2025 CA/NV December Sectionals
- December 19-22, 2025
- Walnut, CA
- SCY (25 Yards)
- Live Results Available on Meet Mobile — “2025 CA-NV December Sectionals At BREA – cop”
After breaking a National Age Group Record in the 1650 yard free on Friday, Luka Mijatovic of the Pleasanton Seahawks nearly got another on Saturday at Sectionals.
The 16-year-old won the 200 free in 1:32.73, which misses Thomas Heilman‘s record of 1:32.46 for the 15-16 age group by less than three tenths.
Splits Comparison:
| Luka Mijatovic | Luka Mijatovic | ||
| Previous PB | New PB |
15-16 NAG Record
|
|
| 50y | 21.86 | 21.38 | 21.26 |
| 100y | 23.61 | 23.36 | 23.33 |
| 150y | 24.02 | 23.91 | 23.81 |
| 200y | 24.03 | 24.08 | 24.06 |
| Total Time | 1:33.52 | 1:32.73 | 1:32.46 |
His previous best was a 1:33.52 done to win the California High School State Championship last season for Pleasanton-Foothill High School.
Interestingly, while his endurance was on display in his record-setting mile on Friday, it was his front-end speed that made the biggest difference in this drop – almost all of the drop came in the first 100 yards of the swim.
He is now just the 2nd 15-16 year old male to go under 1:33 in the event.
Top 5 All-Time Performers, Boys’ 15-16 200 yard free:
- Thomas Heilman, 1:32.46 – 2023
- Luka Mijatovic, 1:32.73 – 2025
- Maximus Williamson, 1:33.07 – 2022
- Kaii Winkler, 1:33.28 – 2023
- Drew Kibler, 1:33.30 – 2017
Mijatovic swam 14:30.01 in the 1650 free on Friday, even after shifting his focus to more of the middle-distance races, breaking his own record by 7.62 seconds. He also split 19.79 on the 2nd leg of the 2nd-place Pleasanton 200 free relay on Friday, 1:34.23 on the 1st leg of the winning 800 free relay on Friday, 43.43 on the anchor leg of the winning 400 medley relay, and won the 400 IM in a lifetime best of 3:40.96 on Saturday.
That 400 IM time is also the 2nd-best in age group history, behind only Maximus Williamson, who swam 3:39.83 in 2022. Mijatovic was already #2 on that list with a 3:41.75 from April.
Mijatovic doesn’t age up until April 22, so the 2026 Far Western Championships could be his final attempt at yards-course records before he turns 17.
This meet comes after the long course U.S. Open two weeks ago where he swam best times in the 50, 100, 400, and 800 freestyles, and the 400 IM, but not in the 200 free, where he missed his best time by more than two seconds.
Other Day 2 Highlights:
- 16-year-old Alyssa Ton from Novaquatics in California won the 200 free in 1:45.18, which moves her into the top 40 in age group history. Among the swimmers she beat was National Teamer Kayla Han, who finished 2nd in 1:45.37 and a furious charge to almost run Ton down. That’s a lifetime best for Han as well, who didn’t swim this race at Winter Juniors last week.
- Bianca Nwaizu, another 16-year-old from Nova, won the 100 breaststroke in 59.80. She swam a best time of 59.05 at Winter Juniors West a week ago. She announced a commitment to Texas earlier this fall.
- Veterans were well represented in both breaststroke races. In the women’s event, 48-year-old Gabby Rose was 2nd in 1:00.14, and in the men’s race, 36-year-old Brandon Fischer won in 52.47.
- Miles Blackson-Dunbar, a Tennessee commit, won the 50 back in 21.33. That’s almost as fast as the top Tennessee performers have been in the fall semester this season. 13-year-old Ayden Tan was 3rd in 23.35.
- Brooke Bennett from the Pleasanton Seahawks won the 400 IM in 4:15.43, but it was 14-year-old Haylee Pramono who finished 2nd in 4:16.38. That is a four-and-a-half second drop and moves her into the top 70 in the history of the age group.
- Gabi Brito from the newly-merged Beach Cities Alpha Swimming, one of the stars of Winter Juniors a week ago, is swimming a bit of an off-beat schedule this week. After only racing relays on Friday, she finished 10th in the 100 breast on Saturday (1:02.64) and also split 52.41 on the leadoff leg of her team’s winning medley relay. She combined with Penny Chiu (1:05.08 – breast), Eryn Arnold (54.21 – fly), and Andi Taylor (50.07) for the winning relay.
