[PHOTO BY PETER H. BICK]
MALE HIGH SCHOOL SWIMMER OF THE YEAR
TAKING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL A
iden Hayes was an Everything appears to be OK for Norman younger kids are responding to under-the-radar swimmer that. We have some fast kids North (Okla.) High School senior Aiden coming up in Oklahoma right coming from an under-theradar state. But after a stellar Hayes. He set two national high school now. high school season and spot at “Aiden was the Oklahoma the U.S. Olympic Trials, he is records (100 fly and 50 free) this past season. Athlete of the Year, so swimputting himself and the state of being recognized as the He competed and gained experience at the mers Oklahoma on the map. top athlete in the state is a big It has been quite a year for U.S. Olympic Trials as the fastest 18-year- deal.” the senior from Norman North old in the country in butterfly. And he was High School. NATIONAL HIGH Hayes set two national high named Swimming World’s Male High School SCHOOL RECORDS school records at the Oklahoma Last February, Hayes took Swimmer of the Year. state championships and was down a pair of national high selected as Swimming World’s school records, first lowering BY DAN D’ADDONA Male High School Swimmer the standard in the 50 yard of the Year. freestyle, and then breaking the record in the 100 butterfly. In the “It is a really big deal,” Hayes said. “Oklahoma doesn’t get the 50 free, Hayes produced a winning time of 19.20, which was quick recognition in swimming. It is definitely not the biggest sport, or enough to better the 19.24 that Matt Brownstead (State College even top five. But it has started to pick up around the state. Area, Pa.) posted at last year’s Pennsylvania 3A Championships. “It started a few years ago, and now Patrick Callan (a University (However, Pennington School’s David Curtiss—who will be of Michigan senior who’s from Owasso, Okla.) follows that up as teammates with Hayes at NC State this fall—lowered the record one of two Olympians from Oklahoma. to 19.11 a little more than a week later at the New Jersey state “It is two Olympics in a row that we put someone on the championships!) Olympic team (the first was Oklahoma City’s David Plummer Following the 50, Hayes took down Joseph Schooling’s 2013 in 2016). To bring that experience back to Oklahoma is huge. I record in the 100 fly. Touching the wall in 45.47, Hayes clipped looked up to Patrick when I was younger, and to bring that fast the 45.52 that Schooling managed during his days at the Bolles swimming to Oklahoma has elevated our sport as a whole. School in Florida. A little more than three years after Schooling “It was a really big deal. I was obviously excited about it. To be set the high school record, he claimed gold in the 100 fly at the up there with Joseph Schooling, Ryan Hoffer and Caeleb Dressel 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. In addition to breaking is pretty awesome. I am really excited about that!” Schooling’s overall high school record, Hayes cracked the public So was Sooner Swim Club coach Kent Nicholson. school standard of 45.88, set in 2019 by C.K. McClatchy’s (Calif.) “Oklahoma swimming has always had some top-level Luca Urlando, now a sophomore at the University of Georgia. swimmers. We have some (NCAA) D-I swimmers, but what “His 50 free and 100 fly were swum back-to-back, normally a Oklahoma struggles with is the depth. You will have two to three 15-minute break plus awards, but because of COVID, there was no fast swimmers in an event, then it will really drop off,” Nicholson said. “But you have these kids who swim super fast, and the time to think, and he was swimming the 100 fly 12 minutes later. It 14
AUGUST 2021
SWIMMINGWORLD.COM
