PUHI — The Kaua‘i High School girls and the Kapa‘a High School boys swim teams emerged from the YMCA pool with Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation swim titles Saturday.
Working in near-ideal swim temperatures punctuated with bouts of rain ahead of an approaching cold front, the Kaua‘i girls collected 90 points, shattering six KIF records and garnering six of the seven qualifying swims toward its KIF title.
Following the Red Raider wahine, Kapa‘a girls finished with 74 points, including two consideration swim standards out of 13 established on the day. Waimea High School girls finished with 38 points and Island School garnered 12 points.
On the boys’ side of the pool, Kapa‘a High School topped the field with 78 points and added a qualifying swim and two consideration swims.
Kaua‘i boys collected 65 points, followed by Waimea with 40 points and Island School with 31 points.
“There were a lot of amazing swims and a number of records went down,” said Billy Brown, the KIF scorekeeper. “The races themselves were so close, and so good, this truly could be arguably the best championship in years.”
Kaua‘i sophomores Kate Machorek and Yasmine Ware set the pace for the meet, each swimmer earning two qualifying swims apiece while breaking a combined four KIF records. These individual performances excludes their parts in the Kaua‘i relay teams, which earned two qualifying swims and broke two KIF records in the process. The individual swimmers and swim teams were paraded out amidst the strains of the Olympic march, and following the events, stood on a specially-constructed podium to receive their performance medals.
Both Machorek and Ware were part of the Kaua‘i Girls’ 200-Yard Medley Relay team that set a new KIF standard with its 1:52.60 swim, an improvement over its 1:57.16 seeded time and shattering the KIF record of 1:59.71 set in 2012 by the Kapa‘a High School team of Vali, Fairbanks, Littlefield and Stark-Kinimaka.
Tambrina Fairbanks and Sophie Britzmann were the other two swimmers who demolished the KIF record and set the tone for the rest of the day.
Machorek, Kaitlin Santos, Britzmann, and Ware made up the Girls’ 200-Yard Freestyle Relay team, which earned a qualifying swim and broke the KIF record of 1:46.77 set in 2009 by a Kaua‘i team including D. Pia, T. Kobayashi, R. Linthicum, and C. Ford.
The winning team touched at 1:42.39, an improvement over its 1:44.44 seeded time.
Machorek continued to reap gold, collecting medals in the Girls’ 200-Yard Freestyle (1:57.55) and the Girls’ 500-Yard Freestyle (5:11.17) in record-breaking swims. Machorek’s 200-Yard Free swim broke the 1:58.56 record set in 2012 by Anya Littlefield (KAP) and her 500-Yard Free time broke the 5:15.78 record set in 2012, also by Littlefield.
Ware copped gold in the Girls’ 200-Yard Individual Medley (2:07.41) and the Girls’ 100-Yard Backstroke (58.874), while breaking two KIF records set by Machorek. Ware’s 200-Yard IM shattered the KIF record of 2:16.76, while her 100-Yard Back time made her the first KIF girl swimmer to break the one-minute mark; the former record was 1:02.77.
Britzmann finished the day with two consideration swims, the Girls’ 50-Yard Free (25.67) and the Girls’ 100-Yard Free (56.10).
Santos, a senior, finished with a consideration swim with a second finish below Britzmann in the Girls’ 100-Yard Free, touching at 58.19, an improvement over her seeded 58.81.
Fairbanks earned a consideration standard in the Girls’ 100-Yard Breaststroke, touching at 1:12.66, an improvement over her 1:15.51 seeded time.
Kapa‘a’s Maluhia Stark-Kinimaka finished third in the event while earning a consideration standard with a 58.62 touch. Stark-Kinimaka, a junior, also copped a consideration swim in the Girls’ 50-Yard Free with her runner-up swim below Britzmann, touching at 25.98, an improvement over her 26.06 seeded time.
Stark-Kinimaka is also a part of the Kapa‘a Freestyle relay teams, which earned consideration standards with its second finish in the Girls’ 200-Yard Freestyle Relay (1:51.76) and its first finish in the Girls’ 400-Yard Freestyle Relay (4:12.76).
Members of the Kapa‘a Girls’ 200-Yard Free team were Lauren Benson, Abi Stein, Kiana Fores and Stark-Kinimaka. The Kapa‘a Girls’ 400-Yard relay team included Stark-Kinimaka, Fores, Stein and Mainei Aloha Kinimaka.
Kapa‘a sophomore Bryson Baligad was the sole male to earn a qualifying swim Saturday, his performance in the Boys’ 100-Yard Butterfly stopping the clock at 56.18, an improvement over his seeded 57.28.
He was part of the Kapa‘a Boys’ 200-Yard Medley Relay team, which earned a consideration standard with its first-place finish of 1:57.55; and the Boys’ 400-Yard Freestyle Relay team, which earned a consideration standard with its second-place finish (3:56.00).
The top three places in the Boys’ 400-Yard Freestyle Relay event earned consideration swims, the top placing going to Waimea (3:54.55) and third place going to Kaua‘i (4:02.34).
The Kaua‘i Boys’ 200-Yard Medley Relay team of Tyler Elwin, Kainoa Matsumoto, Jacob Peck and Riley Young touched second below Kapa‘a, but earned a consideration swim, stopping the clock at 1:58.26, an improvement over its 2:00.89 seeded time.
The state’s OC16 Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association Swimming and Diving Championships will be held on Feb. 15 and 16 at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex located on the campus of the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. Visit www.sportshigh.com for the current HHSAA swim standards.
