Daily Journal Boys’ Swimmer of the Year: Woodside’s Seth Collet

It took him three years, but Seth Collet final made it to the CIF State Swimming & Diving Championships this past season.

Not that the recent Woodside graduate took three years to qualify. The latest in a string of elite Woodside swimmers, Collet had qualified during both his sophomore and junior years, only to prioritize the classroom over swimming.

The state swim meet falls on the same day of Advanced Placement tests at Woodside, and Collet would skip the final high school meet of the season to take tests.

“He’s a kid who puts a lot of focus into school,” said Woodside head swim coach Stephanie Couch. “It’s a really stressful time, with the state meet and school coming to an end (at roughly the same time).”

At least the rest of the state got to a chance to see Collet perform once on that stage. But the rest of the Peninsula Athletic League already knew: Collet added the PAL 200-yard freestyle record in 2025, while lowering his PAL-record time in the 500 free, as well. He captured his third CCS championship, adding the 500 free to go with 100 back and 200 free titles he won in 2024. And in his first state meet appearance, Collet made “A” finals in two races, finishing third in the 500 free.

And so for the second time in three years, Collet is the San Mateo Daily Journal Boys’ Swimmer of the Year.

“The high school season was a great success,” Collet said, who will swim on scholarship at UC Santa Barbara next year.

“I was super happy with it.”

This season mirrored his 2023 campaign that saw him get sick in the middle of the season, only to recover in time to show out in the postseason.

It was a similar situation this year, but not nearly as severe, lasting only a couple weeks. And unlike during that 2023 season when he had to shut it down completely, he kept working through this bug.

“I was able to bounce back pretty quickly,” Collet said, saying he missed one meet and a week of practice. “My coaches told me to swim a lot of yards and when I came back, I hit the ground running.”

He needed to because he put his body to the test immediately on his return. His first meet was the 1,000-yard freestyle at the Pacific Swimming Far Western Championships. Despite swimming well, he took a downturn as he started to prepare for the high school postseason, that saw him slowing down.

“I was very worried. About two weeks before PALs we were doing a lot of yards to improve my fitness before taper. I was doing way worse. I think it was just I was very run down,” Collet said. “I wasn’t overtraining, I was borderline. But as I tapered, I started to improve a lot.”

Tapering means a swimmer adjusts their training to be at maximum level for a big meet. And it’s not necessarily the next one, which for Collet was the PAL Championships at Menlo-Atherton. And while he went fast — he smashed the 200-yard freestyle record in both the preliminaries and the finals — he still had more in the tank.

He twice broke the PAL record in the 200 free, swimming a 1:38.57 in qualifying before taking the PAL championship with a time of 1:37.62.

The previous mark was 1:42.42 by Burlingame’s Wyatt Butler in 2010.

Collet later added the PAL 500 free crown, with the only question being whether he would reach his goal of 10, 50-yard laps of 27 seconds or less.

“My goal was to get every 50 split … under 27 seconds. I got 9 out of 10,” Collet said, finishing with a time of 4:25.79, just off his own PAL record of 4:25.30, which is also his personal record.

But the PALs weren’t Collet’s taper goal. No, that would have been the CCS Championships a week later. Collet hit his mark on the head as he shaved nearly six seconds off his previous best as he smoked the field in winning the CCS title in the 500 free with a time of 4:19.73 — he was nearly six seconds faster than the runner-up.

That time set a new PAL record and was the third-fastest in CCS history, with Valley Christian’s Michael Nunan holding the mark of 4:18.26 in 2012.

“My goal was for CCS to be the meet that meant the most,” Collet said. “For CCS, I wasn’t looking for the record. My goal was to just drop time. Swimming in the prelims, it didn’t come easy.

“When I saw 4:19, I was just shocked.”

This came on the heels of a PAL-record setting swim in the 200 free. It took a CCS-record time of 1:35.40 from winner Nathan Foucu of King’s Academy to deny Collet the title, who still set a new PR and PAL record with a time of 1:36.05, which is the third-fastest in CCS history.

“I was definitely more focused on the 500 free. I wasn’t very confident about [defending his 200 free title]. But I had real competition (with Foucu),” Collet said. “I saw that I would be [starting] next to him in the final. My goal was to stay near him and I knew if I did, I would swim well. I just wanted to break 1:37.”

That qualified Collet for the CIF state meet for the third time and this year, he took advantage of the opportunity to compete against some of the best swimmers in the country.

“I made it a priority (to attend the state meet). I wanted to go to State at least one year,” Collet said. “(Going to) State was more for the experience.”

And he got to experience what a swimmer on an Olympic track looks like. After qualifying sixth in the 500 free, Collet was lined up with Foothill-Pleasanton junior Luka Mijatovic in the final.

Collet didn’t have the same juice he had at CCS, but still had a fantastic finish at the state meet, finishing third in the “A” final with a time of 4:22.66.

Mijatovic blew away the field with a time of 4:11.91.

Shortly after the CIF state meet, Mijatovic “Luka is on a different level,” Collet said.

Collet also swam in the 200 free “A” final, finishing seventh with a time of 1:38.39 after posting a 1:37.99 in qualifying.

While that ended the high school season, it didn’t end Collet’s swim season. Two weeks after the state meet he was swimming at the US National Championships, where Mijatovic broke Michael Phelps’ age-group records in the 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle races and who competed at the 2024 US Olympic Trials.

“PALs, CCS the next week, then State the next week. Two weeks later, went to nationals,” Collet said. “Four (big) meets in five weeks. That was a lot to focus on.”