Navy Adds “Best of the Rest” Distance Freestyler Chase Maier to Class of 2029

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Chase Maier from Aurora, Illinois, will swim for the United States Naval Academy beginning in 2025-26. At the time of his commitment, he wrote on social media:

“I’m extremely excited and honored announce my verbal commitment to the United States Naval Academy. Thank you, coach Bill and coach Mark, for this incredible opportunity. I would like to thank my coaches from club to high school for supporting me and providing me the training to make this possible. I would also like to thank my family for supporting me through this journey. GO NAVY BEAT ARMY🌊⚓️🔱”

Maier swims for Fox Valley Swim Team and specializes in distance freestyle. We considered him a “Best of the Rest” recruit after his junior year of high school and again on our recent re-rank of the top boys recruits from the high school class of 2025.

Maier attended Oswego East High School and swam for the Oswego Co-Op team. He won both the 200 and 500 freestyle events at the IHSA Boys State Championship in February, clocking a PB of 1:35.91 in the 200 and coming within 4/10 of his best 500 performance with a winning time of 4:19.36. He also hit a lifetime best of 44.08 in the 100 free leading off the 400 free relay.

Two weeks later, he improved his 500 free time to 4:17.60, winning the event at Rochester Sectionals. He also won the 200 free, came in 3rd in the 1650, and finished 6th in the 50 free (PB of 20.82).

In June, Maier competed at U.S. Nationals in the 100/400/1500 free. He updated his LCM bests in all three events (51.49/3:58.53/15:42.62), and in the 50 free (24.33) in time trials.

Over the last 12 months, he has improved 1.6 seconds in the 200 free, 5.5 in the 500 free, and more than 30 in the mile. His best 500 and 1650 free times would have won their respective events at the 2025 Patriot League conference title by 0.6 and 1.6 seconds and his 200 free time would have mad the ‘A’ final.

Best SCY times:

• 1650 free – 15:09.69
• 1000 free – 9:14.79
• 500 free – 4:17.60
• 200 free – 1:35.91
• 100 free – 44.08

Maier is already in Annapolis, as Plebe Summer began on June 26. He joins Alex Park, Andrejs Brooks, Charlie Greenwood, Jaiden Sreenivasan, Joshua Lopez, Kai Funaro, Luke Lamb, Preston Kessler, Xavier Sohovich, and Zack Arnold in Navy’s class of 2029.

If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].

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