Last weekend, while the swimming World Championships were happening, the U.S. Track and Field trials were racing in Eugene, Oregon.
The biggest story of the meet was 16-year-old Cooper Lutkenhaus breaking the National High School Record in the men’s 800 meters, running 1:42.27. This time was not only faster than the National High School Record, it is also faster than the current NCAA record in the event of 1:43.25.
This feat sparked a question on ‘X’ by @lukapark about whether a high school swimmer had been faster than the NCAA record.
has this ever happened in swimming? https://t.co/dB9Qsc5FsP
— Bromine Zaddy (@lukapark) August 5, 2025
This is an intriguing question when it comes to swimming because, unlike in track, the NCAA is competed in short course yards, whereas world level meets are competed in meters.
In order to get the closest comparison, we are going to use National Age Group Records and the correlating NCAA record. It is also important to note that it is difficult to accurately figure out times from pre-1997, so our question really is, “How many times in the last 28 years has a high schooler swam faster than the NCAA record?”
The first person most people will think of is Michael Phelps, and in March 2002, he swam 1:42.10 in the boy’s 200 butterfly, his fastest time as a 15-16 year old. The NCAA record at the time was 1:41.78, set by Melvin Stewart in 1991. Phelps was already a World Record holder in the long course event at this time, but he was not faster than the NCAA record in SCY
The following year, at 17, Phelps swam 1:41.72, coming in just under Stewart’s record. This is the only event he accomplished this in.
Next, we looked at Katie Ledecky. In 2013, she swam 4:31.38 in the 500 freestyle at 15-years-old. This was faster than the NCAA record at the time of 4:32.71 set by Allison Schmitt in 2011. She dropped time for the next two subsequent years, swimming 4:28.71 in 2014 at 16-years-old and 4:26.58 in 2015 at 17-years-old.
When she finally, got into college, she hacked more than seven seconds off the existing NCAA record, which at that point belonged to Leah Smith in 4:30.37, to swim 4:24.06.
The 1650 free was a similar story. In November of 2012, the same year she won her first Olympic gold medal, she swam the mile in 15:28.36, this was more than 10 seconds faster than the NCAA record of 15:38.79 that had been set by Stephanie Peacock a few months prior.
She continued to drop from there, swimming 15:15.17 in December of 2013 at 16-years-old, and 15:13.30 in 2014 at 17-years-old. When she swam her freshman year in 2017, she dropped the record to 15:07.70, almost 20 seconds faster than Leah Smith‘s record of 15:25.30 from 2016.
From there, we looked at every NCAA event (no 1000 freestyle) and compared the fastest 17-18 year-old swimmers to the record from that year, and we got a very short list.
Besides Phelps and Ledecky, only four other athletes, all women, have been faster than the existing NCAA record while they were in high school. There are a few caveats to this. The 1st is that we can’t look at international athletes because they don’t swim yards outside of the United States. The 2nd is that the athlete had to be in high school when they swam the time, regardless of their age. There are a few swimmers who went pro after high school and set very fast times while they were still 18, but as they had already graduated, they don’t count towards this list.
| School Year | Athlete | Age | Event | Time | NCAA Record |
| 2003 | Michael Phelps | 17 | Men’s 200 Butterfly | 1:41.72 | 1:41.78, Mel Stewart (1991) |
| 2006 | Kate Ziegler | 17 | Women’s 500 Freestyle | 4:33.35 | 4:34.39, Janet Evans (1990) |
| 2010 | Dagny Knutson | 17 | Women’s 500 Freestyle | 4:31.18 | 4:33.60, Caroline Burckle (2008) |
| 2013 | Katie Ledecky | 15 | Women’s 500 Freestyle | 4:31.38 | 4:32.71, Allison Schmitt (2011) |
| Katie Ledecky | 15 | Women’s 1650 Freestyle | 15:28.36 | 15:37.06, Stephanie Peacock (2012) | |
| 2014 | Katie Ledecky | 16 | Women’s 500 Freestyle | 4:28.71 | 4:32.53, Brittany MacLean (2014) |
| Katie Ledecky | 16 | Women’s 1650 Freestyle | 15:15.17 | 15:37.06, Stephanie Peacock (2012) | |
| 2015 | Abbey Weitzeil | 18 | Women’s 100 Freestyle | 46.29r | 46.61, Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace (2012)* |
| Katie Ledecky | 17 | Women’s 500 Freestyle | 4:26.58 | 4:30.37, Leah Smith (2015) | |
| Katie Ledecky | 17 | Women’s 1650 Freestyle | 15:13.30 | 15:27.84, Brittany MacLean (2014) | |
| 2019 | Regan Smith | 17 | Women’s 100 Backstroke | 49.66 | 49.67, Beata Nelson (2018)** |
| Regan Smith | 17 | Women’s 200 Backstroke | 1:47.16 | 1:47.30, Kathleen Baker (2018)** |
*Weitzeil swam 46.29 in December 2014, which was faster than the NCAA record at the time. Three months later Simone Manuel, who was also 18 at the time, swam 46.09 at the NCAA Championships to lower the record.
