Maximus Williamson Puts On Record-Breaking Show at Texas 6A State Champs
Competing at the Texas 6A Championships at the Jamail Swim Center, Keller High School’s Maximus Williamson put together one of the finest nights of racing in high school history. During the evening, Williamson set a pair of individual high school records and helped Keller High to two relay marks.
Williamson first took down one of the most iconic scholastic records on the books on Saturday night. A Virginia recruit, Williamson clocked a time of 1:40.81 in the 200-yard individual medley to break the 2011 standard of Hershey’s David Nolan. A future NCAA champion for Stanford, Nolan’s record stood at 1:41.39.
A junior, Williamson covered the opening butterfly leg in 21.71 and followed with a backstroke split of 24.14. He produced a breaststroke split of 30.44 and brought the race home with a freestyle split of 24.52. The time was also a National Age Group (NAG) record for the 17-18 classification, with Williamson breaking his own record of 1:41.18. Williamson won the Texas state title by more than five seconds, as Luke Stibrich was second in 1:46.50.
Later in the evening, Williamson led off Keller’s 200 freestyle relay, jumpstarting the squad on its way to a national record of 1:19.21. Williamson opened in 19.45 and was followed by River Paulk (19.74), Riccardo Osio (20.15) and Cooper Lucas (19.87). The former relay record was held by the Bolles School at 1:19.27 since 2012, with that group including Ryan Murphy, Joseph Schooling and Santo Condorelli.
After winning the 100 backstroke in a state record of 46.29, Williamson led off Keller’s 400 freestyle relay with a split of 41.84. That effort broke the high school 100 free record of 42.14, formerly held by Kaii Winkler. Meanwhile, Keller went 2:53.80 for the relay to shave .01 off the national record of North Allegheny from 2018. Williamson was joined by Lucas (43.23), Maxwell Stanislaus (44.42) and Paulk (44.31).
Williamson is one of several teenage stars in the American male arsenal, alongside Thomas Heilman. The teenager is expected to be a factor in multiple events at this summer’s United States Olympic Trials. His best chances of qualifying for the Paris Games are likely in the 100 freestyle and 200 freestyle, where six athletes typically are selected for Olympic competition.
Certainly the 100 freestyle and 200 freestyle are the most likely because of the six, but I consider the 200 IM to be essentially equal to those relay based selections, not so much due to the qualityof his swims but the relative weakness of the competition.