Summer McIntosh, a 16-year-old Canadian, broke her own world junior record to win the 200m butterfly at a Pro Series swim meet in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Thursday.
McIntosh, who won the 200m fly and 400m individual medley at last June’s world championships, touched the wall in 2 minutes, 5.05 seconds.
“Overall, I’m really happy with my race,” she told media in Fort Lauderdale. “I was a little bit disappointed with the time because I was so close to 2:04, but I’m overall happy.”
She shaved 15 hundredths off her world junior record from those worlds in Budapest and is now the 11th-fastest woman in history in the event across all ages.
McIntosh, who trains in Sarasota, has a budding rivalry with Katie Ledecky in the 400m free, which neither swam on Thursday.
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Ledecky and McIntosh are slated to duel in Friday’s 200m free, live on Peacock.
Ledecky didn’t swim any of her primary events Thursday, but did take runner-up in the 100m free, which she does not contest at major championships.
Ledecky clocked 54.01 seconds, the fourth-fastest time of her career.
Abbey Weitzeil won in 53.38, a strong early season time in an event where the U.S. is deep. Weitzeil, the 2020 Olympic Trials champion in the 50m and 100m frees, beat a field Thursday that included the rest of the top four from Olympic Trials.
She also bounced back from missing last year’s team for the world championships. Weitzeil was seventh at last year’s trials, but Thursday’s time would have placed second at 2022 trials behind Torri Huske, the world bronze medalist who is not competing in Fort Lauderdale.
Also Thursday, Nic Fink edged Michael Andrew by one hundredth in a 100m breaststroke duel between last year’s top two Americans. Fink clocked 59.97 seconds.
Olympic gold medalist Ahmed Hafnaoui of Tunisia won the 400m free over a field that included Olympic bronze medalist Kieran Smith (third place) and Olympic 800m and 1500m free champ Bobby Finke (sixth).
Swimmers are preparing for the U.S. Championships in late June and the world championships in July in Fukuoka, Japan.
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