** both the women’s backstroke NCAA records were broken at the NCAA Championships in 2019. Smith swam both of her races two weeks before the new NCAA records.
So to answer the question, yes, high schooler swimmers have been faster than the NCAA record, but not very many, and most of them went on to be World Record holders, or already were World Record holders.
Katie Ledecky is the only athlete in the last 28 years who has been faster than the NCAA record at 16, which is how old Lutkenhaus is.
Thanks for the interesting topic Madeline and for sure back in the day it was fairly common for females yet I immediately remembered one such situation that amazed me as a middle school kid in the spring of 1970. That year John Kinsella broke the men’s American records in both the 500 yard & 1650 yard freestyles swimming for Don Watson at Hinsdale Central HS before his legendary IU career under Doc Councilman. John went on to an amazing career in both the pool and as the greatest marathon swimmer in the world on the other side of his collegiate career. Too bad we didn’t have an Olympic Marathon for him at that time … He probably would have been… Read more »
Don Schollander won a few national championships while in High School and he may have gone faster than the NCAA champs those events too.
I wonder if either Brian Goodell or Jesse Vassallo did it as both set LCM world records while in High School.
Tracy Caulkins set 63 American records. Her first SCY American records in the breaststrokes and IMs were set in April 1977 when she was 14 and in 8th grade.
Her SCY records while in high school were:
100 free 2 times
500 free 1 time
200 back 1 time
100 breast 8 times (in 1979 in the same session as the 500 free)
200 breast 4 times
200 IM 5 times
400 IM 5 times.
That’s 26, all of them from the SWIMS database.
As other people have pointed out there are many other athletes who have done this.
It looks like we are counting each athlete 1 time per year per event, I wonder if someone like Katie did not swim under those records more than 1 time per year/season?
The real question is, with how absurd NCAA swimming has gotten, will we ever see it again? Especially from a men’s swimmer?
Didn’t Weitzeil break the US open record in the 100 free while in high school
Yes! I missed it because Simone Manuel went faster at that year’s NCAA Championships, but for a few months, she was faster than the NCAA record. I added it.
She did in the 50 free. Not sure the 100?
that 46.29 relay leadoff is burned into my mind but i just looked it up and she did break the US Open/American record in the 50 free with a 21.12 before college, except it was during her gap year so not during high school either
I believe Spitz was a Junior in High School in May,1967 when he set two individual American records in his HS Championship meet. 100 Fly — :49.1; 200 Ind. Medley 1:54.4.
Part of how you can tell how old those swims were is that they were hand-timed to the ‘tenth’ of a second, not the ‘hundredth.’
I believe the prior American records were: 100 Fly :49.9 from AAU Spring Nationals in Dallas, where Spitz became the first swimmer sub-50.
I believe Ross Wales was second in Dallas and in college at Princeton and likely held the NCAA record at the time. He won Bronze in the 100 Fly in Mexico City and later was President of US… Read more »
You are correct about spitz. Also, in May ’82 at a California high school meet, Jeff Kostoff broke the American record AND set a long-standing national high School record in the 500 freestyle, which was also faster than the existing NCAA record.