U.S. National Championships: Caroline Bricker Passes Smith in Final Meters to Win 200 Butterfly
The first night 2025 U.S. National Championships kicked off in Indianapolis with the finals of the women’s 200 butterfly.
Regan Smith has taken the reigns as the swimmer to beat in every big race in the U.S. in this event. She was the trials winner in 2021 and 2024.
The question since Hali Flickinger medaled alongside Smith in 2021 has been who will take that second spot?
In the 2024 trials it was teen sensation Alex Shackell, who made her first Olympic team swimming in her hometown. She was again swimming in her hometown the for U.S. National Championships.
Smith and Shackell led the field into the finals with plenty of challengers looking to upset the order of things – and did they ever.
Shortly after the first turn, Smith took control of the race ahead of Shackell and Caroline Bricker.
Smith got to the final turn at 1:31.74 and started to pull away. The battle looked to be for second.
But Bricker wasn’t finished, using a spectacular late surge to win in 2:05.80.
She was as stunned as anyone, with a shocked expression on her face.
“I was really shocked. I thought it was a mistake. I was like, ‘That’s my name, that’s not right,’” Bricker said. “But I just put my head down so I didn’t really know what was happening around me the last few meters. I knew I could finish, so I just tried to do it.”
Bricker, who had a breakout NCAA Championships for Stanford winning the 400 IM, passed Shackell on the final length, then Smith in the final meters to earn the win by five hundredths of a second.
“I think all of my IM training has really helped my butterfly. I have known it was back there but it is kind of finally taking hold,” Bricker said. “I really wanted to go out fast, but not force it, because sometimes I do that when I am nervous or excited. The third 50, I tried to build and the last 50 was trying to get home as fast as I could. I focused on keeping my legs in and not let my hips drop at all – all forward motion. I didn’t know I was that close to Regan. It was so cool to race her.”
Smith was runner-up in 2:05.85 and will provided a stellar 1-2 punch with Bricker heading into the World Aquatics Championships.
“I definitely did not see a worlds team in my future at all. I was hoping to make some team, maybe World University Games or something. My short course has not really translated over to my long course the past couple of years, so I was just kind of waiting for that to happen,” Bricker said. “I knew it would. It definitely gave me a lot of confidence coming out of NCAAs.”
Tess Howley also made a late surge and finished third in 2:06.79 ahead of Shackell (2:07.03).
It was a stunning finish that shook up the expected order of things in the 200 butterfly at the U.S. National Championships.
Lindsay Looney finished fifth in 2:07.30, followed by Audrey Derivaux (2:07.75), Carli Cronk (2:11.07) and Campbell Stoll (2:11.60).
