LIHU‘E — Will Ajates, an exchange student from Spain, and the sole swimmer for Island School was a double winner, qualifying for states in two events at the last KIF Swim Meet held Saturday at the Kaua‘i High School Pool
LIHU‘E — Will Ajates, an exchange student from Spain, and the sole swimmer for Island School was a double winner, qualifying for states in two events at the last KIF Swim Meet held Saturday at the Kaua‘i High School Pool and hosted by Kula School.
Ajates opened the day by taking the Boys 200 IM event almost 15 seconds ahead of second place finisher Kyson Gusukuma of Kaua‘i High School, and easily qualified for the state event by almost two seconds, the state qualifying time set at 2:17.24.
The Island School swimmer then topped the Boys 100 Fly event with a 1:01.37, squeaking past the state qualifying time in the process.
Other double winners in the meet saw Katelyn Umetsu out of Waimea top the Girls 50 Free and the Girls 100 Back as well as being the lead swimmer in the top finishing Waimea team in the Girls 200 Yard Medley Relay. Despite the gold, Umetsu failed to qualify for any state times in this meet.
Red Raider swimmer Jared Perry came back from injuries, and emerged another of the meet’s double winners, taking the Boys 50 Free but falling short of qualifying for states in that event.
But, Perry did qualify for states in his top finish in the Boys 100 Back event, crossing the line at 1:00.79, breaking a pool record of 1:01.25 set in 2004 by Keenan Anaya and besting the state qualifying time of 1:03.90.
Anaya, however, was concentrating on breaking other records as he shattered the pool record in the Boys 500 Free with a top finish of 5:17.43, besting his 2003 pool record of 5:19.66, and easily qualifying for states, the qualifying time set at 5:30.35.
Kapa‘a’s Michael Maddock, who, according to his mother, was nursing a tender shoulder, did not let that get in his way as he emerged a double winner as well as qualified for the state berth in the Boys 100 Free.
Maddock topped the Boys 200 Free event, but fell short of qualifying in that event before making the cut in the Boys 100 Free with a 52.72 finish.
Kapa‘a’s Liana Nakazawa came from the outside lane to finish tops in the Girls 200 Free event to lead the Warrior women to a strong first place finish with 104 points over second place Waimea who garnered 53 points. Kaua‘i settled into third with Kula High and Intermediate rounding out the field.
In the boys’ matchup, Perry and Anaya led the pack, capitalizing on a less-than-100 percent Jeremy Albano of Kapa‘a, and Maddock’s tender shoulder as the Red Raiders took their first gold medal of the season with 89 points.
Kapa‘a settled in second place with 69 points followed by Kula High and Intermediate and Island School. Waimea has no boy swimmers.
The KIF Swimming season comes to a close this Saturday as the Championship Meet will be held at the Kaua‘i High School Pool starting at 10 a.m.
