13-year-old Cate Pawlaski went 1:13.18 and 2:36.50 in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes, respectively, at the Aquajets Summer Invite.
Those times – in long course meters – rank Pawlaski just outside of USA Swimming’s top 100 all-time in the 13-14 age group. Pawlaski is still on the younger end of that age group, and dropping time rapidly. She was just 1:21 in the long course 100 breast heading into this spring, but went 1:15.0 in April, followed by her 1:13.18 in late June. Pawlaski is very new to the 200 breast, and cut from 2:54 to 2:43 earlier this spring, then to 2:36.50 in June at the Aquajets Summer Invite.
Pawlaski competes for the Great Wolf Swim Club.
Aquajet Emma Kern was another standout on the girls side. The 16-year-old went 1:02.57 to win the 100 back – just two-tenths off her career-best time and about a second faster than she swam at U.S. Olympic Trials earlier in the month.
Kern also hit new personal bests in the 100 fly (1:03.37) and 200 back (2:17.47), along with both the 200 and 400 IMs (2:23.37/5:08.52). Kern is a current high school sophomore who has not yet committed to a college program.
Fellow Aquajet Hayden Zheng also had a couple of great swims, battling his teammate Alex Deng in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes. Zheng won the 100 breast 1:03.07 to 1:03.68, and also the 200 breast 2:16.40 to 2:20.64.
For Zheng, that’s about seven-tenths off his best 100 time, but a tick faster than he was at Wave I Olympic Trials. His 200 was just two-tenths off a best time, and two-and-a-half seconds faster than his time at Olympic Trials.
Deng was about four-tenths off a best in the 100 breast and two seconds off a best in the 200 breast – like Zheng, he was faster in both races here than at Olympic Trials a few weeks earlier.
Zheng and Deng are two of the top prospects out of Minnesota, and both just wrapped up their senior seasons. Deng will attend Yale next fall, while Zheng has signed on with Stanford.
Glad to see Minnesota swimmers now have more opportunities to compete, regardless of times swum. In the past 1+ year, strict Covid restrictions, cold weather and very limited availability of LC/outdoor pools have disrupted their training more so than many other states. It will be interesting to see how they do at the end of this season.
Where is Jackson Brown’s 400FR, it was the highlight of the meet by far. He showed no remorse to his competition and looked very good while doing it.
He’s so shiesty