MESA, Arizona, November 8. RYAN Hoffer blazed through prelims of the 50 freestyle today at the Arizona high school state championships, posting a sizzling 19.55 in the Division I side of the competition.
Hoffer’s swim knocks on the door of Caeleb Dressel’s overall and public national high school record of 19.36 … and Hoffer is only a freshman at Chaparral High School. Had he attended a private school, he would have been .01 away from Ryan Murphy’s independent school record of 19.54.
Today’s swim was Hoffer’s first time under 20 seconds, having previously posted a personal best of 20.02 last March at the USA Swimming sectionals in Washington state. To drop nearly five tenths of a second in a 50 freestyle is nearly unprecedented at his level, and will garner excitement for tomorrow’s final.
Though not fast enough to set a national high school record today, Hoffer’s 19.55 broke the 15-16 USA Swimming national age group record of 19.82 set by Dressel last year, as well as the Arizona high school state record of 19.84, set in 2008 by Herbie Behm.
Hoffer is just 15 years old, which means we’ve only seen the beginning of his record-breaking run. You can watch Hoffer chase Dressel’s national high school record LIVE by going to the web stream of the state meet beginning at 9:30 a.m. Mountain Standard time tomorrow.
Submit your All America Application now
.jpg "2013 Arizona Division I High School State Championships - logo"){kind=logo}