PUHI — Kapaa High School swimmers broke into the state qualifying swims Saturday during the second qualifying Kauai Interscholastic Federation meet held under windy, rainy, and chilly conditions at the YMCA pool equipped with electronic timing systems.
Hosted by Waimea High School, the Warriors made state swims with two of its relay teams, and two of its individual swimmers to lead the Warrior pack that has dwindled in numbers due to the inconvenience of having the Kapaa pool closed and having to make the trek to the Kauai High School pool to practice.
Kauai High School continued to reap state cuts, led by freshman swimmer Kamaira Silva adding to her cache of state swims by finishing first in the Girls 200 yard freestyle, touching the wall on a 2-minute, 1.14-second swim for first place more than five seconds better than the state qualifying 2:06.89.
Runner-up honors belonged to Kapaa’s Maddie Hoesel who broke into the state qualifying with her 2:06.53 swim.
Silva did the opening leg of the girls 200 freestyle relay, being joined by Alana Cayabyab, Miya Reese, and Julia Safford to capture a state swim on a 1:52.73 first-place finish.
The Kauai High School boys picked up a state swim in the boys 200 freestyle relay with its team of Ryden Williams, Destrey Shibuya, Jacob Reese, and Norman Kai with its second -lace finish on a 1:40.34 swim.
Top honors in that event belonged to the Warrior team of Treysen Nishida, Braden Chang, Ian Raquel, and Tyler Tanaka who clocked a 1:39.87 for one of Kapaa’s state swims.
Tanaka continued to splash, earning a state swim in the boys 500 yard freestyle with his first finish at 5:12.19.
The Kapaa sophomore was also part of the boys 200 yard medley relay that soared to a 1:55.12 first finish — more than three seconds ahead of Kauai High School – for its state qualifying swim. Tanaka was joined by Nishida, Raquel, and Braden Chang on that qualifying team.
The third KIF qualifying meet, hosted by Island School, continues on Saturday starting at 10 a.m. at the YMCA pool.
