Evan Hamamoto paced the eight Mokihana Aquatics swimmers by emerging with a perfect meet from the Bill Smith swim meet over the weekend on O‘ahu. Hamamoto, 12, posted improvements in all 10 of the events he competed in during the
Evan Hamamoto paced the eight Mokihana Aquatics swimmers by emerging with a perfect meet from the Bill Smith swim meet over the weekend on O‘ahu.
Hamamoto, 12, posted improvements in all 10 of the events he competed in during the two-day tournament. In addition to the personal best times in the event, Hamamoto earned state qualifying times in all of his 10 events.
His best event was the 100 Back where he shaved 11.75 off his previous swim on a performance that stopped the clock at 1:16.00Y. This was also the best improvement for any of the Mokihana swimmers in the meet.
Mokihana Aquatics Coach Orlando Anaya was impressed with the performance of his eight-swimmer delegation.
He said if the group at earned a 35 percent to 40 percent improvement in their performance, he would have expected it.
But the group delivered improvements in 40 of 65 races it competed in for a 61 percent improvement. That thrilled Anaya.
“While we had a great meet finishing 13 overall out of 23 teams with the least amount of swimmers, one swimmer stood out,” Anaya said in an e-mail. “Evan had a perfect meet, making state qualifying times in every race entered, and all personal best times to boot.”
Anaya said Hamamoto’s time of 58.51 in the 100 Free is 1.56 seconds away from his son’s Keenan’s time of 56.95, a team record.
Justin White, 10, swimming in his first big meet, was almost perfect, finishing with personal improvements in eight of his nine competitive events. His biggest improvement came in the 200 Free where he stopped the clock at 2:51.39Y for a 6.52 improvement and an HIAA time. White also earned two qualifying times, one comeing in the 50 Breast (46.94Y) and the other in the 100 Breast (1:43.89Y).
Dani White, 12, also had a near-perfect meet with improvements in four of the five events entered for her first big meet. Her biggest showing was in the 100 Breast (1:26.26Y) where she took 2.78 off her previous swim while earning a HIAA time. Her 100 Free (1:12.00Y) was a 1.03 improvement over her previous performance and earned an HI-A ranking.
Yasmine Ware, 10, picked up three ZONE times, her best showing coming in the 100 Back (1:14.92Y) where she chopped 4.99 off her previous swim and earned the first zone ranking. She also posted zone times in the 50 Free (29.06Y) and the 50 Back (34.00Y).
Keesia Anaya, 14, came home with three qualifying times, her best showing coming in the 200 Back (2:29.01Y) where she took off almost a second in her previous performance. Other qualifying times came in the 100 Free (1:00.17Y) and the 100 Back (1:10.06Y).
Kaitlin Santos, 12, also pocketed a pair of qualifying times, her best event coming in the 100 Back (1:14.08Y) where she got her first qualifying time on an improvement of 2.17.
Her second qualifying time event was the 50 Free (28:54Y) where she improved .62 over her previous swim. Her best event in the 10 events entered was the 100 Free (1:05.81Y) where she improved 2.89 for an HIAA ranking.
Kaitlyn Jarry, 14, had her best performance in the 200 Free (2:25.55Y) for a 3.53 improvement and a HI-A time. She also earned three HIAA times in the 100 Back (1:18.42Y), 50 Free (29:61Y) and the 100 Free (1:05.90Y).
Kelly Culliney, 13, came back with three HIAA times, her best event coming in the 50 Free (30:26Y) where she shaved off .14 from her previous swim and earned a HIAA time. Her other HIAA swims included the 100 Back (1:18.60Y) and the 100 Breast (1:24.57Y).
