Indianapolis.
Further, the usually places to look for who will be in the field yield little results. We don’t expect six of the eight 100 breaststroke Olympic Trials finalists to be in the field. NCAA record holder Julian Smith has retired. And many of the rising names in NCAA breaststroke like Yamato Okadome are international athletes.
So, where to turn?
Campbell McKean has asserted himself as someone poised to take advantage of this dearth in competition. He’s one of the fastest American male breaststrokers this season in the sprints after strong performances in Fort Lauderdale. The Texas commit was third in the 100 breaststroke at the most recent Pro Swim with a lifetime best 1:00.40 and finished fourth in the 50 breaststroke with a 27.40 personal best. In this year, those times make him a significant challenger for this year’s rosters.
Gabe Nunziata hasn’t put in the same long-course racing as McKean this spring so we have less of an indication as to where he’s at, but he’s another junior that could make the leap to the senior international team in this field. Similarly, Indiana commit Noah Cakir has a 1:01 lifetime best in the 100 breaststroke. Cakir is a versatile swimmer and could pursue other strokes, but in a weak breaststroke field his chance at qualification in this area gets stronger.
From the NCAA ranks there’s Nate Germonprez to consider. He’s a current Longhorn who, like Maurer, played a significant role in Texas’ NCAA title. He didn’t really focus on breaststroke before this year and made big time drops. Then, there’s Indiana’s breaststroke contingent to consider—Jassen Yep was the surprise of the 2025 NCAA Championships and decided to keep swimming based on his performances at the meet. Would making the World Championship team this season keep him in competitive waters past 2025?
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Rising National Names To Watch For The Rest Of This Olympic Quad — Men’s Edition
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Rising National Names To Watch For The Rest Of This Olympic Quad — Men’s Edition )
Also on site :