LIHU‘E — The Island School girls and Kaua‘i High School boys earned the Central Pacific Bank Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation (KIF) team titles, as four records fell in the championship meet at the YMCA of Kaua‘i pool.
Island School wahine, qualifying for five events at the state meet, finished with 77 points to capture the CPB KIF girls team crown. They were followed by Kapa‘a High School earning 55 points and Kaua‘i High School, who finished with 52 points. Waimea High School earned 8 points.
Kaua‘i High School boys, qualifyied for six events to the state meet, and broke four KIF championship records, captured the title with 72 points at the meet where first through third place finishers were presented medals for their respective achievements.
Kapa‘a High School finished the day with 52 points for second place, and Island School boys walked off with 21 points. Waimea High School boys finished with a point.
The Kaua‘i High School boys 200 medley relay team — Talen Koerte, Kohlton Sanchez, Brandon Lin and Liam Juvan — broke one championship record when the final swimmer touched the wall at 1 minute, 42.70 seconds for first. This swim broke the championship record of 1:44.99 set in 2016.
Red Raider swimmers Juvan, Sanchez, Lin and Koerte made up the order of the boys 200 freestyle relay that stopped the clock at 1:35.49 in an event where they were the sole swimmers in the water.
The qualifying state time was not only better than their previous 1:37.15 qualifying swim, it also broke the KIF championship record of 1:35.74 by .25 second. The previous record was set in 2015.
Individually, Kaua‘i High School swimmer Talen Koerte could not better his previous qualifying swim in the 100 backstroke on his swim that stopped the clock at 55.17 for a first. But the swim was good enough to tumble a championship record of 57.39 set by Jacob Rich om 2023.
Red Raider swimmer Lin pocketed his fourth medal of the day in his record-breaking swim in the 100 breaststroke where he stopped the clocks at 59.04. That bested the previous record of 59.21 record set by Zachary Safford in 2018.
And, as with all celebrations, there are the ones that came so close like Kaua‘i High School swimmer Sanchez, who stopped the clocks on a 2:10.84 swim in the 200 individual medley event. That was nearly two seconds better than his previous swim of 2:12.69, but fell short of the state qualifying time by 0.05 seconds, sending Kaua‘i High School coach Curt Colby into a frustrated frenzy after coming so close.
The KIF qualifyfing state swimmers and teams will be winging to Maui to participate in the 2024 K. Mark Takai Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association swimming and diving championships, which will take place at Kihei Aquatics Center on Feb. 9-10.
State Qualifiers
Girls 200 Medley Relay (Island School) 1:59.73
Boys 200 Medley Relay (Kaua‘i) 1:42.78*
Brandon Lin (Kaua‘i) 200 Freestyle 1:51.45
Chloe Inouye (Island School) 200 IM 2:12.48
Mahina Dameron (Island School) 100 Butterfly 1:08.37
Talen Koerte (Kaua‘i) 100 Butterfly 53.98
Liam Juvan (Kaua‘i) 500 Freestyle 5:17.79
Girls 200 Freestyle Relay (Island School) 1:48.57
Boys 200 Freestyle Relay (Kaua‘i) 1:35.49*
Talen Koerte (Kaua‘i) 100 Backstroke 55.17*
Chloe Inouye (Island School) 100 Backstroke 1:06.44
Chloe Inouye (Island School) 50 Freestyle 24.95
Brandon Lin (Kaua‘i) 100 Breaststroke 59.04*
(* denotes championship record)
