Connor Ohl in May 2026
19.90 at league meet
44.08 at league meet
43.42 (relay exchange at CIF)
these have to be the fastest times ever by a HS WP player. Correct? Is there anyone in college or otherwise who has gone certified faster times? What is the fastest 200 free time ever by a WP player?
If you consider âever,â then Matt Biondi
Current fastest NCAA are likely Ryan Ohl and Andras Toth.
Connor has close to perfect build for a free style swimmer at 6â6â , larger wingspan that height, and lanky.
Hats off to Connor Ohl (Newport Harbor Class of 2026, Stanford) and Ellis Culleton (Campolindo Class of 2027, Cal) for their outstanding performances during the 2026 high school swim season. Earlier today, Culleton won the NCS 50-free title in a time of 20.47 (as a senior at Campolindo in 1983, Matt Biondi swam a 20.40 50-free) and Culleton finished second in the 100-free in a time of 44.51.
Unfortunately, in my opinion, the days of the elite American swimming/water polo dual-sport athletes appear to be over.
The Century of the Elite Water Polo/Swimming Dual-Sport Athlete
Disappearance of Elite Water Polo/Swimming Dual-Sport Athlete
Biondi as a senior (1987) and still playing water polo : 19.16 (50 free), 41.80 (100 free), 1:33.03 (200 free)
Legend!
Matt Biondi as a senior in college at Berkeley 19.14 and 41.80. But as a senior in HS 20.40. So Biondi was definitely faster in college than Ohl is in HS. Biondi is an all time legend for sure.
Nice to see Ohl put up legit fast times. Will be interesting to see if he takes a shot at the NCAA swim season December - March.
Willis,
When comparing swimmers from different eras, we should consider how a swimmerâs best times measure (or measured) up against the top swimmers from the era in question. Matt Biondiâs 20.40 50-free in 1983 set the high school record. Connor Ohlâs 50 and 100 times are outstanding times for a water polo player and should be applauded but they arenât close to the times recorded by the top high school swimmers of his era. As a high school student in 2025, Maximus Williams swam a 19.08 50-free and a 41.54 100-free.
Wasnât Alan Gresham actually faster than Biondi?
Or is that simply water polo/swimming legend/myth?
Ryder Doddâs 1:37.23 2free as a junior is one of the most impressive high school swims from an elite water polo player ever. No senior swim season in favor of Paris.
Iâd say thatâs a water polo/swimming legend/myth. By his standards, Matt Biondi didnât have a great swim season during his freshman year at Cal in 1984. Alan Gresham, not Matt Biondi, was the Pac-10 co-champion in the 50 free in 1984. However, Biondi surprised the swimming world by finishing 4th in the 100 free in the 1984 Olympic trials and won the first of his many gold medals in the 400-free relay in 1984. Biondi came into his own during the 1985 college season, winning the 100 and 200 free in the NCAA championships. He won the 50, 100, and 200 free in the 1986 and 1987 NCAA championships. Biondi also won three NCAA water polo championships at Cal, including 1983 and 1984 while playing with Gresham. Gresham, a better water polo player than Biondi, was a 2x NCAA water polo champion and 2x NCAA co-player of the year. He will be remembered as one of the best American water polo players not to be on an Olympic team.
Thanks Jeff, yours is a full, helpful and likely definitive explanation of the dueling talents between two of the finest swimmers and water polo players of the 80s
I thought that I had read here one time that Gresham was faster than Biondi in the 50
That may have been true for a race or a time even but obviously Biondi is one of the greatest swimmers in history. And not a shabby polo player at all.
On a personal note, my freshman year at Cal, 1987, was Biondiâs senior campaign. While I had a meaningless role on the redshirt team that season, I got to practice five hours a day with Biondi and some other legends on that team, including Jeff Brush and Kirk Everist and, my classmate, Julian Bailey.
Beyond the manâs otherworldly talent - this was just a year before he dominated the 1988 Olympics - Biondi was, in my opinion and experience, the nicest and most down to earth guy one could possibly imagine. Almost comically friendly and unpretentious.
The world would only benefit from more Biondis in it.
While weâre discussing water polo/swimming dual-sport athletes, here are my unofficial 200 and 400-freestyle relay teams comprised of athletes who have committed to play D1 college water polo in 2026 or 2027 and recorded excellent times in the 50 and 100-freestyle during the 2026 high school swim season:
Ellis Culleton (Campolindo Class of 2027, Cal, 20.47 and 44.52)
Mathijs Dirven (Los Gatos Class of 2026, Santa Clara, 20.89 and 45.89)
Tanner Lustig (De La Salle Class of 2026, Naval Academy, 20.59 and 45.89)
Connor Ohl (Newport Harbor Class of 2026, Stanford, 19.79 and 44.32)
My apologies if I missed an athlete with better times.
Those are great times. It would be cool to see a stack rank of the top 10 50 free and top 10 100 free for class of 2026 and 2027, including non California athletes. I am certain there is not a database anywhere but it would be interesting to see.
National HS 2025/2026 Swim Season Ranking. LINK
The top 5 Swim/Water Polo HS in the country are: Santa Margarita (640), DLS (622), Brunswick (620), Loyola (604), Campolindo (594).
If anyone is interested, you can click on the school name and check the rosters (and overlap with water polo) and their times.
Youâre missing a few non-ca schools. St Charles Prep (Ohio), North Allegheny ¶, Mason (OH), and New Trier (Il) are all ranked higher than Santa Margaria
I see swim has the same issue water polo has, inconsistent use of a single data tracking platform. For swim this is a bigger deal since it is all against a clock and easier to track athlete to athlete.
Where exactly do you see the problem?
Lacking a ton of meets, and as a result times. Swim seems to use multiple platforms, and also use a platform inconsistently.
I doubt that any official swim meet, from small-town events to global competitions, is omitted from Swimcloud. Perhaps only 0.1% of local amateur swim meets are not included. The situation and quality of the data are nowhere near comparable to water polo.
Trust that as a parent of a competitive swimmer I can tell you many of ours, the majority actually, are missing and we are not a small town. You can doubt it, but I am telling you without a doubt they are. It is not Swimclouds fault nor do I care that much about it. edit: I just reviewed our high school the last 5 years and over 80% of meets are not in swim cloud. Local Club meets are, but not HS and our state has strong swim times. CA is likely much better about putting in their events for whatever reason.
My daughter is a competitive swimmer and I actually spoke to someone from SwimCloud after one of her meets did not make it in. It is up to the organizer of said meet to submit the results. For big clubs, they tend to do immediately. It is âsmallerâ meets with perhaps less organized clubs that have a lag getting results into SwimCloud.
