Kaitlin Santos, 13, and Yasmine Ware, 11, has Mokihana Aquatics coach Orlando “O” Anaya looking for a new word to add to his vocabulary. Santos and Ware were the two Mokihana Aquatics entries to the Bill Smith Invitational Swim Tournament
Kaitlin Santos, 13, and Yasmine Ware, 11, has Mokihana Aquatics coach Orlando “O” Anaya looking for a new word to add to his vocabulary.
Santos and Ware were the two Mokihana Aquatics entries to the Bill Smith Invitational Swim Tournament on O‘ahu held this past weekend and Ware finished with improvements in eight of the ten events she entered while Santos finished with improvements in five of the ten events she entered.
“Kaitlin and Yasmine did Kaua‘i so proud it can hardly be explained,” Anaya said in an e-mail. “To find a single word to explain their success this weekend would be impossible.”
Ware returned home with state qualifying times in all 10 of her events while Santos returned with one state qualifying time, an HI-A time, and eight HIAA times.
Ware also improved in eight of the 10 events she entered, posting her biggest gain in the 200 Free where she posted a 2:13.01 swim for a 9.07 gain followed by the 100 Fly where she posted a 1:09.91 swim for a 5.01 gain.
Santos posted two events where she improved by four seconds and three events where she gained more than three seconds.
Her best event came in the 200 Free in which she stopped the clock at 2:15.89 for a 4.57 improvement and in the 200 Back (2:38.48) where she picked up 4.03.
In the 200 Fly (2:52.68), Santos gained 3.79, the 200 Breast (3:00.19) saw her gain 3.52 and in the 200 Individual Medley (2:35.02), Santos posted a 3.23 gain.
“The word ‘awesome’ would not do the girls justice,” Anaya said.
Anaya said Santos has been pushed to a higher level than most swimmers, making every practice for months.
“She was beaten and broken down,” Anaya said. “We were hoping to have maybe 50 percent best times by minimal margins. But I guess we forgot to tell Kaitlin that.”
Santos finished with 70 percent best times and knocked off between one and four seconds.
Anaya added that Ware remains one of the Top 12 and Under swimmers in the state following the weekend’s results.
“Yes, we can all gasp,” Anaya said. “Again, the word ‘awesome’ would not do these girls justice.”
Swim Kaua‘i Aquatics
Three of the 15 Swim Kaua‘i Aquatics swimmers competing in the Bill Smith Invitational brought home qualifying times for the upcoming state championships in December.
SKA coach Billy Brown announced that Ryann Linthicum qualified for two events, Dez Pia picked up four state times and Aaron Pigott nailed one spot during the weekend event.
Additionally, the SKA team finished 12th out of 21 teams at meet.
Linthicum nailed her state berths in the 200 IM (2:29.43) and the 100 Fly (1:07.85) while Pigott settled into the state qualifying group in the 200 Breaststroke on a 2:29.81 swim.
Pia’s four state qualifying events came in the 200 Fly where she finished in fifth with a 2:32.87 personal best where she cut off 12 seconds off per previous swim. Her other state qualifying events included the 200 Back, 200 Breast, 200 IM and the 100 Back.
“All our swims were very good, our team spirit shone, and I could not be prouder of how well we did,” Brown said. “We have been focusing on this meet for some time and it is quite exciting to see how our swimmers get up and race against some of the best in the state.”
Anya Littlefield, 14, finished fourth in her age group with a second finish in the 200 Free (2:03.55) and third in the 200 Back (2:24.88) while medaling in most of her other events, Brown said.
SKA swimmingers making the trip included Pia, Casie Ford, Chelsea Chock, Pigott, Sinead Sims, Tori Kobayashi, Emma Rausch, Littlefield, Linthicum, Danielle White, Nani Rugendorf, Kea Sullivan, Justin White, James Papa and Maliana Kaui.
SKA swimmers will be in action at the Mokihana meet this weekend at the Waimea pool, and will host its next meet on Nov. 15 at the YMCA pool.
