By James Sutherland on SwimSwam
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Luka Mijatovic is headed to Texas.
The top-ranked recruit in the boys’ high school class of 2027 and one of the best teenage swimmers in the United States in recent memory announced his verbal pledge to the Longhorns on Friday, joining Bob Bowman‘s talent-stacked training group in Austin.
Mijatovic’s college recruitment process has been well documented. After taking visits to Cal, Indiana and Texas, he told Social Kick earlier this month that he was in the decision-making process, which ultimately landed on Texas.
On Thursday, he teased the commitment to the Longhorns, posting a captionless Instagram photo of himself in a cowboy hat.
I’m extremely excited to announce my verbal commitment to continue my academic and athletic career at the University of Texas, Austin! Thank you to my family for always believing in me and supporting my dreams. A huge thank you to my Coaches Steve, Joe, and Stephanie, for pushing me and helping me grow both in and out of the pool. And thank you to my age group Coach Mark Taliaferro, who helped me fall in love with swimming when I was six years old! And thank you to Coaches Bob, Erik, and Trevor for this amazing opportunity! I can’t wait to get to work and be part of something special. Hook ‘em
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The 16-year-old Pleasanton Seahawk has been a National Age Group Record-breaking machine over the last five years, and this past summer, broke onto the senior international stage for the first time, qualifying for the U.S. roster at the 2025 World Championships.
In June, Mijatovic was the runner-up in the men’s 400 freestyle at the 2025 U.S. National Championships in a time of 3:45.71, re-lowering the boys’ 15-16 NAG record he reset in the prelims (3:45.89) to earn a berth on the Worlds team. Both swims were also under the current 17-18 NAG record, which has been on the books since 2004, set by Larsen Jensen (3:46.08).
Two days prior to that swim, Mijatovic did the same thing in the 200 free, clocking 1:45.92 to break the 15-16 NAG record of 1:47.29 held by Maximus Williamson while also going under the 17-18 record held by none other than Michael Phelps (1:45.99).
In short course yards, Mijatovic is no slouch, either. He’s the current 15-16 NAG record holder in the 500 free (4:10.96), 1000 free (8:42.45) and 1650 free (14:37.63), and also ranks #2 all-time in the 400 IM (3:41.76) and #6 in the 200 free (1:33.52).
Mijatovic’s Top Times (SCY)
1650 free – 14:37.63 1000 free – 8:42.45 500 free – 4:10.96 200 free – 1:33.52 100 free – 43.65 50 free – 20.66 400 IM – 3:41.76 200 IM – 1:45.67 200 back – 1:45.77 100 back – 48.44 200 breast – 2:02.23 100 breast – 55.46Despite having nearly two years until he joins the Longhorns, Mijatovic would make an immediate impact with the squad if he joined them today.
His personal best time of 14:37.63 in the 1650 free would’ve placed 12th at the 2025 NCAA Championships and would rank #8 all-time in Texas school history, while his time of 4:10.96 in the 500 free would’ve placed 14th in the NCAA prelims and rank 10th all-time at UT.
While Mijatovic is a lock to race the 500 free and 1650 free in the postseason throughout his collegiate career, the 200 free and 400 IM are both legitimate options as his #3 event. Under the new NCAA Championship event order, he’ll swim the mile on Day 1, then have either the 400 IM or 200 free on Day 2, and the 500 free on Day 3 before likely having the fourth day off, unless he factors into the 400 free relay.
His best time of 3:41.76 in the 400 IM is less than a second and a half shy of what it took to score at the 2025 NCAAs (3:40.38), while in the 200 free, his 1:33.52 is just over a second and a half off the scoring cut-off (1:31.88).
At the conference level, Mijatovic’s best times would’ve placed 4th in the 1650 free, 7th in the 500 free and 8th in the 400 IM at the 2025 SEC Championships.
It’s also important to note that all of Mijatovic’s short course best times were set in May 2025 or earlier, and after the massive drops we saw him produce in the long course pool this summer, it stands to reason he’s capable of knocking a big chunk of those SCY times.
In long course, in addition to owning the 15-16 NAG records in the 200 and 400 free, Mijatovic also ranks #2 all-time in age group history in the 800 free (7:53.80), 4th in the 400 IM (4:16.18) and 7th in the 1500 free (15:15.95).
At the 2025 World Championships, although unconfirmed, results indicate Mijatovic was likely one of the many U.S. swimmers to have been dealing with illness at the meet, having added 14 seconds in the 400 free prelims and placing 36th.
He also represented the U.S. on the international stage at the 2024 Junior Pan Pacific Championships, when, despite being just 15, he won gold in the boys’ 200 free, 400 free and 4×200 free relay.
Mijatovic joins a University of Texas men’s team that has quickly returned to its longtime status as a national powerhouse.
After placing 7th at the 2024 NCAA Championships, their lowest finish since 2005, the Longhorns named Bowman, who had just won the national title at Arizona State, the new Director of Swimming and head coach of the men’s team, and things immediately started taking shape.
Olympic champion Hubert Kos followed Bowman from Tempe to Austin, while the team took in some game-changing transfers such as Rex Maurer and Chris Guiliano. That trio combined for 144.5 individual points at NCAAs last season, as the Longhorns won the national title in a tight battle with Cal and Indiana. The team’s other top scorer was Luke Hobson, who won his third straight NCAA title in the 200 free and is the current owner of the SCM and SCY all-time records in the event.
Although Guiliano and Hobson have now graduated, and Kos, Maurer and some of the team’s top performers, such as Will Modglin and Nate Germonprez, will have exhausted their eligibility by the time Mijatovic arrives, they’ll likely all still be training under Bowman as part of the Texas pro group, along with the likes of Leon Marchand, Summer McIntosh and Regan Smith, three of the best swimmers on the planet.
Needless to say, Mijatovic will have no shortage of training partners, including the NCAA (Marchand) and American (Maurer) Record holders in the 500 free, the NCAA and American Record holder in the 200 free (Hobson), and the fastest 400 IMer in history (Marchand).
Looking at the swimmers who will be on the college team when Mijatovic starts his career, they’ve got ranked recruits in the class of 2025 on the roster as freshmen this season in #3 Campbell McKean and HM Aiden Hammer, along with Frenchman Rafael Fente-Damers, and in the boys’ class of 2026, they’ve got #3 Rowan Cox and #4 Austin Carpenter coming to Austin.
Along with Mijatovic in the class of 2027, #20 Ellis Crisci and HM Ian Call have committed to Texas.
If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to Recruits@swimswam.com.
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