The women's 100m freestyle started USA Nationals with a bang last Tuesday, and the 50m freestyle ended the championships in Irvine, California, with fireworks: Virginia's Anna Moesch set three records in one when she clocked a career-high 51.88 in the 100m free; and then her training partner Gretchen Walsh topped the 50m free with a dashing 23.60 championship mark, just 0.05sec shy of the World record she set at the Sette Colli International in Rome in June.

A reminder of their last blast out in those events:

Moesch’s 51.94 Message To Dolphins: Eagles Are After Your 4x100 Crown at LA2028

Only Sarah Sjöström, the double Olympic 50-100m freestyle sprint champion and 51.71 World-record holder from Sweden, has ever swum faster than Moesch’s march past the 52s from 53.2. to 51.9 at the London International. Great expectations ahoy!

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Walsh’s Answer To Douglass Back Home & Sjöström in Rome: 23.55WR Free Dash

Flaming June, that 1895 masterpiece by the British Victorian painter Sir Frederic Leighton, sums up the mood of women’s sprinting this sizzling season of world records, the latest by Gretchen Walsh 0.04sec inside teammate Kate Douglass’ 9-day-old mark, comeback mum Sarah Sjöström on 23.86

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

In the dahs, m Moesch was closest to Walsh, in 24.05, with Liberty Clark and Camille Spink also the fast side of 24,5, respectively in 24.28 and 24.39. In the 100m, Moesch was a class apart, closets to her teenager Rylee Erisman on 52.92.

The last day dash:

Erisman's brother Ryan, also put together a series of 200-150m free efforts: he topped the 200m freestyle in 1:45.23 ahead of Patrick Sammon's 1:45.67; then won the 400m medley by a wide margin in 4:09.57, and finished second in the 400m free, in 3:44.39, adrift a 3:43.45 from Luka Mijatovic, William Mulgrew third in in a 3:47.88. The order between the same three podium placers in the 400m was switched in the 800m freestyle on Saturday, when Erisman took the win in 7:43.53, ahead of Mulgrew's 7:45.21, Mijatovic on 7:46.57.

The championships also witnessed the competitive comeback to form of Caeleb Dressel, who topped the 50m free in 21.35 ahead of six others inside 22:

• RESULTS IN FULL

That was last day in Irvine, while the opening day saw Dressel return to the 47sec zone in the 1000m freestyle: out in 22.54, he won in 47.70 after overhauling Brooks Curry (out in 22.26), his 47.81 one of four sub-48s, with Sammon (47.87) and Maximus Williamson (47.99).

The fight for places at the home LA2028 Olympics is well underway.

Dressel felt as much in the 50m 'fly against a rival he knew as a Canadian opponent but is now a rivals for Team USA places: Ilya Kharun set a US and championship mark of 22.59 to victory over Dressel's 22.86. Michael Andrew on 23.07.

Kharun also topped the 100m ahead of World record-holder Dressel, 50.05 to 50.45.

Other standout swims at the championships included:

• A 2:07.62 win in the 200m breaststroke for Gabe Nunziata
• A 2:04.76 win for Isabelle Stadden in the 200m backstroke, just shy of the 2:04.37 she clocked in Fort Lauderdale in May to rise to fourth fastest all-time. Stadden also topped the 50m, in 27.09, and 100m, in 58.06.
• An upset win for McKenzie Siroky the 100m breaststroke: leading at the turn in 30.64 on her way to a 1:05.64 victory over Olympic and World 200m champion Kate Douglass, out in 30.85, home in 1:05.66.
• A double for Katie Grimes, who topped the 400IM in 4:33.26, and, on the last day, the 1500m free in 15:55.69.

Other strong times among winners:

• Men's 200 backstroke:  David King 1:55.01
• Men's 50m breaststroke: Watson Nguyen 26.65 (ahead off 26.91 from Michael Andrew)
• Women's 400m free: Madi Mintenko 4:04.54
• Men's 100m breaststroke: Alexei Avakov 58.87
• Women's 200IM: Alex Walsh 2:08.59
• Men's 200IM: Maximus Williamson 1:56.40

Irvine will now host the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine next week, while the best of Europe will gather in Paris for the continental showcase. 

The Pan Pacs are the USA's priority meet for the year as a national team in the first season without a global long-course gathering since 2020.

The top teams include Australia and Canada. Summer McIntosh opted out of the Commonwealth Games to focus on her work in a debut season at the University of Texas, and will make Pan Pacs her big meet of the year, while Australia will arrive in Irvine from a resounding success at the Commonwealth Games with one of its strongest showings ever. The Dolphins will, however, be without more than 10 of those who either made the medals in Glasgow or are bypassing this long-course race season altogether. They incluyde:

On the women's side: Kaylee McKeown and Mollie O’Callaghan, due to illness and injury, while Shayna Jack announced that she would retire after making the Commonwealth Games her swan song competition;

On the men's side: the Aussie sprint force will not line-up against American rivals in long-course competition this season: Cam McEvoy, Kyle Chalmers, Flynn Southam are ... all back home.