South Florida HEAT’s Erika Pelaez, Kaii Winkler are Broward Swimmers of Year for third year

They have been the power couple of South Florida high school swimming. Erika Pelaez and Kaii Winkler’s names are all over the state record book — and Winkler even has a couple national records to his name as well.

Their reign on the high school level came to a close this year but not without another dominant season en route to Pelaez and Winkler earning Miami Herald Broward Swimmer of the Year honors for a third consecutive year. Both Pelaez and Winkler swam for South Florida HEAT, a home education athletic team.

“We’ve been training together since we were like 9 or 10,” Pelaez said, “so over the years we’ve had a lot of hard work and holding each other accountable to make sure we’re trying our hardest during practice. That’s kind of the only way we’ve gotten to where we are.”

Exactly where are they? Let’s look back at both of their illustrious high school careers.

We’ll start with Pelaez, who won a dozen state championships over the past five years and owns five state records.

Those state records are in the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 100 backstroke, 100 butterfly and as part of South Florida HEAT’s 400 freestyle relay.

Pelaez won three state championships her senior year, all in record-breaking fashion.

It started with a first-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle in 21.98 seconds — the first female high school swimmer in state history to break the 22-second mark.

She then reset her state record in the 100 backstroke by winning the event in 51.29 seconds. Pelaez originally set the state record during her sophomore season (52.34 seconds) and then bettered the mark as a junior (51.78 seconds) before one-upping herself once again as a senior.

And then Pelaez wrapped things up leading off South Florida HEAT’s 400 freestyle relay team that finished in 3:19.39, more than a second faster than the state record set by Buchholz in 2017.

Pelaez’s state record in the 100-yard butterfly (52.12 seconds) came in her junior year, as did her 100 yard freestyle mark (48.08 seconds) that came on the leadoff leg of the team’s 400 freestyle relay.

“It was a great way to show my versatility and also come back not just with the same events from last year,” Pelaez said of her senior year. “It was a bittersweet ending, but I was really happy to also finish it with another state record.”

As for Winkler, he rise to the top began during his sophomore year. In three years, he either won a state title or finished as runner-up in all 12 events he competed in at the state competition.

At his final state championship, Winkler set two national records.

The first came when he defended his 200-yard freestyle title in a time of 1:32.68, just edging the previous national mark set by Ohio’s Carson Foster in 2019. It was 1.5 seconds faster than Winkler’s time at state as a junior, when he broke the state record previously set by Olympian Caeleb Dressel in 2013.

And then Winkler set the 100 freestyle national record with his 42.14-second split as the leadoff swimmer of South Florida HEAT’s 400 freestyle relay team. The mark was two-tenths of a second faster than the previous national record set by Pennsylvania’s David Nolan in 2011 and was nearly four-tenths of a second faster than Winkler’s mark a year early that set the state record previously held by Olympian Ryan Murphy.

Winkler also won the 100-yard butterfly state title as a senior.

“I was just so happy to see all my hard work coming back from an injury and just seeing it pay off,” Winkler said. “That was the moment.”

And the future looks like it’ll have many more moments for both of them. Pelaez and Winkler will both continue their swimming careers at N.C. State and have their sights set on the Olympics. Expect both to be at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June.

“We’re just grateful, honestly,” Winkler said. “It’s been an awesome journey.”

This story was originally published December 27, 2023 at 6:00 AM.