Kaua‘i High School freshman Yasmine Ware has set Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation swim records in all of her qualifying meets since December. Saturday was no exception. The swimmer from the Swim Kaua‘i Aquatics community program added two more records to her
Kaua‘i High School freshman Yasmine Ware has set Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation swim records in all of her qualifying meets since December.
Saturday was no exception. The swimmer from the Swim Kaua‘i Aquatics community program added two more records to her belt at the final qualifying meet at the Waimea pool.
With records in specialized strokes like the backstroke and butterfly and relay team events, Ware put her back to the freestyle, breaking a record set last week by Anya Littlefield in the 200-yard freestyle and besting her own record set in December in the 50-yard freestyle.
Both records earned the freshman swimmer auto state times, qualifying her for the upcoming Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association state swim meet.
Ware touched the wall at 1:59.84 in the 200 free, besting Littlefield’s time of 1:59.97 set last Saturday at the YMCA pool.
Kate Machorek, another Kaua‘i freshman who joined Ware in setting six KIF records on opening day, also earned an auto time with her second finish in the event, touching at 2:02.01, an improvement over her 2:02.97 seeded time.
Ware was not through, her second record coming in the 50-yard freestyle where she stopped the clock at 24.52, besting her previous record swim of 24.62 set on Dec. 10, that swim placing her at the top position of the event in a Jan. 15 listing of top swimmers collated by Jeff Meister from the OIA, ILH and KIF on the Hawai‘i Swim website.
Littlefield, a senior from Kapa‘a, settled on accumulating auto times, pocketing one in the girls 100-yard butterfly with a first finish at 1:01.93, besting her seeded time of 1:02.68 for an auto time, but falling short of Ware’s record swim of 59.26 set on Jan. 7.
Machorek also set her sights on auto time standards, pocketing her second of the day in the girls 500-yard freestyle event. She touched the wall at 5:22.84, a considerable improvement over her seeded 5:31.69, for an auto swim.
Island School came into the state mix, its boys 400-yard freestyle relay team of Quinn Hannah-White, James Papa, Makali‘i Pratt and Tyler Keith improving to a 3:46.15 swim over its seeded 3:58.20 and getting past the 3:52.06 consideration standard.
The same Voyager team also earned a consideration in the boys 200-yard freestyle relay, bettering its seeded time with a 1:42.18 swim over its seeded 1:47.33 and improving past the 1:43.11 consideration standard. The team’s final consideration swim came in the boys 200-yard medley relay, where the team finished second on a 2:00.27 swim, bettering its seeded time of 2:01.72 and getting the consideration (2:00.39) nod.
Kapa‘a’s Bryson Baligad continued to make inroads onto the state circuit, picking up two individual consideration swims and adding a team event, his first consideration coming in the boys 100-yard backstroke where he touched at 1:02.05, short of his seeded 1:01.83. He also added a consideration win in the boys 100-yard butterfly with a 58.39 swim, besting his seeded time of 58.87.
Baligad was joined by Kaz Tasic, Luan Becerra and Don Maddock in gaining a consideration swim in the boys 200-yard medley relay, stopping the clock on a first finish at 1:56.27 over the consideration standard of 2:00.39.
Kapa‘a swimmer Lana Vali, a senior, also pocketed a consideration swim in the girls 100-yard backstroke when she touched first on a 1:06.94 swim, besting her seeded time of 1:08.28 and the consideration 1:08.00 standard.
Vali was joined by Tambrina Fairbanks, Littlefield and Maluhia Stark-Kinimaka to earn a consideration swim in the girls 200-yard medley relay, stopping the clock at 2:02.55.
Everything comes to the wire on Saturday, when Island School hosts the KIF Swimming Championships at the YMCA pool starting at 2 p.m.
