Maximus Williamson Obliterates High School Record with 1:30.46 200 Free
Maximus Wiliamson’s adjustment to the national high school record in the 200 free on Friday was slight. Saturday’s was a wholesale annihilation.
Williamson, swimming for Keller High, set a best time of 1:30.46 at the UIL Class 6A championships in Texas. That is more than two seconds faster than the existing high school record that he had nudged down in prelims. He lowered his national age-group record in the 200 free, which had been 1:31.37, set in December of 2023.
Williamson also used the second day of the Texas high school championships to lower his national high school mark in the 100 free to 41.54, then took possession of the 50 free mark with a relay leadoff of 19.08.
Changes in the 200 free national record had been gradual. Carson Foster was the first to break 1:33 with a 1:32.99 in 2019. It stood until Aaron Shackell trimmed it to 1:32.85 in 2023, then a reduction that fall by Kaii Winkler to 1:32.68. Williamson took another .05 off that on Friday to 1:32.63.
This, though, is a quantum leap.
Williamson’s splits:
- 20.59 – 22.74 – 23.24 – 23.89 – 1:30.46
Splits from Friday’s swim:
- 21.04 – 23.24 – 23.97 – 24.36 – 1:32.63
Williamson’s time would’ve finished fourth at NCAAs last year, trailing only Olympians Luke Hobson, Jack Alexy and Chris Guiliano. The University of Virginia commit on Friday took out the state record set in 2018 by Jack LeVant at 1:33.57.
After a reserved prelims swim in the 100 free on Friday, Williamson chipped three tenths off his high school mark to win in 41.54 Saturday. He had been 41.84 last year. That time is just outside the national age-group record set in 2015 by Ryan Hoffer at 41.23. Williamson split 43.98 off the end of Keller’s winning 400 free relay.
Williamson led off Keller’s 200 free relay in 19.08. That takes down his state record (19.45) and erases the national mark set by David Curtiss at 19.11. He had split 18.95 on the anchor in prelims on Friday.
Williamson owns Texas state records in the 200 free, 200 individual medley (1:40.81), 50 free, 100 backstroke (46.29) and 100 free.