22-year-old Kyle Lee (@kyle.lee__, MSF bio here, World Aquatics bio here) and 21-year-old Thomas Raymond (MSF bio here, World Aquatics bio here), both of Australia, pretty much led the entire 10 km race at the USA Swimming National Open Water Swimming Championships held in Sarasota, Florida.

The Australian rivals pretty much controlled the pace and helped each other throughout the four-loop race, but with half a loop to go the duo dropped American Ivan Puskovitch and it was every Aussie for himself. Lee outsprinted Raymond to finish first, although they were both given the same finish time. The top three Americans, Dylan Gravely, Joey Tepper (World Aquatics bio here), and 2024 Olympian Ivan Puskovitch (World Aquatics bio here) followed in short order.

Lee has experience competing at the 5 km, 10 km, and 25 km at the World Championships in addition to his 13th place finish at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Similar to the 2025 Australian Open Water Swimming Championships held in January, both Lee and Raymond were given the identical finish times of 1:50:34, but the victory went to Lee in Western Australia. Previously at the World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup held in Hong Kong in October 2024, it was Lee again who had the upper hand, beating Raymond 1:57:48 to 1:57:52.

The two have a great ongoing rivalry – and they will see each other with both Americans Dylan Gravely and Joey Tepper again at the 10 km race at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore this July.

They will also see Japan’s Kaiki Furuhata (World Aquatics bio here) who finished eighth and Canada’s Eric Brown who finished 10th. 

Brown represented Canada in open water and pool competition at the 2023 World Championships in Japan. The 22-year-old Pointe-Claire Swim Club product trains at the University of Florida so his travel was not far. “I’m so happy and grateful for the opportunity,” said Brown. “I know I’ve worked hard. I fell short a little last year [missing the Olympic team], but this year I’ve been working on a lot of things, mentally and physically, and I’m happy to be back. I’ve done a lot of these races so I kind of knew how to swim it and I knew I had to be smart. I couldn’t blow my energy on the first lap or two. I was just conservative and made sure I stayed with that top group because I knew that would be enough.”

“It’s great to have Emma and Eric qualify to swim the 10 km at the World Championships in Singapore,” said Swimming Canada Distance/Open Water Coach Mark Perry. “They both have experience at this level and I look forward to working with them in the summer.”

USA Swimming National Open Water Swimming Championships 10 km Results

1. Kyle Lee, 22 Australia 1:53:38
2. Thomas Raymond, 22 Australia 1:53:38
3. Dylan Gravely, 22 Sun Devil Swimming 1:53:40
4. Joey Tepper, 22 University of Minnesota 1:53:41
5. Ivan Puskovitch, 24 TSM Aquatics 1:53:43
6. Charles Clark, 22 Ohio State University 1:54:04
7. William Siegel, 18 Long Island Aquatic Club 1:54:26 (18 & Under USA national champion)
8. Kaiki Furuhata, 25 Japan 1:54:26
9. Taishin Minamide, 29 Japan 1:54:43
10. Eric Brown, 22 Pointe-Claire Swim Club 1:54:43
11. Koichiro Iwazumi, 20 Japan 1:54:47
12. Gabriel Manteufel, 18 Sandpipers Of Nevada 1:56:44
13. Ben Wainman, 21 1:56:45
14. Alexander Lyubavskiy, Longhorn Aquatics 1:57:16
15. Henry Shoemaker, Sarasota Tsunami Swim Team 1:57:37
16. Levi Sandidge, 20 Kentucky Aquatics 1:58:59
17. Luke Brennan, 19 University of Minnesota 1:59:16
18. Colin Jacobs, 17 1:59:26
19. Eli Rolfsen, 18 Greater Kalamazoo Crocs 2:00:03
20. Max Spory, 18 American Energy Swim Club 2:00:16
21. Riku Takaki, 20 Japan 2:00:21
22. Sebastian Paulins, 26 Côte Saint-Luc 2:00:24
23. Trey Dickey, 22 Texas A & M University 2:00:31
24. Chris Nagy, 22 Kentucky Aquatics 2:00:36
25. Whitaker Steward, 18 Tsunami Swim Team of K.C. 2:00:45
26. Charles Schreiner, 19 Egg Harbor Twp Seahawks 2:01:02
27. Finn Holdredge, 19 2:01:35
28. Paul Mullen, 18 Nation’s Capital Swim Club 2:01:36
29. Hugo Janvier, 23 Pointe-Claire Swim Club 2:01:37
30. Sam Hennenfent, 18 Tsunami Swim Team of K.C. 2:01:38
31. Harrison Smith, 19 TSM Aquatics 2:01:44
32. Will Mulgrew, 18 Shawmut Aquatic Club 2:01:44
33. William Mullen, 23 West Virginia University 2:01:53
34. Max Vega Cuevas, 21 Texas A & M University 2:01:57
35. Ian Platts-Mills, 18 North Carolina Aquatic Club 2:01:58
36. Oliver Shao, 18 Badger Swim Club 2:03:15
37. Chip Wheelie Shoyat, 21 Northern KY Clippers Swimming 2:03:26
38. Cooper Zakorchemny, 18 Rockville Montgomery Swim Club 2:03:32
39. Connor Fry, 19 South Texas Aquatics 2:04:14
40. Max Marcus, 18 Princeton University Swim Team 2:04:24
41. Benjamin Robins, 18 Badger Swim Club 2:04:25
42. Hunter Payne, 18 University of Calgary 2:05:48
43. Julien Rousseau, 18 Pacific Swim 2:06:45
44. Thomas Langlois, 21 2:07:26
45. Tristan McCain, 18 Longhorn Aquatics 2:07:36
46. Édoard Duffy, 19 Club Aquatique de Montreal 2:09:51
47. Deacon Gutshall, 19 Tsunami Swim Team of K.C. 2:11:06
48. Zach Tower, 18 TSM Aquatics 2:12:47
49. Darwin Anderson, 23 Cougar Aquatics 2:15:16
50. Holden Short, 18 Bend Swim Club 2:15:17
51. Matt Cinque, 19 North Carolina Aquatic Club 2:15:36
52. Marshall Smith, 17 TSM Aquatics 2:23:20
53. Joshua Brown, 22 Sandpipers Of Nevada DNS
54. Luke Whitlock, 19 Fishers Area Swimming Tigers DNS
55. Luke Ellis, 19 Sandpipers Of Nevada DNS

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