Sean Green Becomes the Youngest Swimmer in Decades to Swim a Sub-15 Minute Mile

2022 NCAP Invitational

• December 8-11, 2022
• Eppley Recreation Center, University of Maryland
• Short Course Yards (25 yards), Prelims/Finals
• Results on Meet Mobile: “2022 NCAP Invitational”
• Live Streams on NCAP YouTube
• Psych Sheet

The 2022 NCAP Invitational is the latest incarnation of the “other” annual high level early December meet. The event, often held in overlap with USA Swimming’s Winter Junior Championships, features swimmers from the nation’s biggest and most powerful club, NCAP, as well as others from the northeast. This year, that list includes swimmers at teams like Long Island Aquatic Club, Asphalt Green, and Badger Swim Club in New York, plus Chelsea Piers in Connecticut, Machine Aquatics in the Potomac Valley.

Day 1 of the met featured the 1650 freestyles for the open age and 13-14 events, with a few other races for the 12 & unders.

In the girls’ mile, USA Swimming National Junior Team member Cavan Gormsen won in 15:57.20, setting a new lifetime best by just over a second. The 17-year-old LIAC swimmer and Virginia commit is best in the 200, 400, and 800 freestyles, but over the last year has stretched herself more-and-more into the 1500/1650 freestyles, including at Pan Pacs in August and at the US Open last week.

She was a minute ahead of her next-closest competitor in the event on Thursday, with the next-best time actually being out of the 13-14 age group. There, her LIAC teammate Samantha Anderson won in 16:57.12 – which was a 16-second improvement on her best. LIAC generally dominated the women’s mile, with the top two finishers in the open age group and the top four finishers in the 13-14 age group.

LIAC also swept the boys’ miles on day 1, led by Sean Green in the open age group in 14:57.83. That makes him the first high schooler to go under 15 minutes in the event so far this season, with the Winter Juniors miles still to come.

Green, 15, is only a sophomore in high school. That is the fastest mile by a 15-year-old dating back at least as far as 2001, the furthest that the USA Swimming database goes back reliably. Using the all-time top 100 lists, though, we can reasonably deduce that he is possibly the youngest swimmer ever to break 15 minutes. the only swimmers prior to 2001 to have broken the mark are Jeff Kostoff (14:52 as a 16-year-old) and Lars Jorgensen (14:57 as a 16-year-old).

His teammate Reid O’Connell won the 13-14 age group at 15:57.14. Like Green, O’Connell is at the younger end of the age group. His time is one of the top 20 in history for 13-year-olds as well.

Other Day 1 Winners:

• Julia Zettler of NCAP won the girls’ 12 & under 500 free in 5:22.13, dropping five seconds off her previous best time (that was swum just a month ago). In total, she’s dropped 13 seconds off her best time this season.
• LIAC got another victory in the girls’ 12 & under 200 back, winning in 2:08.60. Milly Birch, an 11-year-old from Asphalt Green, was 2nd in 2:09.67.
• Callen Carney won the boys’ 12 & under 500 free in 5:08.39, another LIAC distance win. That was a five-second drop for him and led a 1-2-3-4 finish for LIAC.
• LIAC’s Nicholas DeAngelis won the 12 & under 200 back in 2:13.12, sneaking past Logan Bernabeo (2:13.84) of the Suburban Swim Club. DeAngelis’ swim took 3.5 seconds off his lifetime best, while Bernabeo’s swim took more than 7 seconds off his lifetime best. That totaled 7 event wins for LIAC in the first day.