Rachel Pelzek from the Chattahoochee Gold Swim Team has verbally committed to the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, making her commitment on October 16th.
Pelzek is primarily a spring freestyler, with yards bests of 24.16/52.49/1:54.01 in the 50/100/200 frees, all done at the Georgia Senior Short Course Championships in December, 2013.
She’s also a 58.3 100 yard backstroker.
Pelzek’s best chance at a conference-level contribution as a freshman, individually, is in the 100 free (especially if the conference continues to run 10-lane finals at the CUSA Championships, like they did last season).
While Western Kentucky has some youth in its sprint ranks (including sophomore Nadine Laemmler, who led the team with a 50.76 in the 100 free last season), they’ve also lost a ton of depth from last year. That includes Maggie Patterson, who is no longer on the team’s roster after a solid sophomore year last season.
That means that Pelzek has a chance for an immediate relay impact as a freshman, and throughout her four years will almost certainly have some relay impact on Western Kentucky (though development will determine just how much of an impact).
At 5’7″ tall, Pelzek has decent size, and even with her primary taper meet being in just December, she still managed to improve half-a-second off of her lifetime best in the 100 free as a junior.
Among the honors she’s earned, Pelzek was named Chattahoochee Gold’s ‘Gold Award’ winner for 15-16 girls. This award, in the form of a trophy they keep and hand off to the next year’s winner, is given to “a girl and boy in each age group that espouses Chattahoochee Gold’s values, beliefs, and personality,” according to a team newsletter.
Pelzek trains primarily with Mark Schilling under the umbrella of the multi-site program.