LIHU`E — Kaua`i High School second year swimmer Keenan Anaya will be a name to look for when the HHSAA Swim Meet gets underway on Friday and Saturday on Maui.
Anaya was a key figure to leading the Red Raider boys to a top finish in the KIF Swimming championships that took place Saturday at the Kaua`i High School pool, the sophomore swimmer breaking two KIF swim records, and being on the team that shattered a record set in 1987, netting not only record times, but qualifying for the states in all three events as well.
As he has done throughout the five-meet season, Anaya shattered the Boys 100 Fly record established in 1992 by Keahi Tucker by just under a second, finishing the event at 56.09 over the KIF record time of 57.07.
Aaron Haberman’s KIF record set in 1987 for the Boys 200 IM fell as Anaya finished almost two seconds better than the record, stopping the clock at 2:08.77, qualifying for states in that event by almost ten seconds.
Anaya was also part of the Kaua`i High team that topped the Boys 200 Medley Relay, the team of Jarred Perry, Anaya, Jason Ebesu, and Nick Murray shattering the KIF record set in 1987 by Waimea High School. The team finished in 1:50.01 almost 13 seconds better than the second place Kaua`i team.
Prior to the meet getting underway, there was excitement in the Warrior camp as they aimed for a double win, but that proved to come up short as the Warriors dropped to the Raiders, 98 points to 83 points.
But, that did not stop Kapa`a from making a valiant attempt as Michael Maddock, battling bronchitis, took the Boys 50 Free by almost a second over Kaua`i’s Perry, and coming in second to Anaya in the Boys 100 Fly event, and anchoring the Boys 200 Free Relay that broke a pool record enroute to qualifying for the states in that event.
Andrew Salvador was on that team, and also took gold in the Boys 100 Free over fellow swimmer Dylan Swigart.
Island School’s Will Ajates was also a double winner, taking first in the Boys 200 Free and the Boys 500 Free, but falling short of qualifying for states by about a half second in the 200 Free event.
Heather Sykes sparked the Kapa`a swimmers who took the Girls title, Sykes, a double individual swim winner as well as being part of a top finishing Warrior relay team that broke a pool record in the Girls 400 Free Relay.
Sykes took gold in the Girls 50 Free and the Girls 100 Free as well as joined team swimmers Maile BenDor, Liana Nakazawa, and Megan Grooms in the pool record breaking relay team.
Nakazawa also showed her strength being part of two first finishing relay teams as well as taking gold in the Girls 100 Fly with a 1:11.73 finish, and being part of the Girls 200 Free Relay team that also broke a pool record set in 2002 by a Waimea High School team.
But, the story came down to Kaua`i freshman swimmer Megan Simms who took double gold after battling throughout the season against a seasoned Katelyn Umetsu from Waimea.
Simms topped the Girls 200 Free, edging out Kapa`a’s BenDor by less than a second in that event, and took the Girls 500 Free with a 6:23.49.
Umetsu, a junior swimmer from Waimea, paced the second place Menehune team with a top finish in the Girls 200 IM and the Girls 100 Backstroke, as well as leading the Girls 200 Medley Relay team that locked in the gold almost ten seconds better than second place Kaua`i.
