Maximus Williamson, Keller High Break 4 National High School Records at Texas 6A State Meet

2024 UIL 6A STATE MEET

• Februaray 23-24, 2024
• Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, Austin, TX
• SCY (25 yards)
• Live Results

Keller High School junior Maximus Williamson started his day on Saturday at the Texas 6A High School State Championship meet with a new National High School Record in the 200 IM, but he didn’t stop at one.

Team Standings – Top 5

1. Keller – 312.5
2. Southlake Carroll – 208
3. The Woodlands – 191
4. Kingwood – 112
5. Vandegrift – 106

Williamson wound up finishing his day with 4 new national records, and two further State Records, in one of the most spectacular performances we’ve ever seen at a high school meet.

First he took down David Nolan’s legendary 1:41.39 in the 200 IM from 2011, which at the time was one of the fastest 200 IMs ever done by anybody of any age (read more on that swim here).

He then split 19.45 on the leadoff leg of Keller’s 200 free relay, which finished in 1:19.21. His leadoff leg took .04 seconds of Jimmy Feigen’s State Record (which was a national record at the time), and the relay broke both the public school and overall National High School Records in the event.

The former public school record in the event was a 1:19.60 done by North Allegheny High School in Pennsylvania in 2018, while the overall record was a 1:19.27 done by the Bolles School in Florida, a relay that included future Olympians Ryan Murphy, Joseph Schooling, and Santo Condorelli.

The Bolles relay remains the Independent Schools Record.

Splits Comparison:

Race Video:

Next up, in the 100 backstroke, Williamson swam 46.29, which won by more than two seconds and undercut Jason Park’s State Record of 47.09 from 2018.

He would finish his day with a two-for-one in the 400 free relay. He split 41.84 on the leadoff leg, which undercuts another David Nolan National High School Record. Nolan was previously the fastest-ever in high school competition at 42.34 – done at the same meet as his prior IM record. Williamson knocked half-a-second of that swim.

Jack Conger remains the Independent School Record holder at 42.81.

Race Video: 

After Williamson’s electric leadoff leg, his Keller High School teammates would back him up: US Junior National Teamer Cooper Lucas, sophomore Maxwell Stanislaus, and senior River Paulk would combined for a 2:43.80 – shaving .01 seconds off another North Allegheny National High School Record.

Splits Comparison:

Williamson’s previous best times were 19.46 in the 50 free and 41.99 in the 100 free, both done at Winter Juniors – West in December. Ryan Hoffer holds the 17-18 National Age Group Record in the 100 free at 41.23. Williamson doesn’t turn 19 until September of 2025, so he has time to chase that record as well.

Of the North Allegheny swimmers on those prior record-holding relays, poetically, most have had their best collegiate success as NCAA relay qualifiers. Rick Mihm at Stanford is the notable exception – he was an individual NCAA qualifier last season, placing as high as 31st in the 200 fly and 200 IM.

Keller has had these relay records in their sights for a few years since assembling a super team of sorts when Williamson transferred in from the state’s former superpower Southlake Carroll after his freshman year of high school. He joined an already-good team to make one of the best in the country. The wins above were part of a dominant 104.5-point margin over Williamson’s former school to give Keller its second-straight state championship.

While two key legs, Paulk and Lucas, will be graduating (Lucas is heading to Texas, Paulk to Auburn), Williamson will be back for one more year. Others returning to chase a third-straight team crown are key relay legs like Maxwell Stanislaus and Riccardo Osio, will return.

Even without Williamson and Lucas, Keller placed 2nd in the 200 medley relay, about half-a-second behind The Woodlands’ winning squad.

The Woodlands’ relay of Ryan Rautenbach (back – 23.18), Tyler Tannenberger (breast – 24.15), Wesley Foster (fly – 21.66), and Jackson Landahl (free – 21.20).

Tannenberger’s relay split was the difference-maker for The Woodlands and the fastest in the field by almost seven-tenths of a second. It’s unsurprising, then, that the senior then won the 100 breaststroke in 54.11, half-a-second clear of Westwood’s Raphael Wang, who was 2nd in 54.62.

Of note, Wang didn’t even qualify for state in this race last year, where he finished 11th in his only individual event: the 200 IM. His best coming into the season was a 57.02, but a mid-season 55.18 indicated a huge progression in the event.

History was made in the men’s 50 free final, where Clark High School’s Evan Croley was the only swimmer sub-20 in 19.89. That was his school’s first state title in swimming & Diving since Chris Epp won the 200 and 500 free in 1998. His previous best was a 19.99, which placed him 5th at Winter Juniors – West. He is now the third-best swimmer in Class 6A (formerly 5A) history, behind Feigen and Williamson.

Clark High School in Northside ISD in San Antonio, which is home to the NISD Natatorium, Northside Swim Center, and George Block Aquatics Center, which in aggregate have become regular hosts of both state-level and national-level competition.

Croley is committed to Harvard next season, where so far this year only outgoing senior Marcus Holmquist has been sub-20 seconds (19.72), though a couple more are likely to join him at next week’s Ivy League Championships.

Croley swam the 100 free and 100 back at last year’s state championship meet, placing 3rd in both events.

Race Video:

At the other end of the spectrum is Prosper High School’s Jacob Wimberly, who finished his career with a second 100 fly title in 46.63. While that’s not a personal best time, it is a new Class 6A record.

Wimberly previously won in 2022 as a sophomore before last year falling to Hayden Belotti of Fort Bend-Clements High School.

Wimberly is headed to Texas A&M in the fall, which will leave Riccardo Osio as the incumbent next season after his runner-up 47.61. Ossio’s prelims time of 47.33 was a new best time, knocking eight-tenths off his previous best time from last year’s state meet.

The aforementioned Keller senior Cooper Lucas won the 200 free in 1:34.69. That completed a perfect four-for-four in his career in that event. No other swimmer in the history of this event has ever pulled that off in Texas – including names like Josh Davis, and Paul Robinson.

Lucas’ 200 free race video:

Lucas later won the 500 free in 4:19.08, using a huge final 100 yards to pull away from Round Rock’s Bucky Gettys (4:20.88). That win was Lucas’ third-straight.