KAPA‘A — Rain and the inability to use the starting blocks did not stop Mokihana Aquatics swimmers over the weekend. “With the weather, I would be happy with 25 percent best times,” said Mokihana coach Orlando Anaya in an e-mail.
KAPA‘A — Rain and the inability to use the starting blocks did not stop Mokihana Aquatics swimmers over the weekend.
“With the weather, I would be happy with 25 percent best times,” said Mokihana coach Orlando Anaya in an e-mail. “I was telling the swimmers all day to stay warm.”
But saying is one thing, doing is another as the rain wet down everything — towels, jackets, pants, shirts.
Still, Taylor Haffner, 10, was able to get seven personal bests out of 10 events in the two-day meet at the Kapa‘a pool.
His strongest showing was in the 100 Fly where he was pitted against Junior Soltren, 15. The two swimmers went head-to-head and Haffner finished by taking 9.84 off his previous swim, stopping the clock at 2:02.76Y.
Soltren also fared well at the meet, getting personal bests in four of the five events he competed in.
His strongest showing came in the 200 Free (3:10.44Y) where he showed a 15.28 improvement. His second double-digit improvement came in the 50 Back (45:11Y) where he chopped off 10.82 over his previous time.
Ryan Valenciano showed improvements in seven of his 10 events with the biggest gain coming in the 200 Free (2:30.37Y) where he gained almost 20 seconds (19.93) on his previous swim. His other strong showing came in the 200 Individual Medley (2:55.24Y) where he was 18.04 better than his previous showing.
Aryeh Austin-Elbaz, 11, was 30.17 better than her previous swim in the 200 Free (3:48.08Y). This was her strongest showing with three personal bests in five events entered.
Kamalani Brun, 12, may have left with just one personal best in five events, but gained a whopping 35.06 in her 200 IM swim (3:48.77Y).
Haena Medeiros, 6, also had one strong showing, a 13.76 improvement in her 200 Free (5:58.32Y).
“Haena’s grandfather, Atwood Makanani, was my first assistant coach in 1980,” said Anaya in his e-mail. “Haena’s mom, Malia, was on our original club in 1980. We were called Kapa‘a Swim Team back then, and I still have the original banner.”
Anaya said Malia was no more than 7 or 8 years old when she swam for Kapa‘a.
Renee Sauceda, 12, posted four personal bests with her strongest showing coming in the 100 Fly (1:41.33Y) where she improved 14.23. Her other strong showings came in the 100 Breast (1:49.38Y) and the 200 Free (3:15.30Y) where she improved 6.74 and 6.19, respectively.
Dani White, 12, had five improvements in 10 events. Her strongest showing was in the 200 IM (2:50.44Y) where she shaved 4.26 over her previous performance.
Yasmine Ware, 10, who had a perfect meet at the recent Bill Smith tournament on O‘ahu, did not post any personal bests for this meet. But she did perform, finishing with state qualifying times in all of her 10 events.
In addition to finishing with a perfect swim on O‘ahu, Ware set new team records for nine of the 10 events she swam in, breaking her own team record in all but one of the events.
Kesia Anaya, 14, another of the senior Mokihana swimmers, also did not post any personal bests at the meet, but claimed two new team records at the Bill Smith tournament.
Justin White, 10, also set a new team record in the 200 IM at the Bill Smith tournament, but could not beat that performance over the weekend.
“It is all our swimmers that show more heart than I have ever seen before,” coach Anaya said. “Heart. Class. Determination. Respect. Desire, and more heart. It proves that you don’t have to come in first place, or have the best times to prove that you can be a winner.”
