LIHU‘E — Alana “Kawehi” Tamashiro garnered Swimmer of the Meet honors following three days of grueling long distance swims at the Kaua‘i High School pool. Mokihana Aquatics hosted the three-day Distance Time Trials for swimmers wishing to record times in
LIHU‘E — Alana “Kawehi” Tamashiro garnered Swimmer of the Meet honors following three days of grueling long distance swims at the Kaua‘i High School pool.
Mokihana Aquatics hosted the three-day Distance Time Trials for swimmers wishing to record times in the distance events. The time trials ended Sunday.
“Distance events are not held that often in Hawai‘i, and in many instances are not even recognized,” said Mokihana Aquatics coach Orlando “O” Anaya. “But because this is a recognized meet, the swimmers are able to use these times to qualify for future meets.”
He said the last distance meet was held about seven months ago, and the next will probably take place next month, followed by a break.
Tamashiro, 11, finished the four events over three days with a perfect meet, bettering her seeded times in all events and smashing her seeded swim in the mile event by 285.84 seconds (almost five minutes), touching the wall at 27:30.25 over her 32:16.09 seeded time — the best showing of the meet.
She preceded the swim Friday, chopping 122.93 seconds off her 1,000-free (16.36) swim before slicing 79.67 seconds off her 500-free (7:46.18) swim and 61.32 seconds off her 400 individual medley (6:51.89) swim.
Two other Mokihana swimmers, Sara Funtanilla, 10, and Micah-Kamuela Nobriga-Ferris, 15, posted perfect meets, as well, Funtanilla and Nobriga-Ferris posting Hawai‘i AA times following the opening day.
Funtanilla’s best showing was in the 200-freestyle (3:03.16), posting a 19.26 improvement.
Nobriga-Ferris’s top showing was in the mile (1,650 yard) swim (20:17.04) where he shaved 39.98 off his seeded time.
Alana Cayabyab, 8, posted a 13.51 improvement in her 200-free (3:53.42) and Bella Roberts, 8, sliced 4.38 off her seeded time in the 200-free (4:21.14).
Luke Roberts, 11, posted two best times, his greatest coming in the 500-free (8:19.95), where he was 29.45 faster than his seeded time and Marcus Robinson, 11, was 24.24 faster than his seeded time in the 500-free (8:02.15).
Gracie Stokes, 12, improved in two of her three events, her greatest showing came in the opening day 1,000-free (14:16.62) where she chopped 64.39 off her seeded swim.
Tory Taboniar, 10, was three-for-four in improvements, showing his greatest chop in the 200 IM (3:39.53) where he was 29.16 faster than his seeded time.
Jake Valenti, 8, slashed 55.29 in his 200-free (4:35.08) and Kayana “Ana” Yamaguchi, 13, posting three improvements in four events, was 186.43 seconds faster than her seeded time in the mile swim (23:44.73).
“The swimmers were on fire,” Anaya said. “While everyone improved greatly, Kawehi’s improvements were insane. Swimmer of the Meet honors are well deserved.”
