2024 Swammy Awards: Age Group Swimmer of the Year- 15-16

See all of our 2024 Swammy Awards here.

Deciding the swimmer of the year was not particularly clear cut for the 15-16 swimmers because of top swimmers jumping age categories. There have, however, been a few NAG records this season, even if some of the athletes have been 15 for less than a season. This year’s 15-16 Age Group Swimmer of the Year Awards go to Rylee Erisman and Luka Mijatovic. Both swimmers could have also been the 13-14 Swimmer of the Year.

15-16 Girls

Rylee Erisman, Laker Swim

Erisman spent part of this year as a 14-year-old, and broke a NAG record in the long course 50 freestyle in March. She turned 15 shortly after, and has already set a new 15-16 NAG record in the 100 free short course, twice.

In November, Erisman went 47.14 in the 100 free at her high school state meet to break Claire Curzan’s record of 47.23 from 2020. At the same meet she set the National Public High School record in the 50 free, going 21.61 to break Abbey Weitzeil’s previous record.

Just about a month later at Winter Juniors, Erisman rebroke her NAG record, going 46.69 in the 100 free to become the first 15-16 year-old under 47 seconds.

Erisman also swam at the 2024 Olympic Trials as a 15-year-old. She qualified for the final in the 50 free, finishing 5th overall. She swam in the semifinals of the 100 back and the 100 free, where she placed 14th and 10th respectively. She also swam the 200 free, finishing 33rd, and the 200 back, placing 28th.

She also competed at the Junior Pan Pacs for Team USA, and she is currently a member of the Women’s National Team.

On top of leading the nation in the 50 free short course, she also has four top-five 15-16 all-time swims.

Erisman’s 15-16 Top-Five All-Time Swims:

• 50 free (SCY)- 21.61 (#2 all-time)
• 100 free (SCY)- 46.69 (#1 all-time)
• 50 free (LCM)- 24.62 (#2 all-time)
• 100 free (LCM)- 53.75 (#4 all-time)

Honorable Mentions:

• Charlotte Crush, Lakeside Swim Team: Crush has also broken a NAG record this season, lowering her own 100 backstroke record with the 49.46 she went at Winter Juniors earlier this month. She also holds top-five all-time swims in two other short course events, the 200 back (#2 all-time), and the 100 fly (#3 all-time).
• Kayla Han, La Mirada Armada: Han doesn’t hold any 15-16 NAG records, but she currently sits in 1st in the country in four events, the 500 free (4:36.88), 1000 free (9:30.10), 1650 free (15:56.07), and the 400 IM (4:04.44). She also held the top time in the 800 free and 1500 freestyle during long course. Her 1000 free (7th) and her 400 IM (6th) also come in as top-10 all time swims for 15-16 year-olds.

15-16 Boys

Luke Mijatovic, Pleasanton Seahawks

Mijatovic is another one who spent time as a 13-14 this season, and even broke quite a few 13-14 NAG records in the distance freestyle events. He turned 15 before Olympic Trials, and has already started rewriting the 15-16 record books in the same way.

This is a 2024 award, so we are only looking at records broken during the 2024 calendar year. If the record was broken in 2023, it is not part of this year’s award.

After setting new 13-14 records in the short course 500 free and 400 IM and the long course 200 free, 400 free, 1500 free, and 400 IM in the early phases of the year, Mijatovic set his sights on the 15-16 records.

In August at the Junior Pan Pacs, Mijatovic broke his 1st 15-16 record, going 3:49.24 in the 400 free to beat Larsen Jensen’s 24-year-old NAg record of 3:50.68 by more than a second.

He went on to break his 2nd record in the 500 freestyle in November. He swam the event in 4:12.34 to absolutely demolish the previous record of 4:15.36 set by Drew Kibler in 2016.

Mijatovic currently appears in the all-time top-10 rankings in six events across long course and short course, including the two he has records in.

Mijatovic’s 15-16 Top-Ten All-Time Swims

• 500 free SCY: 4:12.34 (#1 All-Time)
• 1000 free SCY: 8:45.28 (#2 All-Time)
• 200 free LCM: 1:47.96 (#3 All-Time)
• 400 free LCM: 3:49.24 (#1 All-Time)
• 800 free LCM: 7:56.91 (#5 All-Time)
• 1500 free LCM: 15:15.95 (#6 All-Time)

Honorable Mentions:

• Tim Wu, Pleasanton Seahawks: Wu appears in the top-10 in seven different events so far this short course season, the 100 free (6th), 200 free (9th), 500 free (4th), 1000 free (2nd), 100 back (3rd), 200 back (2nd), and the 200 IM (2nd). Mijatovic has six top-10 swims, and no other swimmer has more than five this season. His 200 IM time of 1:45.25 from the US Open also ranks him 15th in the all-time 15-16 rankings.
• Andrew Eubanks, Portland Dolphins: Eubanks had an absolutely monster Winter Junior Nationals earlier this month, earning nation-leading times in both distances of breaststroke. His 100 breast time of 53.09 vaulted him into a tie for 9th all-time in the event, and his 200 breast sits in 14th at 1:55.73. Eubanks has seen significant drops this season, coming in at 55.56 in the 100 breast and 2:00.19 in the 200 breast.

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