Ryann Linthicum of Swim Kaua‘i Aquatics had a perfect meet, getting 9-for-9 personal best times from her previous long course swims. Meaghan Simms, a senior at Kaua‘i High School, competed in 13 events, every event that was offered in her
Ryann Linthicum of Swim Kaua‘i Aquatics had a perfect meet, getting 9-for-9 personal best times from her previous long course swims.
Meaghan Simms, a senior at Kaua‘i High School, competed in 13 events, every event that was offered in her age group, and finished third out of 29 swimmers at the 27th Harry M. Mamizuka Invitational on O‘ahu last week.
Linthicum and Simms paced the SKA delegation of swimmers in finishing 14th in team points out of 20 teams.
“For not being able to train long course, I am extremely thrilled on how we performed this past weekend,” said SKA coach Greg Davis. “This was the very first long course meet for nine of the 16 SKA swimmers.”
“Swimming long course is completely different than the 25-yard pool we use for training. For all the Kaua‘i swimmers to compete and do so well is an amazing accomplishment, seeing that Kaua‘i is the only island in the state that does not have a 50-meter pool,” Davis said.
Mokihana Aquatics, another of the community swim clubs from Kaua‘i, also entered two swimmers in this O‘ahu swim meet.
Evan Hamamoto, 12, swimming in his first long course meet, showed improvement in his times in four of the seven events entered. His greatest improvement came in the 200 Free (2:52.17L) where he shaved 15.32 off his previous time.
His other gains came in the 50 Free (1.49), 100 Back (1.75) and the 50 Fly (2.57).
Yasmine Ware, the second Mokihana swimmer, also fared well, finishing 14th in her age group, but showing personal improvements in six of the 10 events she entered. Her greatest improvements came in the 200 Free (2:57.02L) and the 200 Individual Medley (3:27.89L) where she showed an improvement of 16.31 and 13.29, respectively.
Her other improved events include the 100 Breast (3.83), 50 Free (1.60), 50 Back (2.39), and 100 Free (4.35).
SKA swimmer Julian Schneider finished with 13 points in the open division, landing ninth out of 22 swimmers. Alanna Reynolds, Linthicum and Emma Rausch each netted 5 points each for the SKA effort that totaled 105 points, 77 individual points.
Davis said Nina Albano, Sarah Faraola, Nick Krueger, Jackson Littlefield, Kate Machorek, James Papa, Makalii Pratt, Tania Rames, and Reynolds swam their first long course meet at this swim.
Anya Littlefield earned a state time in the 50 Free event after “aging up” to the 13-14 age group. Davis said Littlefield’s achievement brings the number of SKA swimmers holding state times to 14 qualifiers.
The Long Course State Championships run June 7 through 10.
For Linthicum’s perfect meet, she finished fifth in her age group while dropping 11 seconds off her 200 Free. Simms’ strong performance was evident in her garnering 10 best times out of 11 events.
Littlefield, Rausch and Matt Ross also pocketed long course best times at this meet.
Faraola, Littlefield, Albano and Rausch formed the Girls 400 Free relay team that came from behind to win its heat en route to finishing in fourth place.
In the Open Girls 400 Medley relay, Reynolds, Rames, Simms and Michelle Woltmon finished fourth and in the 400 Free relay, finished fifth.
That performance earned SKA 28 points.
“The relays were great and all the girls did a great job with everyone having a lot of fun,” Davis said. “This was a great trip for our swimmers. We swam very well and had some great team bonding.”
SKA will be heading to the Big Island May 19-20 for a meet at Hilo.
