LIHU‘E — Mokihana Aquatics swimmer Alana Cayabyab, 9, had a near-perfect meet, posting nine improvements in 10 events, to earn Swimmer of the Meet honors during the two-day timed trials which ended Saturday at the Kaua‘i High School pool. “Despite
LIHU‘E — Mokihana Aquatics swimmer Alana Cayabyab, 9, had a near-perfect meet, posting nine improvements in 10 events, to earn Swimmer of the Meet honors during the two-day timed trials which ended Saturday at the Kaua‘i High School pool.
“Despite not having a perfect meet, Alana Cayabyab gets Swimmer of the Meet honors in a very difficult choice over Sara Funtanilla, who like many others, had an outstanding trials,” Mokihana Aquatics Coach Orlando “O” Anaya said. “This is the only second time in Mokihana history a swimmer got the honor with a DQ.”
Anaya said the race where Cayabyab mis-cued was a tight race, but following the race, the young swimmer approached him and said she messed up with a wrong kick off the blocks because she was confused, just for a moment, on what event she was swimming.
After admitting her mistake, Anaya said the deck officials came in with the DQ on a wrong kick, verifying Cayabyab’s account.
“I couldn’t see from where I was, but she knew,” Anaya said. “And she owned up to her mistake.”
Otherwise, Cayabyab posted improvements in all her remaining events, getting a nice 26.66 improvement in the 200 individual medley where she touched at 3:49.59 and following that with a 16.51 shaving in the 200 yard freestyle where she stopped the clocks at 3:20.12 to lead her accomplishments, the 200 free earning her one of four Hawai‘i A time standards.
Funtanilla, 10, will be the sole Mokihana swimmer at this weekend’s Keo Nakama swim meet starting Friday through Sunday, Anaya said.
“Sara will be swimming in the 50 free, the 100 free, the 200 free, the 200 IM, 50 backstroke and 100 backstroke at one of the oldest meets in Hawai‘i,” Anaya said. “We were supposed to have a fun day, Monday, but because Sara is heading to the Keo, we are practicing to push her to her best.”
During the meet, Funtanilla posted a 4.30 improvement in her 200 IM, touching at 3:33.33 and a Hawai‘i A time standard, one of three she earned over two days. Overall, Funtanilla posted eight improvements in 10 events, including a 2.60 gain in the 100 free (1:23.15), one of the events she’ll swim at the Keo Nakama meet.
“The Kauahi girls, Kawehi and Danielle, were amazing,” Anaya said. “Danielle had five QUAL, or state qualifying, times and five AA, or Invitational, times and won all races except the 50 Free where Gracie Stokes just out-touched her for her first State time.”
Stokes touched the wall at 28.98 in the 50 Free, cutting .61 off her seeded time for her QUAL time standard. Her best showing came in the 200 Free (2:31.27) where she slashed 4.11 off her seeded time. She finished with seven improvements in 10 events.
Danielle Kauahi, 12, finished the 50 free on a 29.78 swim, her only second place over two days. Her QUAL swims came in the 50 Fly (31.62), 50 breast (36.02), 100 free (1:04.87), 200 IM (2:39.94) and the 100 breast (1:18.29).
Kawehi Kauahi, 7, posted first finishes in all but one of her swims, getting four Hawai‘i A time standards in the 25 Fly (22.16), the 25 back (26.04), the 25 breast (28.53) and the 25 free (20.79).
Kainoah Nobriga-Ferris, 13, may have posted second finishes throughout, but showed some nice cuts, taking 27.23 off his 100 breast (2:03.13), 22.86 off his 200 free (3:26.77) and 17.13 off his 100 back (2:09.73) among his accomplishments.
Visit www.mokihanaaquatics.com for more information.
∫ Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@ thegardenisland.com.
