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Rex Maurer Takes Down Grant Shoults’ National HS Record in 500 Free with 4:12.70

2023 CIF-SS SWIMMING AND DIVING DIVISION I CHAMPIONSHIPS

  • April 27-May 5, 2023
  • Riverside Aquatic Complex
  • SCY (25 yards)
  • Results
  • Defending Champions:
    • Girls: Santa Margarita
    • Boys: Santa Margarita

Loyola senior Rex Maurer broke the national high school record in the 500-yard freestyle with a 4:12.70 on Friday night after just barely missing the 200 free mark earlier in the session.

Maurer took down former Santa Margarita standout Grant Shoults’ previous standard of 4:12.87 that had stood for seven years since he posted it at the same CIF-Southern Section (CIF-SS) Division I Championship meet back in 2016.

It actually wasn’t a lifetime best for Maurer, who blazed a 4:12.33 to win the 500 free at the Winter Junior Championship meet last December. That performance tied him with Michael Phelps as the second-fastest swimmer in the U.S. boys’ 17-18 national age group (NAG). At last year’s CIF-SS Division I Championships, Maurer clocked a 4:13.90 to become the fastest 17-year-old American ever in the event.

Maurer also won a CIF-SS individual title in the 200 free, firing off a personal-best 1:33.54 that came just .28 seconds shy of the meet record set by Shoults in 2016 — which was a national high school record at the time. Maurer dropped .15 seconds off his previous best from last December. The national high school standard now belongs to Cal commit Aaron Shackell, who went 1:32.85 in February. That mark could be threatened again at the CIF State Championships on May 13.

Maurer capped off his evening with a 20.19 leadoff split on Loyola’s 200 free relay that snuck past Santa Margarita for the title.

Making Maurer’s double even more impressive is the fact that he was coming off the flu, unshaved, and not fully rested.

The No. 2 recruit in SwimSwam’s rankings for the high school class of 2023, Maurer committed to Stanford last October. His mother, Lea, is the head coach at USC.

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Seth
1 year ago

No high school record is safe.
4:12 500 in high school is over a minute faster than most swimmers will ever go.
Wow

Stank
1 year ago

Does Shoults have any high school eligibility left? I think he could still take a crack at that record

Hank
Reply to  Stank
1 year ago

No but he has plenty of US Masters Swimming eligibility.

Bobo Boi
1 year ago

The glazing is crazy

Aquatiger
1 year ago

Luca Evans is apparently confused as to what a millisecond is.

Age Of Winters
Reply to  Aquatiger
1 year ago

Missed that day of school apparently.

bubo
Reply to  Aquatiger
1 year ago

The amount of times I’ve heard milliseconds on the pool deck :/

Andrew
1 year ago

Honestly kind of sad how we know with certainty that he won’t even sniff these times at Stanford

PFA
Reply to  Andrew
1 year ago

I think Rex will be just fine there, his brother is there and he’s doing well I think he’s going to do just as well maybe even better there.

Sweet Sweet Peter Rosen
1 year ago

Must be hard to get yo for this meet after masters nationals was just in town

Bignowhere
Reply to  Sweet Sweet Peter Rosen
1 year ago

What does this mean?

Swim Fast Swim Pretty
Reply to  Bignowhere
1 year ago

No one knows what it means. It gets the people goin!

-_-
1 year ago

tbh not training because of flu basically amounts to a taper. great swim either way

Christine Breedy
Reply to  -_-
1 year ago

WRONG

SCCOACH
1 year ago

I heard he was wearing swim trunks and a baggy t shirt as well

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Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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