14-Year-Old Luke Mijatovic Goes 1:49 in the 200 Meter Free; Faster than Thorpe

2024 CALIFORNIA/NEVADA SECTIONALS

• February 29-March 3, 2024
• Novato, California
• Long Course Meters (50 meters), Prelims/Finals
• Live Results

14-year-old Luka Mijatovic broke his second National Age Group Record in as many days on Friday evening in Novato, California. He posted a 1:49.63 in the 200 meter freestyle, cracking his own record of 1:50.40 done at last summer’s Junior National Championships.

Like on Thursday, where he broke the 1500 free record in 15:26.73, he was way more focused on the back-end of this 200 free than he was in his prior record swim. While he opened about six-tenths slower on Friday, he closed more than 1.1 seconds better to break the record.

Splits Comparison:

The swim also puts Mijatovic under the 14-year-olds Australian Record held by Ian Thorpe, the global gold standard for age group freestylers. Thorpe was 1:50.07 as a 14-year-old, when he became the youngest male to ever represent Australia internationally.

Mijatovic, who turns 15 on April 22, is down to his last few weeks as a 13-14 swimmer, where he holds the National Age Group Records in eight different events.

This swim in the 200 free gives him another Olympic Trials cut, sliding under the standard of 1:49.99. He already has cuts in the 400, 800, and 1500 freestyles.

Mijatovic’s 15-year-old teammate Songrui Wu finished 2nd in 1:50.94. That’s a huge time drop from the 1:52.56 he swam at Summer Juniors. That is the 7th-best 200 free by an American 15 & under in the last decade.

Later in the session, Mijatovic swam 4:24.20 in the 400 IM to break Michael Phelps’ record of 2:24.77 that was set in 2000. Read more about that record here.

Further results will be added when they become available.

Other Day 2 Highlights

• Shareef Elaydi of the Santa Clara Swim Club won the 100 fly in 55.60. Another 14-year-old, his personal best is 54.73 from Junior Nationals – which ranks him 4th all-time in the age group. He doesn’t age up until June.
• While the meet has been dominated by junior-age swimmers, the boys’ 100 breaststroke was led by a trio of pros. Evgenii Somov won in 1:00.83, Tom Higdon was 2nd in 1:01.88, and Ben Cono was 3rd in 1:02.23. That swim by Higdon was a new lifetime-best at 25-years-old, improving his previous best of 1:02.05 (which already made him an Olympic Trials qualifier).
• Bailey Hartman of the Crow Canyon Sharks won the 100 fly in 1:00.72 and the 200 free in 2:03.20. Her fellow Virginia commit Raya Mellott won the 100 breast in 1:10.31.