Ross, Sims have perfect meet at states

Matt Ross led the 11 swimmers from Swim Kaua‘i Aquatics at the 2007 USA Swimming Hawai‘i Long Course State Championships on O‘ahu, states a press release from SKA.

Greg Davis, SKA coach, said Ross finished with 19 points and finished 11th out of 26 swimmers.

Ross finished in the top eight in seven individual events including earning a silver medal in the 800-meter Free where he stopped the clock at 4:36.90, shaving 6.94 seconds over his previous time. This trend continued throughout the meet where he finished with a perfect meet, showing improvement in all eight of his entered events.

Overall, SKA finished with 74 total points, Davis said. Of that, 59 points were earned in individual events with 15 points coming from four relay events.

Ryann Linthicum finished fourth in the 200 and 400 Free while Meaghan Sims walked off with five medals, finishing 15th out of 22 swimmers in her age group while posting a perfect meet with improvements in eight of her eight events.

Sims’ highlight event came in the 200 Breast where she finished fifth.

Julian Schneider earned a bronze medal in the 400 Individual Medley while medalling in three individual events.

Anya Littlefield turned heads when she knocked off more than 16 seconds in the 800 Free while getting seventh in the event and 28th overall.

Tyson Chihara was able to go head-to-head with some of the fastest 17-18 year old boys and finished on the medal podium in the 200 IM.

The 13-14 girls relay team of Sarah Faraola, Nina Albano, Littlefield and Emma Rausch medaled at 7th place in the 200 Free Relay while the 17-18 Boys 200 Medley relay team of Ross, Russell McCluskey, Schneider and Chihara copped the bronze medal.

Davis said, “These swimmers represented themselves and the island of Kaua‘i with tremendous pride and class. We were proud to represent Kaua‘i so successfully and have a growing team of swimmers I am sure our island would be proud of.”