Mokihana Aquatics swim club returned with what Coach Orlando “O” Anaya described as a “mixed bag” following the 33rd Annual Ken Suenaga Invitational Swim Meet at the Veterans’ Memorial Aquatic Center on O‘ahu. On the bright note, Sara Funtanilla celebrated
Mokihana Aquatics swim club returned with what Coach Orlando “O” Anaya described as a “mixed bag” following the 33rd Annual Ken Suenaga Invitational Swim Meet at the Veterans’ Memorial Aquatic Center on O‘ahu.
On the bright note, Sara Funtanilla celebrated her 10th birthday Sunday on O‘ahu, her parents working as meet timers to fulfill Mokihana’s obligation of providing one timer for each five swimmers, said Anaya.
Beyond that, the Funtanilla ‘ohana, no strangers to big meets, had a cooler of water as a premonition, knowing the swimmers would be needing it.
On the down side, Mokihana swimmer Micah-Kamuela Nobriga-Ferris, making a strong showing during the last home meet, appeared to be heading toward another strong showing on O‘ahu.
But Anaya said due to confusion between the meet’s age group chair and the meet director on updated time standards, he swam in more events than what was allowed. This confusion affected all male swimmers in the 15 and over class, Anaya said.
Alana Cayabyab, 9, a strong partner with Funtanilla, finished with three best times in four events to earn Mokihana Swimmer of the Meet honors at the Suenaga meet.
“She had three ‘best times,’ including three AA time standards, two of which were new AA times for her,” Anaya said in an email. “She swam an insane 100 Individual Medley, going nearly 10 seconds faster than her previous best, drawing comments from other head coaches and meet officials.”
Cayabyab’s best times came in the 50 Fly (39.86), a 2.21 improvement, the 50 Breast (47.17), a 3.94 improvement and the 100 IM (1:31.79), an 8.95 improvement.
“She is well deserving of the honor,” Anaya said. “I’m sure all swimmers who were there would agree. In fact, they were talking about just that as we were leaving O‘ahu.”
Funtanilla, the Sunday birthday girl, posted five new best times, her best showing coming in the 200 Freestyle where she touched at 2:57.07 for a 6.04 improvement.
Nobriga-Ferris, 16, a swimmer to look for in the upcoming Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation swim season, posted four personal bests, his strongest showings coming in the 200 IM (2:27.98) for a 4.13 improvement and the 200 Breaststroke (2:52.98) for a 3.90 improvement.
Mokihana Team Leader Kaitlin Santos, another strong swimmer for Kaua‘i High School in the KIF season, finished with a gold medal in the 100 Butterfly, touching at 1:23.60, short of a personal best.
Tory Taboniar, 11, posted three personal best swims, his best showing coming in the 200 Freestyle (2:39.24) where he shaved 5.58 off his seeded swim to end with an AA time standard.
“Congratulations to all our swimmers for doing their best,” Anaya said. “I am proud of all their efforts. Our work continues.”
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
