By Madeline Folsom on SwimSwam
Last weekend, while the swimming World Championships were happening, the U.S. Track and Field trials were racing in Eugene, Oregon.
The biggest story of the meet was 16-year-old Cooper Lutkenhaus breaking the National High School Record in the men’s 800 meters, running 1:42.27. This time was not only faster than the National High School Record, it is also faster than the current NCAA record in the event of 1:43.25.
This feat sparked a question on ‘X’ by @lukapark about whether a high school swimmer had been faster than the NCAA record.
has this ever happened in swimming? t.co/dB9Qsc5FsP
— Bromine Zaddy (@lukapark) August 5, 2025
This is an intriguing question when it comes to swimming because, unlike in track, the NCAA is competed in short course yards, whereas world level meets are competed in meters.
In order to get the closest comparison, we are going to use National Age Group Records and the correlating NCAA record. It is also important to note that it is difficult to accurately figure out times from pre-1997, so our question really is, “How many times in the last 28 years has a high schooler swam faster than the NCAA record?”
The first person most people will think of is Michael Phelps, and in March 2002, he swam 1:42.10 in the boy’s 200 butterfly, his fastest time as a 15-16 year old. The NCAA record at the time was 1:41.78, set by Melvin Stewart in 1991. Phelps was already a World Record holder in the long course event at this time, but he was not faster than the NCAA record in SCY
The following year, at 17, Phelps swam 1:41.72, coming in just under Stewart’s record to become the first high schooler in history to be faster than the NCAA record.
This is the only event he accomplished this in.
Next, we looked at Katie Ledecky. In 2013, she swam 4:31.38 in the 500 freestyle at 15-years-old. This was faster than the NCAA record at the time of 4:32.71 set by Allison Schmitt in 2011. She dropped time for the next two subsequent years, swimming 4:28.71 in 2014 at 16-years-old and 4:26.58 in 2015 at 17-years-old.
When she finally, got into college, she hacked more than seven seconds off the existing NCAA record, which at that point belonged to Leah Smith in 4:30.37, to swim 4:24.06.
The 1650 free was a similar story. In November of 2012, the same year she won her first Olympic gold medal, she swam the mile in 15:28.36, this was more than 10 seconds faster than the NCAA record of 15:38.79 that had been set by Stephanie Peacock a few months prior.
She continued to drop from there, swimming 15:15.17 in December of 2013 at 16-years-old, and 15:13.30 in 2014 at 17-years-old. When she swam her freshman year in 2017, she dropped the record to 15:07.70, almost 20 seconds faster than Leah Smith‘s record of 15:25.30 from 2016.
From there, we looked at every NCAA event (no 1000 freestyle) and compared the fastest 17-18 year-old swimmers to the record from that year, and we got a very short list.
Besides Phelps and Ledecky, only three other athletes, all women, have been faster than the existing NCAA record while they were in high school. There are a few caveats to this. The 1st is that we can’t look at international athletes because they don’t swim yards outside of the United States. The 2nd is that the athlete had to be in high school when they swam the time, regardless of their age. There are a few swimmers who went pro after high school and set very fast times while they were still 18, but as they had already graduated, they don’t count towards this list.
School Year Athlete Age Event Time NCAA Record 2003 Michael Phelps 17 Men’s 200 Butterfly 1:41.72 1:41.78, Melvin Stewart (1991) 2006 Kate Ziegler 17 Women’s 500 Freestyle 4:33.35 4:34.39, Janet Evans (1990) 2010 Dagny Knutson 17 Women’s 500 Freestyle 4:31.18 4:33.60, Caroline Burckle (2008) 2013 Katie Ledecky 15 Women’s 500 Freestyle 4:31.38 4:32.71, Allison Schmitt (2011) Katie Ledecky 15 Women’s 1650 Freestyle 15:28.36 15:37.06, Stephanie Peacock (2012) 2014 Katie Ledecky 16 Women’s 500 Freestyle 4:28.71 4:32.53, Brittany MacLean (2014) Katie Ledecky 16 Women’s 1650 Freestyle 15:15.17 15:37.06, Stephanie Peacock (2012) 2015 Katie Ledecky 17 Women’s 500 Freestyle 4:26.58 4:30.37, Leah Smith (2015) Katie Ledecky 17 Women’s 1650 Freestyle 15:13.30 15:27.84, Brittany MacLean (2014) 2019 Regan Smith 17 Women’s 100 Backstroke 49.66 49.67, Beata Nelson (2018)** Regan Smith 17 Women’s 200 Backstroke 1:47.16 1:47.30, Kathleen Baker (2018)**** both the women’s backstroke NCAA records were broken at the NCAA Championships in 2019. Smith swam both of her races two weeks before the new NCAA records.
So to answer the question, yes, high schooler swimmers have been faster than the NCAA record, but not very many, and most of them went on to be World Record holders, or already were World Record holders.
Katie Ledecky is the only athlete who has been faster than the NCAA record at 16, which is how old Lutkenhaus is.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: How Many Times Have High Schoolers Been Faster Than the NCAA Record?
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