Alana “Kawehi” Tamashiro, 13, was perfect, and Lily Stokes, 12, was nearly perfect, missing a personal best by an event, at the two-day Mokihana Aquatics meet with distance events which wrapped up Sunday afternoon at the Kauai High School pool.
Alana “Kawehi” Tamashiro, 13, was perfect, and Lily Stokes, 12, was nearly perfect, missing a personal best by an event, at the two-day Mokihana Aquatics meet with distance events which wrapped up Sunday afternoon at the Kauai High School pool.
Despite those performances, Swimmer of the Meet honors were shared between Maddie Hoesel, 11, and Samantha Stokes, 11.
“Everyone was really ‘over the top,’” said Mokihana Aquatics coach Orlando “O” Anaya. “There was just some awesome swimming, but the race in the 1,650 meter between Maddie Hoesel, one of our newer swimmers, and Sammy Stokes, more experienced and practiced, was epic.”
Anaya described the distance swim as “Da Race.”
“I have been coaching for many years, and saw many races,” the Mokihana head coach said. “The race of the 1,650 was one for the ages. Maddie gave everything she had — every last bit of effort — to take a huge 1:51 off her best time. And the other swimmer, Sammy Stokes, with more experience and practice, swimming hard too, yet very strategically.”
Anaya said Stokes went 55 seconds faster than her own best time, strategically getting some draft off Hoesel.
“Sammy swimming so hard, so smart, and Maddie giving it her all, and then some,” Anaya said. “Sammy slipping by at the end to touch the wall first by just 1.52 seconds — epic!”
In the 1,650 freestyle, Hoesel touched at 27:21.93, an improvement of 111.33 while Stokes touched at 27:20.41 for an improvement of 55.43.
“Kawehi is ‘perfect,’ and that’s quite a feat considering her more than 40 hours of swim safety training last week,” Anaya said.
Tamashiro competed in four events, posting improvements in all of her swims, the best coming in the 1,650 freestyle (25:42.86) where she trimmed 107.39 off her seeded time.
She followed that with a 42.04 improvement in the 400 yard individual medley (6:09.85) for a gold medal.
Lily Stokes, 12, was consistent through her seven events, finishing with silver medals in all, and posting improvements in six of those events. Her two best events came in the 400 IM (6:55.26) and the 500 freestyle (7:11.33) where she lopped 15.96 and 15.30 off her seeded swims, respectively.
Mokihana Aquatics accepts swimmers throughout the year with a free tryout with the team for one calendar month, or any remaining part.
Swimmers need to be at least 4 years old and be able to swim one length of the pool, or 25 yards, using any stroke.
The team meets at the Kauai High School pool from 5 to 7 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and from 7:30 to 10 a.m. Saturdays.
Visit www.mokihanaaquatics.com for more information.
