PUHI — Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation swimmers piled up 16 state-qualifying swims Saturday during the second swim meet of the season at the YMCA pool, where spectators are not allowed.
The weekend’s accomplishments include six team events and six swimmers collecting state-qualifying times at the meet hosted by Waimea High.
Island School sophomore Chloe Inouye, also swimming on a qualifying relay team, topped the individual swimmers with three qualifying swims. Talen Koerte, a sophomore at Kaua‘i High, stopped the clock on two qualifying individual events, along with Kapa‘a High senior Tyler Tanaka.
Island School’s Mahina Dameron, Kaua‘i High’s Kai Mottley and Kapa‘a High’s Ian Raquel each added individual qualifying swims.
Relay teams makng the state cut include the girls 200-yard medley relay squad and 200 freestyle relay team from Island School, boys 200 and 4oo freestyle relay teams from both Kaua‘i and Kapa‘a.
Inouye picked up state-qualifying swims in the 100 freestyle, in 54.16 seconds, more than a second ahead of the state cut, the 200 individual medley, where she touched the wall at 2:15.97, nearly nine seconds better than the state-qualifying time, and the 200 freestyle, where she finished at 1:59.11.
Tanaka recorded state-qualifying swims in the 200 individual medley (2:05.63) and the 100 butterfly, where he finished first over Talen Koerte with a 56.59 swim, more than a second better than the state-qualifying mark.
Koerte, a sophomore at Kaua‘i High School, finished second in the event with a 57.53 swim, getting the state-qualifying nod by a mere 0.36 seconds. His second state swim came in the 100 backstroke, where he finished first over Tanaka by breaking the minute mark at 59.98. Tanaka finished at 1:02.85, missing the 1:00.49 state cut.
Kaua‘i High senior Kai Mottley and Kapa‘a High junior Ian Raquel swam the same event to make the state-qualifying times. Mottley topped the 200 freestyle event on a 1:51.14 swim for first place over Raquel, who stopped the clock at 1:52.37, nearly two seconds better than the state-qualifying mark.
Dameron got her individual state swim in the 100 butterfly, where she touched the wall at 1:03.14, nearly a second better than the state-qualifying time.
Island School hosts the third KIF meet this Saturday at the YMCA pool, where the first event hits the water at 8 a.m.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
