The 2023 U.S. Open Championships, held at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, North Carolina, featured quite a bit of Irish representation. Nine members of Notre Dame's swim team competed in the competition, facing off against some of the best American swimmers in the country such as seven-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky.
Junior Chris Guiliano delivered the best performance of the Irish bunch. Guiliano added another award-winning finish to his stellar career, earning the bronze medal in the men's 100m freestyle. Guiliano's time of 0:48.51 put him just 0.21 seconds behind first place. Guiliano also reached the finals in both the 50m and 200m freestyle competitions.
Graduate student Abdelrahman El-Araby participated in the 50m freestyle but missed the cut for the final competition. Graduate student Tanner Filion and senior Kaden Smesko finished 30th and 31st, respectively, in the 100m backstroke. Filion also competed in the 200m freestyle. Cason Wilburn, another graduate student, qualified for the C Final in the 100m fly. He finished 6th with a time of 0:54.11
On the women's side, junior Sophia Karras notched top-15 finishes in the 1500m freestyle (16:58.08, 15th) and 800m freestyle (8:54.03, 13th). Sophomore Grace Brenneman, Notre Dame's lone underclassman in the competition, finished 41st in the 50m freestyle at 0:26.00. She also finished 72nd in the 100m freestyle (0:57.93)
The Irish return to competition in January, with each of their next two events taking place in South Bend — a meet against Princeton and Navy from Jan. 12-13 and the Tim Welsh classic from Jan. 26-27. After that, Notre Dame has just one more regular season event at the Ohio State Winter Invitational before the ACC Championships.
Sign up for our Observer Sports newsletter!Have an Irish sports question? Ask it for our Observer Sports mailbag!
Irish send nine swimmers to U.S. Open Championships
Notre Dame swim captain Chris Guiliano cuts through the water in a freestyle sprint race.
