Double Dip: Aiden Hayes Sets Pair of National High School Records at Oklahoma Champs
This time next year, Aiden Hayes will be racing for North Carolina State University at the ACC Championships. But before the Norman North High school senior moves on to collegiate competition, he made the most of his final high school meet, as he stamped himself as the star of the Oklahoma 6A Championships.
On Thursday afternoon, Hayes took down a pair of national high school records, first lowering the standard in the 50-yard freestyle, and then breaking the record in the 100-yard butterfly. In the 50 free, Hayes produced a winning time of 19.20, which was quick enough to better the 19.24 that Matt Brownstead posted at last year’s Pennsylvania 3A Championships. Brownstead is now representing Virginia.
Following the 50 freestyle, Hayes took down Joseph Schooling’s 2013 record in the 100 fly. Touching the wall in 45.47, Hayes clipped the 45.52 that Schooling managed during his days at the Bolles School in Florida. A little more than three years after Schooling set the high school record, he claimed gold in the 100 fly at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. In addition to breaking Schooling’s overall high school record, Hayes cracked the public-school standard of 45.88, set in 2019 by University of Georgia freshman Luca Urlando.
Hayes will obviously provide an immediate boost to N.C. State next year, and will be joined as an impact freshman by David Curtiss, who owns the national independent school record in the 50 freestyle.