PASA’s Sarah Kaunitz Verbally Commits to UCLA

Sarah Kaunitz has verbally committed to UCLA, her coach confirmed today. Kaunitz swims for the PASA-SCRA branch on the Stanford campus under coach Scott Shea.

Kaunitz is primarily a sprint freestyler and a breaststroker. She’s been 23.20/51.0 in the 50 and 100 yard freestyles, as well as a 1:02.13/2:15.54 in the 100 and 200 yard breaststrokes.

Kaunitz is the defending CIF Central Coast Section runner-up in the 100 yard breaststroke, though with the top three from that race all returning, it should be a very good race.

In what is now clearly a top 10 recruiting class, UCLA had a glut of butterfliers and backstrokers, and now with Kaunitz they’ve hit a full, well-rounded group, at least in the sprint events. Their two best breaststrokers to date this season are both just freshmen, and so there’s a big opportunity for Kaunitz to come in and compete for a medley relay position. That’s in addition to the potential free relay contributions she could make as well.

UCLA definitely looks like a top-10 class in the country this fall, both on size, depth, and top-end talent.