2023 Far Westerns: Shareef Elaydi Breaks Decade-Old Pacific LSC Record in 200 Fly

2023 Long Course Far Westerns

• July 27-30, 2023
• Concord Community Pool
  • Concord, California
• LCM (50 meters)
• Results on MeetMobile: “2023 Long Course Far Westerns”

Shareef Elaydi shaved more than two seconds off his best 200-meter butterfly time at last weekend’s Far Westerns in Concord, California, clocking a 2:03.03 to break a decade-old Pacific Swimming LSC record.

Elaydi’s winning time erased Maxime Rooney’s previous Pacific Swimming LSC record of 2:04.27 from the books after it had stood untouched since 2013. In the process, the 14-year-old Santa Clara Swim Club standout moved up to No. 4 in the all-time national age group (NAG) rankings. Now only Max Miranda (2:02.54), Dare Rose (2:01.89), and the legendary Michael Phelps (1:59.02) rank above Elaydi among 13- and 14-year-old Americans.

U.S. Boys’ 13-14 NAG Rankings, 200 Fly

1. Michael Phelps – 1:59.02 (2000)
2. Dare Rose – 2:01.89 (2017)
3. Max Miranda – 2:02.54 (2014)
4. Shareef Elaydi – 2:03.03 (2023)
5. Dan Madwed – 2:03.10 (2003)
6. Vance Sanders – 2:03.11 (2014)
7. Andrew Abruzzo – 2:04.08 (2014)
8. Jon Marsh – 2:04.11 (2011)
9. David Sammons – 2:04.11 (2023)
10. Maxime Rooney – 2:04.27 (2013)

Elaydi also posted a personal-best 2:13.32 for 2nd place in the 200 back, taking almost a second off his previous-best 2:14.07 from May. He earned another runner-up finish in the 100 free, missing his lifetime best by just .01 seconds with a 53.29.

At Summer Juniors on Wednesday, Elaydi went 54.73 in the 100 fly to rank 4th in his NAG rankings for that event. He isn’t slated to swim the 200 fly this week in Irvine.

Distance freestyle specialist Luka Mijatovic swam several “off events” with the meet taking place so soon before Summer Juniors, but he still managed to climb the NAG rankings in three events while taking home five individual victories.

The Pleasanton Seahawks 14-year-old fired off a personal-best 52.28 in the 100 free to move up to 11th in his NAG rankings. After improving on his previous-best 52.42 from earlier in July, Mijatovic is within a couple tenths of Andrei Minakov’s Pacific Swimming LSC record of 52.12 from 2016.

U.S. Boys’ 13-14 NAG Rankings, 100 Free

1. Thomas Heilman – 51.12 (2021)
2. Maximus Williamson – 51.25 (2021)
3. Michael Andrew – 51.30 (2014)
4. Noel Strauss – 51.59 (1987)
5. Andrew Jovanovic – 51.66 (2009)
6. Kaii Winkler – 52.06 (2021)
7. Jonny Kulow – 52.20 (2019)
8. Billy Cloutet – 52.21 (1997)
9. Jason Cobb – 52.21 (1996)
10. Owen Ekk – 52.23 (2023)
11. Luka Mijatovic – 52.28 (2023)

Mijatovic also broke into the top 50 NAG rankings (No. 45) in the 100 fly with a personal-best 56.90 and cracked the top 100 (No. 83) in the 200 back with a personal-best 2:08.78. His winning time in the 200 back represented a significant drop, shaving more than a second and a half off his previous-best 2:10.29 from earlier in July. He added 1st-place finishes in the 200 IM (2:08.98), 200 free (1:55.04), and 400 free (3:54.67), more than a second off his best times from U.S. Trials.

All this only a few days before wiping out the oldest NAG record on the books in the 1500 free — Mijatovic is simply one of the most versatile up and comers we’ve ever seen.

Other highlights included Diablo Aquatics 14-year-old Ella Busquets taking down a meet record in the 100 back. She touched first in 1:03.62, dropping more than half a second off her previous-best 1:04.27 from earlier in July. In the process, she crushed Natalie Merrell’s meet record of 1:04.44 from 2019 and moved up to 78th in her age-group rankings.

Busquets added another impressive win in the 200 back (2.21.07), shaving almost a second off her previous best from earlier in July. She also placed 2nd in the 100 free (59.34), 3rd in the 50 free (26.97), and 4th in the 100 fly (1:05.17) with lifetime bests in each event.

Pleasanton Seahawks 17-year-old Kaitlin Lee was another standout performer in Concord with five wins and four personal-best times. The Georgetown commit’s biggest time drop came in the 200 fly, where she shaved more than three seconds off her previous best from June with a winning time of 2:17.62.