17-Year-Old Jacob Pins Opens Des Moines Sectionals with an 8:12.54 800 Free

2023 CENTRAL ZONE NORTH SUMMER CHAMPIONSHIPS – DES MOINES

• July 13-16, 2023
• Wellmark YMCA, Des Moines, IA
• LCM (50 meters)
• Meet Central
• Psych Sheet
• Live Results on MeetMobile
  • “2023 Central Zone North Summer Championships”
• Live Stream

The 2023 Summer Sectional in Des Moines began yesterday at the Wellmark YMCA. The meet has attracted universities such as Wisconsin, Iowa, Iowa State, and Illinois, as well as a number of club teams from neighboring states.

Illinois’ Cara Bognar won the women’s 200 fly in a tight race with Haley Halsall, an Indiana State swimmer who is competing with Woodstock Dolphins Swim Team. Bognar got her hands on the wall 1st, touching in 2:17.74, while Halsall clocked a 2:17.81. Though they finished with nearly identical times, the pair swam very different races. Halsall took it out much faster, splitting 30.57 and 34.60 on the first two 50s for a 1:05.17 on the opening 100m, while Bognar split 31.29 and 36.21 for a 1:07.50 going out. Bognar then cut the lead in half on the third 50, splitting 34.65 to Halsall’s 35.93. Still facing a large deficit, Bognar once again out-split Halsall on the final 50, roaring home in 35.59 to Halsall’s 36.71. It was just enough for Bognar to inch ahead of Halsall on the final meter of the race and get her hands on the wall first. The swim marks a new career best for Halsall, while Bognar has been as fast as 2:15.89 in her career.

Texas’ Alec Filipovic, who is competing for his home club Saint Charles Swim Team, won the men’s 200 fly in 2:02.00 last night. Filipovic was faster in prelims, throwing down a new career best of 2:01.01. With that swim, he was just off the Olympic Trials cut of 2:00.49. Of note, Aquajets Swim Team’s Nathan Carr, 16, came in 2nd last night with a huge swim of 2:02.84. Carr entered the meet with a personal best of 2:05.47, which he had just swum at the end of June. With the swim, Carr picked up the Summer Junior Nationals cut in the event.

In the women’s 800 free, FMC Aquatic Club’s Piper Wood Prince posted an 8:58.54 to win. She won in a tight race over Aquajets’ Avery Luedke, 16, who swam a personal best of 9:00.34. For Prince, the time came in about 5 seconds off her lifetime best of 8:53.23, which she swam at the Speedo Summer Championships – West in August of 2021.

Jacob Pins, a 17-year-old out of Des Moines Swimming Federation, won the men’s 800 free convincingly with an 8:12.54. The performance marks a new personal best for Pins, a Kentucky recruit, who swam his previous best of 8:15.86 at the FL ISCA International Senior Cup in March. With the swim, Pins is getting closer to the Olympic Trials cut of 8:09.69.

The women’s 100 free saw Aquatjets’ Emma Kern, a Texas recruit, win in 57.32. It was a strong swim for Kern, who has a personal best of 57.00, which she swam at a Sectional meet in the summer of 2021. Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s Taiko Torepe-Ormsby won the men’s 100 free convicingly, swimming a 50.43. Hailing from the great country of New Zealand, that swim marked a huge new personal best for Torepe-Ormsby, whose previous best of 51.72 was set just a few weeks ago.

In the women’s 200 breast, Wisconsin’s Hazal Ozkan won in 2:31.41. The swim comes in a little less than a second off her personal best of 2:30.78, which she swam last summer.

Another Aquajets swimmer, Charlie Egeland, 18, won the men’s 200 breast in 2:16.79, touching out Wisconsin’s Truman teDuits (2:17.01). Egeland, a Yale recruit, was a little over a second off his personal best of 2:15.50, which he swam last summer at the Speedo Junior National Championships.