Sport: Men's Swimming

High School: Conestoga High School Berwyn, PA

Club Team: Upper Main Line YMCA Berwyn, PA

Brendan Burns is ranked as the number 1 high school men's swimmer in Pennsylvania. The Conestoga High School junior and Upper Main Line YMCA (UMLY) swimmer clocked in at 1:42.94, the second-fastest time in his 15-16 age group in history behind only 23-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps' time of 1:42.10. The event doesn't classify swimmers by age groups, and only a handful of high school kids qualified.

On January 24th, swimming for Conestoga High School, junior Brendan Burns broke the national public high school record for the 100-meter butterfly with a time of 52.41 taking almost three whole seconds off of the previous high school record. This record makes Brendan surpass not only the public school mark, but the overall mark, seeing as he swam much faster than the private/independent school records as well.

Brendan is one of a few high school students who swam this year with records that would have been fast enough to be invited to last year's NCAA D1 championships.

“The Upper Main Line YMCA swim team trains swimmers to be well-rounded and adaptable. Brendan trains hard and he's an extremely focused and committed young man, which bodes well with being extremely talented. Our goal is to work on getting faster and the results will take care of themselves. He's in a pretty good place where he is now.” Upper Main Line YMCA Competitive Aquatic Director and Burns' coach Louis Petto said.

Brendan's record-breaking video:

* Originally published on February 4, 2018, by Bryan Sosoo