Swims You Might Have Missed On Day 4 Of The Fort Lauderdale Pro Swim Series

2023 PRO SWIM SERIES – FORT LAUDERDALE

• March 1-4, 2023
• Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
• Long Course Meters (50 meters)
• Prelims/Finals
  • Prelims: 9:00 AM (EST)
  • Finals: 5:00 PM Wednesday, 6:00 PM (EST) Thursday-Saturday
• Meet Central
• Live Results
• Psych Sheets
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While the last day of the Fort Lauderdale Pro Swim Series was filled with eye-popping swims like Summer McIntosh‘s 2:08.08 200 IM world junior record and Regan Smith‘s 57.92 100 back, we’d also like to highlight a few of the other swims that went under the radar at this session. So down below, we have listed four swims you may have missed tonight while watching the top stars shine.

Erika Pelaez Sets 100 Back Personal Best

16-year-old and NC State commit Erika Pelaez gets closer and closer to breaking the one-minute barrier in the 100 back by the day, as tonight she set a personal best time of 1:00.12 to finish fourth in the ‘A’ final of the event. Her best time coming into the meet was a 1:00.33 from U.S. Nationals last July. In fact, Pelaez swam over two seconds faster than she did on this exact day last year, as on March 4, 2022, she clocked a 1:02.80 at the 2022 FG POMP Senior Invite.

With her swim, Pelaez also moved up from 11th to 8th all-time in the U.S. 15-16 girls’ age group rankings.

Audrey Derivaux Continues To Impress

Though she didn’t ‘A’ final tonight, 13-year Audrey Derivaux set another personal best, swimming a 1:01.30 in the ‘C’ final to finish 18th overall. She outsplit ‘C’ final winner and Olympian Katie Grimes 28.19 to 28.73 on the first 50, but Grimes was over a second faster on her back half (31.55 split) compared to Derivaux (33.11) split to win the heat while Derivaux finished second. Coming into this week, Derivaux’s 100 fly best time was a 1:01.41 from long course Speedo Junior Nationals last summer.

Derivaux set three personal bests at this meet, as earlier on, she clocked best times in the 200 fly and 200 back ‘A’ finals.

Kaii Winkler Wins 50 Free ‘B’ Final

Though Kaii Winkler‘s 52.64 100 fly (which ranks him #5 all-time in the U.S. 15-16 age group) may have garnered more attention tonight, it’s also important to note that he also swam a personal best in the 50 free just a few races later. In the 50 free ‘B’ final, he clocked a 22.49, which improved upon his previous PB from Junior Pan Pacs by 0.01 of a second and beat World Junior champion Diogo Ribiero by 0.02 seconds in the same heat. Winkler’s previous PB already had him ranked #3 all-time in the 15-16 U.S. age group, and he remains with that ranking after today.

Winkler was three-for-three in best times at this meet, as he also went his fastest time ever in the 100 fly and broke the 15-16 NAG in the 100 free with a time of 48.81.

Argentinian Teenagers Make A Presence In The Women’s 800 Free

Even after the retirement of their national record holder Delfina Pignatiello, Argentina is still making a presence in the women’s 800 free. In tonight’s race, 14-year-olds Agostina Hein and Malena Santillan both placed in the top eight, finishing fifth and seventh in times of 8:43.55 and 8:45.71 respectively. Santillan notably swam her time out of the slower heats in the race.

Hein’s swim was a major drop from her best time of 8:51.25 from World Juniors last summer, while Santillan’s PB dropped from the 8:49.37 she clocked last July.