PUHI — Kauai High School juniors Kate Machorek and Yasmine Ware had two record-breaking swims each to help fuel the Red Raider swimmers to the Kauai Interscholastic Federation swim championship on Saturday.
The Red Raider girls finished with 78 points, just one point ahead of Kapaa High School, the defending champions, and the Kauai boys ended with 89 points to soar past Kapaa who posted 54 points.
Third place went to Island School whose swimmers accumulated two state consideration swims at the YMCA Ohana pool. The Voyagers finished with 38 points for its women team and 47 points for its men’s team.
Kayla Ishida, a Waimea High School junior, picked up two consideration swims to lead Waimea who posted 25 points for the women and 24 points for the men.
Machorek lost little time asserting herself into the championship swim, getting an auto time standard in the Girls 200 yard freestyle event while bettering the KIF record she set last year by more than a second.
Machorek touched the wall in 1 minute, 54.50 seconds, bettering her seeded swim of 1:59 and besting the KIF champs record of 1:55.63.
In the wake of the championship swim, Kapaa freshman Grace Stokes waged her own battle with Island School freshman Carolyn Price for second place, the swimmers exchanging leads at the wall before Stokes stopped the clock a 2:19.75, less than a second ahead of Price (2:20.27).
Machorek continued to break records, moving to the Girls 500 yard freestyle where she touched the wall at 5:07.01, shattering her seeded swim of 5:23.19 and the KIF champs record she set in 2013 of 5:11.17.
Ware, another Kauai junior, set new standards in the Girls 50 yard free and the Girls 100 yard backstroke where she found gold and also secured state auto time standards.
Jumping into the fray of the Girls 50 yard freestyle where two girls earned state times, Ware touched at 23.63 for an auto time, nearly two seconds ahead of Kapaa senior Maluhia Stark-Kinimaka (25.56) who finished with a consideration standard.
Ware’s swim was better than her 24.20 seeded swim and the KIF champs record of 24.12 she set on Jan. 28, 2012.
Ware’s second record-breaking swim came in the Girls 100 yard backstroke where her 56.97 swim was nearly 14 seconds faster than Island School freshman Pualei Pratt (1:11.83) who finished the event in second place.
Ware’s first place swim was better than her 59.57 seeded time and the KIF champs record of 58.84 she set on Jan. 26, 2013.
Both Machorek and Ware were part of the Kauai High School Girls 400 yard freestyle relay team which broke the KIF champs record on its 3:40.97 swim, shaving more than 8 seconds off its seeded swim of 4:01.13 and the KIF champs record of 4:00.40 set in 2009 by a Kauai High School team.
Joining Machorek and Ware on the team are swimmers Tambrina Fairbanks, who earned an auto time standard in the Girls 100 yard breaststroke (1:10.91), and Ava Wagner who earned gold and a consideration swim in the Girls 200 yard individual medley (2:23.14).
The same four girls made up the Kauai High School Girls 200 yard freestyle relay team which earned an auto time standard (1:42.99), bettering its seeded time (1:47.64) by nearly five seconds.
Kapaa junior Bryson Baligad rounded out the auto time standard earners, finding gold in the Boys 100 yard butterfly (56.25), finishing a mere .16 second off the KIF champs record of 56.09 set in 2004 by Kauai swimmer Keenan Anaya.
Baligad also picked up a consideration swim in the Boys 200 yard IM (2:10.60).
Fueled by the upset win by Riley Young, a Kauai High School sophomore, in the Boys 200 yard freestyle event, the Kauai boys picked up five consideration swim standards of the 16 consideration standards earned by KIF swimmers.
Young kept up with top seeded Quinn Hannah-White, an Island School senior, through the halfway point of the 200 yard freestyle before pulling ahead on the top end to stop the clock at 1:54,93, a consideration standard, nearly four seconds ahead of Hannah-White, and nearly 11 seconds ahead of his seeded swim.
With its victory, Kauai High School and other qualifying KIF swimmers will head to the OC16 Hawaii High School Athletic Association Swimming and Diving Championships at Kamehameha Schools-Hawaii Feb. 14-15.
• Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@ thegardenisland.com.
