Anya Littlefield finished with eight first places for 72 points to lead the Swim Kaua‘i Aquatics girls team to its first place win with 550 points in the 4th annual Kaua‘i Classic Swim Meet last week at the YMCA pool.
Anya Littlefield finished with eight first places for 72 points to lead the Swim Kaua‘i Aquatics girls team to its first place win with 550 points in the 4th annual Kaua‘i Classic Swim Meet last week at the YMCA pool.
Jack Machorek, 10, led the SKA boys with 72 points, a tie for first place overall with eight first finishes, to pace the SKA boys team to a second finish with 514 points below the boys of Killarney Swim Club of Calgary, Canada.
Defending champions, Punahou Aquatics, finished the weekend in third place with 719 points, states a SKA release.
Killarney, coming to Kaua‘i for a two-week training camp with SKA prior to the Kaua‘i Classic, finished the weekend with 1,089 points for third place.
Lynbrook Aquatics, Aulea Swim Club, both of O‘ahu, and three swimmers on vacation from the Reno Aquatics Club participated in the two-day event which filled the YMCA parking lot to overflowing.
“What an incredible meet, not only for our kids, but the meet as a whole,” said SKA Coach Billy Brown. “I cannot thank all of the families enough for their support and dedication to making this meet such a success.”
Punahou Aquatics, Aulea Swim Club and Lynbrook Aquatics each brought 15 swimmers and their families to the weekend meet, and Killarney Swim Club, led by Mike Meldrum, a competitor for Canada in the 1988 Olympics, had 20 senior-level swimmers over for the vacation/camp.
“We love coming to Kaua‘i to race,” said Joe Glenn, head coach of Punahou Aquatics. “We’ve been coming to the Kaua‘i Classic for four years, now, and this was the best meet, yet.”
Overall, 106 swimmers competed through 70 events with many pool records, team records, Sectional, Zone and State qualifying times joining the list of personal best times.
SKA athletes combined for 160 new personal best times, led by Asa Hendrickson, 12, and Zach Safford, 11, who celebrated perfect meets with new best times in every event they swam.
Hendrickson’s biggest chop came in the 200 Yard Freestyle where he stopped the clock at 2:54.05, an improvement of 19.92 seconds.
Safford, pocketing four new AA time standards through the meet, also pushed himself in the freestyle swim, touching in 2:42.33 in the 200 Yard Freestyle for a 23.33 second improvement. He also chopped 20.67 seconds off his 500 Yard Free on a 7:07.97 swim.
“The kids from all of the teams swam very well and earned many fast times,” Brown said. “I look at the results and just smile.”
Kalei Buhk, 10, Tyler Keith, 14, Ava Wagner, 12, and Risa Whetsel, 10, each earned seven new personal best times over two days, getting to the near-perfect mark.
Erin Cottingham, 16, Kazimir Tasic, 16, and Kaylea Thayer, 17, all swimmers for Kapa‘a High School in the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation, jumped into the water for SKA with Tasic, the KIF champion in the 100 Yard Breaststroke, pocketing AA time standards in the 100 Yard Breast (1:16.48) and the 200 Yard Breast (2:51.78).
Thayer finished with three AA times in the 50 Yard Free (30.64), the 100 Yard Free (1:07.42) and the 200 Yard Free (2:25.07).
The high school newcomers were joined by Makena Buhk, 7, Lei‘ohu Chun, 8, and Anela Rapozo, 8, who all swam in their first meet, rising to the challenge when Makena earned a B time standard in the 25 Yard Free (23.18) and Chun getting a B time standard in the 25 Yard Backstroke (29.59).
State qualifying swims went to Quinn Hannah-White, 14, in the 50 Yard Free (26.61), the 200 Yard Free (2:04.20) and the 1650 Yard Free (19:10.65) and Torin Knodel, 12, in the 50 Yard Butterfly (33.34), the 100 Yard Free (1:06.70) and the 200 Yard Free (2:25.24).
“We are so appreciative of our sponsors, this year,” said SKA President Dan Britzman. “A very warm mahalo goes out to Arthur J. Hurley Co., Lappert’s Ice Crea, the Grand Hyatt Kaua‘i Resort and Spa, the Kaua‘i Visitors Bureau, Kukui‘ula Development, Dr. Coy Rebmann, and the YMCA of Kaua‘i. We couldn’t host this meet without their support.”
SKA athletes are currently preparing to participate in the Mamizuka Invitational on O‘ahu, Apr. 30 to May 1.
For more information, call Britzmann at 639-8792.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com.
