KAPA‘A — Anya Littlefield, a Kapa‘a High School junior, made a big splash during the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation qualifying swim meet, Saturday at the Kapa‘a Pool. Littlefield, earning one of two state consideration swims during last week’s meet in Waimea,
KAPA‘A — Anya Littlefield, a Kapa‘a High School junior, made a big splash during the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation qualifying swim meet, Saturday at the Kapa‘a Pool.
Littlefield, earning one of two state consideration swims during last week’s meet in Waimea, raised the bar at her home pool, capturing three automatic state swims and breaking three KIF records in the process.
“Anya had a good meet by bettering all three of her KIF records while getting automatic state cuts in three events,” said Billy Brown, a KIF swim official as well as the head coach for Swim Kaua‘i Aquatics. “There were lots of kids, again. It’s great participation with 84 swimmers.”
Littlefield opened the day by earning the Kapa‘a Girls Medley Relay team a state consideration swim, touching the wall at 2:06.72, bettering the consideration standard of 2:07.27 by almost a full second.
That set the stage for the first of three state times when Littlefield touched at 2:20.04 in the Girls 200 Yards Individual Medley event, early in the meet.
“I’ve got 2:19-plus,” said Valerie Saiki, helping the Kapa‘a staff time.
Saiki’s comment was ahead of the announcement that Littlefield, in her 2:20.04 swim, had earned a state time and broke her own record set in January, 2009. Littlefield’s amazing swim in the second heat of that event, was more than a second better than the auto standard of 2:21.66 and slashed her previous record of 2:24.80, set when she was a freshman.
She was not done, yet. Coming off the break following the 50 Freestyle, Littlefield earned her second state swim in the Girls 100 Yard Butterfly, touching at 1:02.68, more than a second better than the state cut of 1:03.81, which coincidentally, was the KIF record she set in January, 2010 as a sophomore.
Littlefield’s biggest swim came with her third state cut in the Girls 500 Yard Free where she touched at 5:20.33, more than 10 seconds better than the state standard (5:30.81), and slashing her own January, 2010 record (5:28.31) by almost eight seconds.
Kaua‘i High School came close on its Girls 200 Yard Freestyle Relay team, anchor Sophie Britzmann, sophomore, touching the wall at 1:53.38. This was more than seven seconds ahead of its seeded time of 2:00.24 and fell just .28 second off a state consideration (1:53.10).
Kaitlin Santos, Kaleigh Rutt, Tori Kobayashi, and Britzmann make up that relay team, every swimmer a sophomore save Kobayashi who is a graduating senior.
Kapa‘a’s team of Kaitlyn Jarry, Littlefield, Kaylea Thayer and Lana Vali finished second in the Girls 200 Yard Free Relay at 1:53.76, just .38 second short of the Red Raider quartet, and .66 short of a state consideration.
Kaua‘i High School hosts the third KIF qualifying swim meet of the season this Saturday at the Kaua‘i High School pool.
Due to SAT testing, the first event hits the water at 2 p.m.
