Luka Mijatovic Leads Charge of the Juniors on Day 2 in Santa Clara

2023 GEORGE F. HAINES INTERNATIONAL SWIM MEET

• Thursday, June 8 – Sunday, June 11, 2023
• San Jose, CA
• Frank Fiscalini International Swim Center
• LCM (50 meters)
• Meet Central
• Psych Sheets

With two of the biggest senior names on the entries, Claire Curzan (finals) and Taylor Ruck (wrist), pulling out of the meet, there was a big opportunity for some of the junior swimmers at the George F. Haines International Swim Meet to shine on Friday.

That included 13-year-old Shareef Elaydi, who even at the younger end of his age group broke a 13-14 Pacific Swimming LSC Record in the 100 breaststroke.

He swam 1:05.89, which broke the 2014 record of 1:06.11 set by Lyon Zhang, who went on to swim at Northwestern.

Elaydi’s previous personal best, set less than two weeks ago, was 1:07.26. In total, this summer he has dropped more than three seconds off his personal best already, and that time gives him his first Summer Juniors cut.

While USA Swimming doesn’t keep good single age records, that seems to make him the 4th-best American 13-year-old ever in the event.

He also placed 4th in the 200 fly in 2:05.30, which is about 1.03 seconds from the Pacific Swimming Record in that event (held by former National Teamer Maxime Rooney).

With the same caveats as the 100 breast, that appears to be the fastest time ever by an American 13-year-old since at least 2001.

In the women’s 100 breaststroke, 15-year-old Raya Mellott of the Pleasanton Seahawks won in 1:09.95. That’s shy of her best time of 1:08.77 set at last summer’s Junior Nationals, but it is a big reminder of her quality ahead of next week’s June 15th opening for recruiting in her high school class of 2025.

Cal’s Alicia Henry finished 2nd in 1:10.49 and Harvard commit Stephanie Iannaccone was 3rd in 1:12.87.

In the men’s 200 free, 14-year-old wunderkind Luka Mijatovic was 4th in 1:51.70. That crushes his best time of 1:55.28 by three-and-a-half seconds and ranks him 2nd all-time in the 13-14 age group. Only Thomas Heilman (1:51.27) has been better.

That means Mijatovic’s swim is an LSC Record, breaking Tom Kremer’s mark from 2009.

Mijatovic, having only turned 14 earlier this year, already holds three 13-14 National Age Group Records in yards, and is now working on climbing the rankings in meters as well.

The youngest winner on the day was 14-year-old Rylee Hutchinson of the Pleasanton Seahawks. She won the women’s 400 IM in 4:59.58, which crushes almost 12 seconds off her best time and makes her just the 10th 13-14 American in history to go under 5 minutes in the event. 15-year-old Brooke Bennett was 2nd in 5:02.29.

Other Notable Results/Winners:

• Belgian Lucas Henveaux won the 200 free in 1:48.61. Henveaux, who started his college athletics career as an NAIA golfer before finishing it as a member of Cal’s NCAA Championship team in the spring, swam a Belgian Record in this event in 1:46.31. His Cal teammate Robin Hanson was 2nd in 1:49.36.
• Stanford’s Kayla Wilson won the 200 free in 2:01.34, just out-touching her teammate Lillie Nordmann, who was 2nd in 2:01.46. That’s Wilson’s best time since coming to Stanford last fall (she was 1:58.42 at last summer’s Junior Pan Pacs). Kaitlin Lee of Pleasanton was 3rd in 2:04.55 as the top junior finisher. That is her best time by almost three seconds.
• In the 100 breaststroke, veteran Brandon Fischer won in 1:02.26 and Ben Cono was 2nd in 1:02.32. For Fischer, that’s his slowest finals time since this meet last year.
• 17-year-old Finley Anderson from the Denver Hilltoppers won the 100 back in 1:03.72, missing her best time by a tenth. She is committed to swim at Cal in fall 2024.
• Rising Cal junior McKenna Stone won the women’s 50 fly in 27.06, which knocks four-tenths of a second off her best time – that was done in 2019 at the NCSA Summer Championships. The runner-up in that race was 17-year-old Virginia commit Bailey Hartman. Hartman would later win the 200 fly in 2:13.50, about three seconds shy of her best.
• Cal’s Gabriel Jett, a strong contender for the US team at the World Championships, swam 1:59.11 to win the 200 fly. That shows some progress from his other post-NCAA season meet, the Pro Swim in Mission Viejo, where he swam 2:00.17, with US Trials two weeks away. 18-year old Arthur Balva from PASA, a Princeton commit, swam 2:00.39 for 2nd place. That shaves .08 seconds off his best time and leaves him just outside of the top 100 American 17-18s in history.
• Cal’s Bjorn Seeliger won the 50 fly in 24.54, which is his first time under 25 seconds. The top junior finisher was Stanford commit Ethan Harrington in 24.59, a best time for him as well.
• Cal’s Tyler Kopp won the men’s 400 IM in 4:25.41.