South Florida HEAT’s Winkler, Peleaz each set records at state swimming championships
Senior Kaii Winkler fractured his hands, left wrist and right elbow in June. A little over four months later, Winkler now holds multiple national records and holds multiple state titles.
“I put in a lot of work getting back into shape,” Winkler said. “I kind of had a rough time with my mindset, but you’ve got to move forward and always just look toward better things.”
Winkler was the biggest standout at the Class 1A state swimming and diving championships, which hosted a slew of future swimming stars. South Florida HEAT, Winkler’s team, placed second among girls with 251 points and fifth in the boys group with 123 points Saturday at the FAST pool in Ocala.
While Winkler’s heroics didn’t lead his team past Bolles, which won both the boys and girls’ state titles, he put on a show for those in attendance.
He started the evening dashing through the 200-yard freestyle in 1:32.68 minutes, breaking his own state record of 1:34.18 minutes and the national record of 1:32.99 minutes set in 2019.
Winkler then added to his state title collection when he finished the 100-yard butterfly in 46.33 seconds. His 42.14-second 100-yard split in the boys 400-yard freestyle relay also broke the 42.34-second national record for the 100-yard freestyle.
“It’s a relief,” South Florida Head head coach Adam Madarassy said. “He was injured… so it’s nice to see him back on track.”
But senior Erika Pelaez didn’t let Winkler have all the fun — she had to set a couple state records herself.
Pelaez’s 21.98-second 50-yard freestyle and her 51.29-second 100-yard backstroke both set state records and gave her state titles in each event. And she was a part of the girls 400-yard freestyle relay that broke another state record when it touched the wall with a time of 3:19.39.
“It was awesome to be able to get best times,” Pelaez said. “This season’s been pretty long; I wasn’t completely tapered for this. And it was awesome — best way to end senior year.”
The girls’ relay teams came in second to Bolles in the first two relay events, the 200-yard medley relay and the 200-yard freestyle relay. However, it won the final relay, the 400-yard freestylerelay less than a minute ahead of Bolles.
“I’m speechless — they did an amazing job,” Madarassy said. “It was an awesome way to finish the states and the whole season.”
Pine Crest scored a fourth-best boys’ total of 128 and seventh-best girls total of 105 in the swimming portion, but it led the way in the dives.
The school had four divers finish in the top six, including the first-place finisher. Junior Allen Levitis secured the victory in the boys one-meter diving championship.
Levitis tallied 529.95 points, which gave him almost 40 more points than the second-place diver.
He cemented his victory with a score of 69.75 on a 405C dive, an inward 2.5 somersault tuck. He placed the dive last so he could end the event with a challenging dive he knew he could pull off. And while he was happy he won the event, he enjoyed sharing the podium with his fellow Pine Crest divers.
“It was great to see all my teammates and my friends up there,” Levitis said.