Katie Grimes Breaks 15-16 NAG Record With 3:57.02 400 IM, 4th-Fastest Performance Ever

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It’s not just the boys breaking NAG records tonight. 16 year-old Katie Grimes of the Sandpipers of Nevada won the 400 IM at the Winter Junior Championships – West with a time that not only shattered the 15-16 National Age Group record, but also stands as one of the fastest overall performances in history.

Grimes, who was the youngest member of the US team at the Tokyo Olympics, stopped the clock tonight in 3:57.02. That was over a three second improvement on her previous best time of 4:00.66, and moved her past Dagny Knutson for the top time ever in the 15-16 age group.

All-Time US Performers 15-16 Age Group

1. Katie Grimes, 3:57.02 – 2022
2. Dagny Knutson, 4:00.61 – 2008
3. Katie Hoff, 4:03.46 – 2005
4. Bella Sims, 4:03.67 – 2021
5. Meghan Small, 4:03.96 – 2015

More importantly, Grimes’ mark tonight shot her up the list of fastest performers and performances ever, now ranking 4th on both lists.

All-Time 400 IM Performers

1. Ella Eastin, 3:54.60 – 2018
2. Katie Ledecky, 3:56.53 – 2018
3. Katinka Hosszú, 3:56.54 – 2012
4. Katie Grimes, 3:57.02 – 2022
5. Alex Walsh, 3:57.25 – 2022

The all-time top performances list looks very similar, except that Ella Eastin also holds the #5 spot on that list with a 3:57.03 from 2019, one year after her 3:54.60.

With the exception of Walsh, who hit that time swimming for UVA at the 2022 NCAA Championships, the above list has a distinctly Western US vibe. Eastin’s and Ledecky’s swims both came while swimming for Stanford, while Hosszu, a native of Hungary, was a standout at the University of Southern California. Grimes is a Las Vegas native who continues to live in the state with the vaunted Sandpipers program.

We pointed out yesterday that high schoolers, especially the Sandpipers, have been swimming faster than current college swimmers in the 500 free this season. That trend continued tonight, as Grimes is now over five seconds faster than the best mark in the NCAA, a 4:03.61 by UVA’s Ella Nelson.

Grimes is also under the 17-18 age group mark, which Eastin set at 3:58.40 as a Stanford freshman in 2016.