Luka Mijatovic Breaks Andrei Minakov’s LSC Record in 100 Free at Pacific Coast All-Stars

Pacific Coast All-Star Meet

• Jan. 6-7, 2024
• East Los Angeles College Aquatic Center
  • Monterey Park, California
• SCY (25 yards)
• Results on MeetMobile: “Pacific Coast All-Star Meet”

Pleasanton Seahawks 14-year-old Luka Mijatovic continued his assault on the record books at the Pacific Coast All-Star Meet earlier this month, breaking a Pacific Swimming LSC record in the 100-yard freestyle that Russian Olympian Andrei Minakov had held since 2016.

Mijatovic won the 100 free with a personal-best 45.23, knocking nearly a full second off his previous-best 46.16 from last March. In the process, the distance specialist jumped from 68th to 12th in the U.S. boys’ 13-14 national age group (NAG) rankings and snuck under Minakov’s previous LSC standard of 45.28 from 2016.

Mijatovic added lifetime bests in the 50 free (21.83), 50 back (23.37), and 100 back (51.21) while also picking up wins in the 200 free (1:37.13), 500 free (4:22.02), 200 back (1:48.93), 200 fly (1:50.22), and 400 IM (3:55.37). He owns NAG records in the 500 free (4:17.07), and 400 IM (3:49.32) as well as in the 1000 free (8:46.50) and 1650 free (14:45.79), which he did not contest at this meet.

Santa Clara Swim Club 14-year-old Shareef Elaydi lowered Ian Burns‘ 13-14 program record in the 50 free down to 21.14, shaving more than half a second off his previous-best 21.78 from last March. The versatile sprinter added wins in the 200 IM (1:50.82), 100 fly (49.64), and 100 breast (56.96). Elaydi wasn’t far off his best times in the 200 IM (1:48.80), 100 fly (48.11), and 100 breast (56.29), the first of which is within a second of the LSC record set last year by Tim Wu.

• Related: Santa Clara’s International Swim Center Closed Indefinitely for Repairs

Elaydi and Mijatovic are both high school freshmen in the class of 2027. Their Pacific Swimming LSC took 1st place in the all-star team standings with 567 points ahead of Southern California (429), Pacific Northwest (392), and Oregon (184).

Women’s Recap

Irvine Novaquatics 14-year-old Alyssa Ton turned in an impressive performance with six individual wins in the 200 free (1:49.73), 500 free (4:55.53), 100 back (54.76), 200 back (2:00.30), 200 fly (2:02.31), and 200 IM (2:01.83). She also led off Southern California Swimming’s triumphant 200 medley relay (1:42.83) that beat Pacific Swimming (1:43.32) by less than half a second, posting a personal-best 25.57 50 back on the opening leg.

Ton shaved two-tenths of a second off her best time in the 100 back from last November, with her 54.76 now tied for 11th in the U.S. girls’ 13-14 NAG rankings with Bella Sims.

The aforementioned 200 medley relay featured two other sub-26 second backstroke leadoffs between AC Swim Club 14-year-old Cameron Forbes (25.98) on the Pacific squad and Beach Cities Swimming 13-year-old Gabi Brito (25.98) on Southern California’s ‘B’ team. Brito added an individual victory in the 50 free (23.83), runner-up finish in the 200 back (2:03.42) behind Ton, and lifetime bests in both the 100 breast (1:04.43) and 200 IM (2:03.22).

Crow Canyon Sharks 13-year-old Daniela Linares earned a 1st-place finish in the 100 fly (55.63) along with personal bests in the 100 back (55.87) and 200 IM (4:09.66). She dropped a couple tenths in the 100 back and more than two full seconds in the 200 IM.

Southern California topped the all-star team standings, followed by Pacific (546), Pacific Northwest (277), and Oregon (148.5).

The Pacific Coast All-Star Meet is an annual competition held each January featuring up to 32 swimmers from LSCs in Oregon, Pacific Northwest, Pacific, and Southern California ages 11 to 14.