LIHU‘E —Alana “Kawehi” Tamashiro, 11, finished with a perfect meet, improving in all 10 of her swims, and was announced the Swimmer of the Meet, Sunday during the final day of the Mokihana Aquatics timed trials at the Kaua‘i High
LIHU‘E —Alana “Kawehi” Tamashiro, 11, finished with a perfect meet, improving in all 10 of her swims, and was announced the Swimmer of the Meet, Sunday during the final day of the Mokihana Aquatics timed trials at the Kaua‘i High School pool.
Juggling between timers and water which was beyond the temperature requirements for the meet, Coach Orlando “O” Anaya relied on his “Moki‘Ohana” to come through and field enough timers to meet the requirements.
“It was a great, albeit extremely hot weekend,” Anaya said in an email. “It is true that I gave serious consideration to cancelling trials this weekend because of water temperature. Had this been a distance meet, yes, I most definitely would have cancelled. Yet, our swimmers still beat the odds, and the heat, to find it within themselves to swim hard and to improve.”
Ice dumped into the pool lowered the temperature to within the required range and the meet went off without a hitch, Tamashiro emerging perfect.
“For the second time in as many years, Kawehi is the coaches’ unanimous choice for Swimmer of the Meet,” Anaya said. “Class. Respect. Humility and some fast times, going 10 swims with 10 personal best times, several by double digits.”
In her run over two days, Tamashiro clocked four double-digit improvements, her best coming in second place finish in the 200 Individual Medley where she stopped the clocks at 3:23.47 for a 19.77 improvement over her seeded time.
She set the bar in the 100 Butterfly, Sunday where she edged out fellow swimmer Gracie Stokes, 12, on a first place finish 1:33.69, an improvement of 19.32 seconds.
Stokes settled for a 1:37.22 swim in that event, but in her 10 swims, posted four personal bests, the biggest improvement coming in a first finish in the 200 IM where she slipped to the wall on a 3:04.05 swim for a 2.53 improvement.
Isabella Roberts, 8, had only two weeks of swimming before hitting the meet and on Sunday was swimming solo, extracting cheers from the audience on her swims as she set times for seven of the nine events she swam.
Riley Gokan, 11, was also doing his first meet, posting new times in five events.
Tory Taboniar, 10, was another new swimmer, finishing with a AA, or Invitational, time in the 50 Free (38.03) for a 6.13 improvement on his seeded time and gaining two A time standards, the first in the 50 Fly (47.53) for a 6.34 improvement and the other in the 200 Free (3:18.95) for a new time standard.
Another 10-year-old, Luke Roberts, finished with four personal bests, his biggest gain coming in the 200 Free where he chopped 9.03 off his seeded time on a 3:05.24 swim.
Micah-Kamuela Nobriga-Ferris, 15, emerging perfect following Saturday’s run, ended the meet with six personal best swims. His strongest showing came in the 200 Fly where he touched at 3:10.13 for a 4.73 gain.
Sara Funtanilla, 9, posted five personal bests, her best swim coming in the 200 Free where she touched at 3:22.63 for an 8.28 improvement.
Kayana Yamaguchi, 13, a strong leader in the water among several swimmers, finished the meet with four personal bests, her best showing coming in the 200 Free where she touched second at 2:42.87 for a 2.43 improvement.
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