2023 December Huntington Beach Sectionals
- December 14-18, 2023
- Huntington Beach, CA
- SCY (25 yards)
- Meet Mobile: 2023 CA Dec CA CV Speedo Sectionals at GWSC
17 year old Luke Ellis of the Sandpipers of Nevada won the boys 1650 freestyle in a 14:29.48 Thursday night to break the boys 17-18 National Age Group (NAG) record. Not only did he become the fastest high schooler in the event all-time but also the fastest in the age group. That time also would have been second at NCAAs this past March.
Ellis broke the previous record of a 14:31.47 which Levi Sandidge set this past spring to win the SEC title as a freshman at Kentucky.
Split Comparison
| Ellis | Sandidge | |
| 100 | 51.19 | 50.29 |
| 200 | 53.24 | 52.91 |
| 300 | 53.32 | 52.93 |
| 400 | 53.18 | 52.99 |
| 500 | 53.58 | 53.14 |
| 600 | 52.79 | 53.14 |
| 700 | 53.21 | 53.31 |
| 800 | 52.97 | 53.24 |
| 900 | 52.88 | 53.53 |
| 1000 | 52.96 | 53.2 |
| 1100 | 52.83 | 53.1 |
| 1200 | 52.78 | 52.76 |
| 1300 | 52.85 | 52.63 |
| 1400 | 53.02 | 53.48 |
| 1500 | 52.47 | 53.03 |
| 1600 | 51.56 | 52.51 |
| 1650 | 24.65 | 25.28 |
| 14:29.48 | 14:31.47 |
Both swimmers split around the same, although Ellis had his 53-second 100s during the first 500 of the race while Sandidge had his during the second 500. The biggest difference maker here was the last 150 yards as Ellis was about a second faster at on the final 100 split and was over half a second faster on the final 50 split.
Ellis’ time tonight was a personal best by over 20 seconds as his previous best was a 14:49.79 from 2022 Winter Juniors West. Ellis was already the top miler in the class of 2025.
Ellis is currently the #3 ranked recruit in the boys high school class of 2025. Ellis is committed to Indiana for fall 2025. Notably, his time tonight would have been second at NCAAs this past spring as Will Gallant won in a 14:28.94 and Ross Dant was second in a 14:30.32. Notably, despite a fourth place team finish at NCAAs, Indiana had no scorers in the event.
Any chance theres a race video? Insane swim!
Notably both Ellis & Mijatovic (2nd in this race I think) were faster than the fastest times from both East & West juniors. Perhaps this foreshadows the reason the West didn’t do so well in combined results: another high-caliber meet going on the following week.
This is stoopid fast!
stg if he keeps casually dropping 20 seconds like this he might make the top 8 at trials
Top 8? He’s there right now if he repeats this. Who knows what 6 more months will do..
I think he was top 8 at trials this past summer too?
I guess I’m an old man now compared to when I swam (I’m 36). I was CIF champ junior and senior year, also top 8 at junior nats in a few events 2004-05 when it wasn’t split like it is now. My times don’t stand a chance with kids these days. What has changed so much since then?
There are lots of theories. Better training (more specificity/race pace) is probably a big one. I’m the same age as you, and all of my coaches had a goal on every set to pick an interval that gave us as little rest as possible. Every set. So we wound up swimming sets that were essentially 1600 butterfly touch-and-go. Then we get to a taper meet and you have absolutely zero idea of what it feels like to swim fast, what good technique is, or how to do anything but just survive a workout. But hey we were all really good at the 500 fly at our senior meet!
I think it has a lot to do with the level of… Read more »
Braden, please correct me if it was published and I didn’t already see it, but a 16 year old dropping 38 seconds for what I’m sure is in the top 3 of all-time with a 14:41 didn’t make the news!!!!!?????
Info sharing is much better nowadays. I’m only a few years older than you. My exposure to elite swimming in high school was a VHS of Olympic swimming, and maybe (maybe) my coach would attend a clinic with some Power 5 coach/swimmer who would share some sets and ideas.
I wouldn’t have been Heilman or Luke Ellis by any means, but with an idea of how guys faster than me trained, I probably could have been a couple seconds faster.
I’m a decade older than you and was also a CIF Champ & 3 event finalist at juniors and I am completely amazed how fast kids are now. I was a backstroke/butterfly sprinter as an age grouper but turned out being a 200/500/1000 swimmer in hs simply bc my club coach was a high yardage tyrant when he arrived at my team. I went from 5 practices a week averaging 3k yards to 10 a week averaging 10k a day. It was insane and brutal and I still can’t believe I trained that way. If you had an off day, you had a mandatory meeting with parents and coach to discuss if you really were dedicated to the team. It… Read more »
Holy crap that’s fast