Isaac Vallance was the sole Swim Kauai Aquatics swimmer to compete in two meets when the Kauai swim club competed in Seattle, Washington at the Senior Sectionals which wrapped up on March 18, and the Age Group Regional meet that closed on March 26.
Vallance was on the 400-meter freestyle relay with Akira Williams, Zach Safford and Ryden Williams at the Senior Sectionals that finished with a new best time of 3 minutes, 22.28 seconds — more than a second faster than their seeded swim.
“While swimming on this relay, Isaac and Ryden had personal bests of 52.94 and 53.03 respectively for their 100 freestyle legs,” said Curt Colby, the SKA coach. “Isaac also swam the 1,650 as a warm up for the Age Group Regionals, narrowly missing another best time.”
During the Senior Sectionals, Williams topped the SKA showing in the 50 freestyle (21.49) where the 16-year-old swimmer ended 32nd in the D bracket finals in the field that saw nearly 1,000 swimmers from seven states competing.
Zach Safford, who recently accepted to swim at Notre Dame, was battling the cold bug after qualifying for five events at the meet — the most of any of the participating SKA swimmers.
“Zach still had solid times,” Colby said. “But not what he had hoped for. His top place was in the 200 breaststroke (2:11.33), finishing 71 out of 131 swimmers.”
Following the Senior Sectionals, Vallance was joined by Chloe Inouye, Hayley Kaeo and Maddie Hoesel at the Age Group Regionals that saw nearly 1,300 swimmers from eight states competing.
Inouye, 11, topped the SKA showing at the meet with top 10 showings in five of her swims and came in 11th on one swim. Her best swim was the 50 breaststroke where she emerged with a second-place finish on a personal best swim of 33.39 and missed first place by a touch.
“Chloe has been busy and very successful,” Colby said. “She has been training hard and paying attention to her technique, and now has the results to show for all that work.”
Inouye’s other accomplishments included the 100 breaststroke (1:13,65 for fourth place), 200 freestyle (2:12.11), 500 freestyle (5:44.41 for seventh), 50 freestyle (27.21), and the 100 freestyle (1:00.81).
Vallance continued his strong showing from the Senior Sectionals at the Age Group Regionals.
“His warm up 1,650 freestyle from the Senior Sectionals must have paid off, well,” Colby said. “Isaac improved his time by 27 seconds, stopping the clock at 17:27.69 for a fifth-place showing. I told him, ‘We’re going to push the pace from the start,’ … It was very exciting to see him get stronger through the race. His dedicated training paid off that day.”
Kaeo’s big splash came in the 50 freestyle where she broke 25 seconds on a 24.99 swim, despite recovering from a sprained ankle.
“She is healing and getting stronger every day,” Colby said. “This is the first time she broke 25 seconds, and her other swims were closer to her best times since spraining her ankle.”
Hoesel posted best times in the 50 freestyle (25.64) and the 100 freestyle (55.88).
“Maddie swam exceptionally well for her first big meet like this,” Colby said. “She was close to her best times in two other events. Maddie, Ryan and Isaac are rookies in this type of highly competitive and busy meets. But they had fun and met the challenge of crowded warm ups and a fast-paced meet that stretched to four days at each meet.”
Colby said SKA is looking forward to more of these top level meets with more swimmers competing each year.
“These seven swimmers represented our team and the island of Kauai exceptionally well in and out of the pool,” Colby said. “SKA appreciates and thanks all of the SKA coaches, parents and Hawaiian Swimming who support these swimmers’ efforts.”
Swim Kauai Aquatics next hosts the Kauai Classic on April 7-8 at the YMCA pool in Puhi.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
