WAIMEA — Record-breaking swims, an automatic state qualifying time and eight state consideration times opened the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation swim season on a high note Saturday. Kaua‘i High School Girls 200 Yard Freestyle Relay team captured the Auto qualifying time
WAIMEA — Record-breaking swims, an automatic state qualifying time and eight state consideration times opened the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation swim season on a high note Saturday.
Kaua‘i High School Girls 200 Yard Freestyle Relay team captured the Auto qualifying time on a 1:48.91 swim, making the cut by a mere .08 second (1:48.99 Auto). In addition to making the state time, the team also bested the KIF record set in 2006 by the Kapa‘a High School team of Grooms, Bendor, C. Brady and J. Brady.
Casie Ford, holding the anchor spot for that team, was the top individual performer at Saturday’s meet, adding two consideration times in events besides swimming the anchor leg for the Girls 200 Yard Medley Relay that earned a consideration time despite a second place finish to the Kapa‘a team.
That Raider team clocked a 2:07.71, earning a consideration time (2:10.49). Kapa‘a, the winner in that event, stopped the clock at 2:04.11, earning a consideration time and falling short of a state auto qualifying time of 2:03.09. Both teams also bettered the KIF record of 2:09.51 set in 1999 by the Kaua‘i High School team of Hall, Cockett, Matsumoto and Yoshida.
Individually, Ford picked up consideration times in the Girls 200 Yard Freestyle on a 2:08.22 swim (2:09.99 consideration) and in the Girls 100 Yard Freestyle where she stopped the clock at 58.96, making the 59.39 consideration standard and falling just about a second short of the state auto standard of 57.49.
Ford’s 200 Yard Free swim was better than the KIF record of 2:11.00 set in 2003 by Waimea’s Alisha Golden, but she fell short of the KIF standard of 57.74 in the Girls 100 Yard Free.
Emma Rausch, Tania Rames and Anya Littlefield were members of the Kapa‘a Girls 200 Yard Medley Relay team that opened the meet at the Waimea pool with a bang.
Kaitlyn Jarry swam the anchor leg for that team.
Those three front swimmers went on to post individual consideration times in other events.
Rausch posted a consideration time in the Girls 200 Yard Individual Medley with a swim of 2:24.99, well within the consideration standard of 2:30.39 and less than a second off the auto qualifying standard of 2:24.09.
Rausch’s 200 IM swim topped the KIF record of 2:27.02 set in 1991 by Kaua‘i High swimmer Britta Read.
Littlefield posted a consideration time in the Girls 50 Yard Freestyle event on a 26.92 swim (26.99 consideration) and Rames picked up her consideration time in the Girls 100 Yard Breaststroke where she stopped the clock at 1:16.83, just about a second better than the consideration standard of 1:17.79.
Of note is Rames’ seeded time of 1:15.59. Although she swam slower than her seeded time, that seeded time puts her in the ball park for the state auto standard of 1:15.29.
Desiree Pia, a senior swimming the third leg of the Auto qualifying Girls 200 Yard Freestyle Relay team, posted her own consideration time in the Girls 100 Yard Butterfly where she stopped the clock at 1:05.55, well within the consideration standard of 1:08.119 and about a second off the auto standard of 1:04.99. That swim also bettered the KIF record of 1:07.02 set in 1992 by Read.
Other members of the Kaua‘i Girls 200 Yard Freestyle Relay team include Ryann Linthicum, Pia, Tori Kobayashi, and Ford.
Three of those members, Kobayashi, Pia and Ford, were joined by Sinead Sims in the Girls 200 Yard Medley Relay team.
Aaron Pigott, a junior at Kaua‘i High School, held off a strong challenge by Kapa‘a junior Aaron Belmonte in the Boys 200 Yard IM event.
But despite that strong showing, Pigott stopped the clock at 2:24.73, almost eight seconds off the consideration standard of 2:16.19.
Belmonte finished second in that event on a 2:35.33 swim, an improvement over his 2:37.92 seeded time.
Waimea’s Dane Harding, a junior, may have shown strong in the Boys 200 Yard Freestyle event, but despite finishing almost eight seconds ahead of the runner up swimmer at 2:17.21, was off the consideration standard of 2:00.99.
Second place finisher for that event, Zaimana Fernandez, a Kapa‘a sophomore, and third finisher Ryan Valenciano, a Kaua‘i freshman, finished within a second of each other, Fernandez clocking a 2:25.24 to Valenciano’s 2:25.86.
Following them, two Waimea swimmers, Gavin Klein and Brice Beaver, swimming in Heat 2 of the event, exchanged leads several times en route to Klein taking fourth on a 2:35.12 swim to Beaver’s 2:35.23.
Saturday’s meet will be hosted by Kaua‘i High School starting at 10 a.m.
However, Kaua‘i’s pool is currently under repair so plans are to have the meet at the new YMCA pool in Puhi.
