Luka Mijatovic Confirms Plans to Graduate Early, Join Texas in December
The swimmer who has rewritten the National Age Group record books in mid-distance and distance freestyle over the past several years will begin his college career earlier than expected. Luka Mijatovic confirmed in an Instagram post Sunday that he will graduate high school early and relocate to the Austin, Texas, in December, putting himself in position to race for the Texas Longhorns in collegiate competition and at the NCAA Championships this spring.
Mijatovic brings some serious additional firepower to a team that has already won the last two NCAA titles since Bob Bowman took over the program in the fall of 2024. He is expected to make an instant impact in the 500 and 1650 free, 400 IM and as a force on the Texas men’s 800 free relay.
Mijatovic enters college as the third-fastest swimmer ever in the 500-yard free, having recorded a time of 4:05.76 last February. That ended up beating the 4:06.56 that Florida’s Ahmed Hafnaoui swam to win the NCAA title in the event a month later. Ironically, the only two swimmers to beat Mijatovic’s best are Leon Marchand and Rex Maurer, both Bowman-trained athletes still training (and in Maurer’s case, competing) at Texas.
At the same meet when he went 4:05 in the 500, Mijatovic became an American-record holder for the first time, swimming 8:32.68 in the 1000 free. As for the 1650 free, Mijatovic owns a best time of 14:30.01, which would have placed fifth at the 2026 NCAA meet. A 3:40.14 in the 400 IM puts him on the periphery of scoring territory. His 200 free currently tops out at 1:32.73, and it won’t take much improvement for Mijatovic to provide a boost to a team that won last year’s national title.
Should Mijatovic indeed race for Texas this spring, he will have four additional years of NCAA eligibility after that under the new eligibility model rolled out over the summer. However, he must use them all consecutively, with redshirt seasons eliminated.
Mijatovic is coming off a phenomenal long course season, which culminated with seven gold medals at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Vancouver. Mijatovic also won the U.S. national title in the 400-meter free, lowering his National Age Group record to 3:43.45 and finishing the summer as the seventh-fastest swimmer in the world for 2026, his time only one hundredth behind Aaron Shackell as the top American.