A week ago, not many people outside of the state of California knew who Torrance High’s Vlad Morozov was. Now, the country has sat up and taken notice that Vlad Morozov is rewriting the high school swimming record books.
After breaking Jimmy Feigen’s 50 freestyle record over the weekend at the CIF Southern Section Championships, in a speedy 19.43 seconds, Morozov decided he wanted more records. To lead off his team’s 400 freestyle relay at the CIF Southern Section Masters meet, Morozov clocked a ridiculous 42.87, which cleared Feigen’s old mark of 43.05.
In addition to his new National Record, Morozov also set a Masters meet-record of 47.97 in the 100 fly. While still almost a second short of Sean Fletcher’s national record (47.08), breaking the 48 second barrier in high school is an amazing feat. The runner-up in the event was Oaks Christian Senior Christian Bloch, who will be Morozov’s roommate next year at USC. Bloch previously won the CIF non-masters Final in the event in 47.55 over the weekend, which is the second fastest time in California State history. Bloch was also the previous masters record holder at 48.51 seconds, which he set last season.
To finish things off, Morozov set one more Masters meet record in the 100 backstroke by clocking a 47.55. The previous record was held by Tony Cox, who is now a freshman at Auburn.