2024 PACIFIC SWIMMING FAR WESTERN CHAMPS
- April 4-8, 2024
- Pleasanton, CA
- SCY (25 yards)
- Meet Mobile “Pacific Swimming SC Far Western Champs”
Two weeks out from his 15th birthday, Luka Mijatovic is taking one more (possibly final?) run at the National Age Group Record books this weekend at the Pacific Swimming Far Western Swimming Championships.
On Saturday, that netted him a 4:14.83 in the 500 free, which takes almost a second off his own National Age Group Record of 4:15.71 that he set late last year.
Mijatovic is now nearly ten seconds faster than the next-fastest 500 yard freestyler in 13-14 history. Lleyton Plattel swam 4:24.79 in 2017. Mijatovic has been under that time nine times in his career, including a 4:19.27 in prelims on Saturday.
Mijatovic was aggressive in starting his new record-setting swim: he was 1.6 seconds ahead of record pace at the 200. While that cost him some back-end speed, the net was more-than-enough to overcome the record.
Splits Comparison:
| Luka Mijatovic | Luka Mijatovic | |
| April 2024 NAG Record |
December 2023 NAG Record
|
|
| 50y | 23.06 | 23.74 |
| 100y | 25.37 (48.43) | 25.68 (49.42) |
| 150y | 25.79 | 26.07 |
| 200y | 25.96 (51.75) | 26.26 (52.33) |
| 250y | 26.09 | 25.99 |
| 300y | 25.94 (52.03) | 26.01 (52.00) |
| 350y | 26.02 | 25.93 |
| 400y | 25.78 (51.80) | 25.86 (51.79) |
| 450y | 25.83 | 25.38 |
| 500y | 24.99 (50.82) | 24.79 (50.17) |
| Final Time | 4:14.83 | 4:15.71 |
The 500 free is one of four races so far this week for Mijatovic. He also picked up wins in the 200 free (1:35.39), 200 IM (1:49.22), and 200 back (1:48.29), of which only the 200 free was a lifetime best. He is still scheduled to swim the 400 IM, 200 fly, and 1000 free on Sunday.
Mijatovic turns 15 on April 22, but he is now already faster than Drew Kibler‘s 15-16 National Age Group Record of 4:15.36 in the 500 free. Even at just 14-years old, Mijatovic’s time on Saturday would have placed him 22nd at the NCAA Championship meet a week ago. Mijatovic’s time has “jumped” an age group, which is occasionally see on the girls’ side (Katie Ledecky for an example), but which is very rare in boys swimming.
Mijatovic currently holds 13-14 National Age Group Records in the 500 free (4:14.83), 1000 free (8:46.50), 1650 free (14:45.79), and 400 IM (3:49.32) in short course. In long course, he holds records in the 200 free (1:49.63), 400 free (3:51.18), 800 free (7:59.64), 1500 free (15:26.73), and 400 IM (4:24.20).
Race Video
Courtesy: SwimClips.com
“He is still scheduled to swim the 400 IM, 200 fly, and 1000 free on Sunday.“
Braden – Any idea who he is swimming for now? Looks like he is swimming unattached?
a lot of high school swimmers are unattached because far westerns are held during hs swim season so i’m assuming luka is unattached for the same reason
Correct – he’s still with the Seahawks, but under California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) rules no athlete on a High School team may compete in the same sport on a club team during the high school season. The only exception is that athletes in individual sports such as track/field or swimming may compete as unattached athletes but may not wear any club team apparel including team suits, team caps, and team warmups at any time including meet warmups. The penalty imposed by the CIF is a 2 meet or 1/3rd of the season suspension if found in violation, which puts the athlete in jeopardy of not qualifying for league, section and state championships. (Swimmers must swim in 50%+1 meet to qualify… Read more »
Update Luka did not swim the 1000…but he still broke his own NAG in the 4 IM. 3:47.91
52.21
58.53
1:05.82 and
51.35!
How fast do we think Luka will swim at Olympic Trials? Is there any chance he could sneak into a semi or final?
He’s making the 800 free final for sure. He’s a good shot for 400/1500
200 free – 1:47.8
400 free – 3;47.5
800 free – 7:49.0
1500 – 14.58
That’s a bit of a stretch for sure, but we can’t predict anything.
100%
Man I hope he starts working on his under waters. Clearly he has the over water portion down but I think now we can see that you can only go so fast without having exceptional under waters, thanks to Marchand..
Not going to be much of a factor in long distance races in the pool that matters
Leon proved that wrong last week, we used to think the 500 was distance
That’s SCY. That pool doesn’t matter.
Swimmer fan said: “in the pool that matters” aka LCM
Ok I did not realize this but Luka might do THIS again next week in the 400 free. Larsen Jensen’s 15-16 NAG is 3:50.68. And Luka back in March went 3:51.18. Very good chance at going under the LC 15-16 NAG even before aging up. The fastest time ever by a 14 year old is 3:49.64 from Ian Thorpe back in 1997 he has a shot to go under that as well.
Our own Ian Thorpe is getting better and better every year watch out Sam Short
Fast swim!