MAUI — Yasmine Ware, 12, was spectacular on Maui. Competing in 16 events, including preliminaries, over a four-day span at the Hawaiian Swimming Age Group Long Course Championships, Ware, one of 10 swimmers from the Swim Kaua‘i Aquatics program, finished
MAUI — Yasmine Ware, 12, was spectacular on Maui.
Competing in 16 events, including preliminaries, over a four-day span at the Hawaiian Swimming Age Group Long Course Championships, Ware, one of 10 swimmers from the Swim Kaua‘i Aquatics program, finished with personal improvements in 15 of those events.
En route to that spectacular finish, Ware picked up state championships in the Girls 11-12 50- and 100-yard Backstroke events.
“It was so exciting,” said Stacey Machorek, an SKA parent who was at the meet with her children, in an e-mail. “Yasmine narrowly missed breaking a 28-year old record in the 50 back by just .03 second. The entire deck was holding their breath.”
Overall, nine SKA swimmers out of the 10 swimmers at the meet medaled, placing in the top eight in the state. SKA finished 14th out of 24 participating teams, said Kathleen Littlefield, an SKA parent.
“This was our best placing as a team at a state event,” Kathleen said. “And with only 10 swimmers, awesome.”
Ware finished the 100 Back in first place on a 1:11.98L swim, an improvement of 2.78 over her preliminary swim in that event (1:14.36L) and not only earned the state medal for the event, but was bumped to a zone time from her qualifying time earned during the preliminary.
She continued to reap gold by stopping the clock at 32.18L in the 50 Back, an improvement of .56 over her preliminary swim of 32.51L, both times earning zone ratings.
In the 16 events, Ware’s only non-improved time came in the preliminary of the 200 Individual Medley where she stopped the clock on a 2:44.40L swim, just .71 seconds slower than her seeded time.
But she rebounded in the finals to stop the clock at 2:42.07L for a third place and an improvement of 1.62 over her seeded time.
En route to her stellar performance at the Kihei Aquatic Center, Ware essentially had a perfect meet, finishing with improvements in all of her finals and finishing with three zone times and 13 qualifying times.
Anya Littlefield, 15, finished in the top eight in all 12 of the events she swam in, her best performance coming in the 800 Free where she stopped the clock at 9:47.75L for a second place finish and a zone time. That performance was a 32-second improvement over her seeded time. She followed that with a third place finish in the 1500 Free (18:59.25L) where she trimmed 8.96 off her seeded time and earning another zone time. Overall, Littlefield finished with improvements in nine of her dozen swims.
Kate Machorek, 11, finished with a perfect meet, finishing with improvements in all five of her events and earning two eighth place medals. Those events included the 100 Back where she earned qualifying times in both the preliminaries and finals of that event, her best swim taking place in the finals where she stopped the clock at 1:20.02L.
Aaron Pigott, 17, a strong swimmer from the 2008 Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation season, also marked a perfect meet, posting improvements in all four of his events.
Pigott’s best event came in the finals of the 200 Breast where he stopped the clock at 2:44.11L for a fourth place finish and a zone time while improving 10.98 over his preliminary time which was also an improvement over his seeded time.
Pualei Pratt, 10, also posted a perfect meet, improving in two of her events, the biggest improvement coming in the 50 Free where she clocked in at 36.01, an improvement of 3.04.
“All of these athletes swam extremely well,” said SKA coach Billy Brown. “It was great to see all of our swimmers achieve their goals they set months ago. And, it was all because how well they have swam together as a team throughout the season. This was an amazing accomplishment.”
SKA swimmers joining Pratt, Pigott, Kate Machoreck, Anya Littlefield and Ware include Jack Machorek, Bryson Baligad, Ryann Linthicum, Evan Hamamoto, and Emma Rausch.
