LIHU’E — The 8th Annual Mokihana Aquatics KIF Swimming Invitational officially opened the 2000 swim season last Saturday at the Kaua’i High School pool. And if you think swimming is a sport without controversy, then you missed out on a
LIHU’E — The 8th Annual Mokihana Aquatics KIF Swimming Invitational
officially opened the 2000 swim season last Saturday at the Kaua’i High School
pool.
And if you think swimming is a sport without controversy, then you
missed out on a good one.
While the big story was that Kaua’i High School
became the first Garden Isle team to win the overall award since Kapa’a did it
in 1990, the most excitement came when the meet referee attempted to disqualify
all ahtletes from the first heat of an event.
Three girls swimmers picked
up their event cards on the first call, but failed to show up for the start on
the second and final calls.
The referee disqualified all three, but, after
some delays and arguments, he reversed his decision.
In a nutshell, the
referee gave the swimmers a break, and let them swim anyway, but he also let it
be known that there won’t be any more breaks the rest of the season.
The
arguments and delays didn’t take away from very noticeable
performances.
The Kaua’i High School girls’ domination in terms of number
of swimmers should make it difficult to unseat them as defending champions of
the Kaua’i Interscholastic Federation this year.
Kaua’i High also won the
girls division.
Also, the visiting Moloka’i Farmers team — despite
bringing over a small squad — had some top-notch swimmers.
The Farmers
entered in just 13 events, but placed a swimmer in either first or second place
in 12 events.
Moloka’i also had the only state qualifier when Leen Yonemura
swam a 1:07.46 in the 100-yard breaststroke.
Waimea easily won in the boys
division, helped along by the fact that no other schools couldn’t produce relay
teams.
Most of the KIF swimmers enjoyed personal best times.
The first
KIF quad-meet will be held this Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Kapa’a Pool
With no starting blocks or wall targets, the times may drop some.