Luka 4:09.34 in the final.
Out fast
But wow he went out really fast. 46.4 the first 100 and 1:36.8 the 200 and 2:02.2 250 split
Tried a new approach, still got under 4:10
i give him props for trying it
Agreed this is the time to play around with the swim. Pan did this last year with the 100 free and eventually he put it together for the perfect swim. If luka can do that by CIF’s he might be able to break 4:05 at HS state.
kinda curious as to what his 200 free has to be for him to be 4:05 or faster. Luke was 4:06.3 but obviously a better 1:28.3 in the 200. Maurer’s 1:29/1;30 and 4:04. Marchand was 1:28.8 and 4:02. Kieran 4:06.3 and 1:29 high
He might be the first swimmer who is just that good at the 400/500 that he’s very rounded in his splits closest comparison is Magahey at this point in time but Rex is also another one because of how he swam that American record.
Maybe he could take down the 1000 record tomorrow
Makes sense
I agree he gets close to Clark’s record. 14:30 feels like it should be faster than 8:37
If anyone could update what his prelims swims were this morning that would be very appreciated
scratched 2 fly, guess he’s all in on the 500
Cinema. Although I want to see what he can go all in on a 2 fly as well. But 500 Free is obviously his best event
Yeah, hasn’t swam prelims of it yet. If we get a 4:06 or something insane tonight, I wouldn’t mind missing out on a 2 fly swim from him
4:20 500 prelims
Something else that’s funny is Jake Magahey won the SEC title as a freshman in the 2 free in like a 1:32.2 the time in general especially now isn’t considerably as fast but for a freshman that’s still really good. With how much depth the 2 Free has would Luka even swim the 2 Free at something like SEC’s? He has the 4 IM as an option as well at this point.
I don’t think Texas will have as many 400 IMers as they will 200 free guys by Luka’s freshman year.
200 free should be Wimberly, Fente-Damers (figure that’s his 3rd event), Kim, Glivinskiy, Bailey
400 IM kinda looks like it’ll just be Cooper Lucas?
Luka 3:40
4:07 and 8:35 coming
4:06
Maybe. More likely to see a 8:35 than 4:07 mostly because the 500 will be swim at about 7:15 at night.
The American Ian Thorpe! I know Thorpe was faster than him LC but Thorpe also didn’t have to waste time with SCY.
LCM = the whole world
SCY = USA only
It’s A LOT HARDER (to say the least) to break LCM world records than to break SCY NAG.
Thorpe broke 200 and 400 free World Records at the age of 16.
In addition, Thorpe won Worlds 400 free gold at the age of 15.
At the age of 16, Luka is not yet to make the final in any event at any global senior meet, nor is he anywhere near any world records.
Anyways, swimming SCY doesn’t prevent anyone from swimming fast in LCM.
Katie Ledecky, Missy Franklin regularly broke SCY records while breaking world records.
“It’s A LOT HARDER (to say the least) to break LCM world records than to break SCY NAG.”
If you don’t believe me about this fact, just ask Michael Andrew.
Replying to yourself just to fire a stray at MAndrew is 50 Cent levels of hating
Did you guys know that Thorpe went 3:39.15 in the 400 LCM at 15 in a Speedo with no Goggles?!?! That was the greatest swim of all time!
Short Course confuses the average non-swimmer viewer. Short Course is great for High School and D2
“the whole world” – hahaha.. the whole world (outside the US) is swimming SCM a lot more than LC and SCM is pretty much the same as SCY.
Well deserved ratio for the Thorpe comparison. Just want to acknowledge the good…nice to read ‘waste time with SCY’ as a standalone opinion.
just stop this comparison with thorpe, thorpe didnt drop more then a second in the 400 free after his 3:41 at 16 and we dont want that happening with mijatovic
Luka will probably want to get anywhere within the stratosphere of 3:40 before talking about dropping from it lol
And also, Thorpe dropped 1.8 off his 3:41 WR he set at 16. So he quite literally dropped “more than a second”.
If Luka can set a WR at 16 and then drop almost 2 seconds off it later, then it’s probably time to start making comparisons lol
Neither did….. the entiee world for 25 yrs
Imagine if Luka breaks Max’s national HS record before coming to Texas in the 2 free. Thought that swim was already insane but he still has 2 more high school seasons left so it is definitely possible especially since he’s already faster than him LC.
I hope so. Going a 1:32 the day after that mile makes it more impressive
52.4 at age 36 ain’t too shabby
Or a 1:00.14 at 48….