WAIMEA — Kauai High School swimmer Zachary Safford set the pace for the Kauai Interscholastic Federation Saturday as Waimea High School hosted the first qualifying swim meet of the season at the Waimea Pool. Swimming in the boys 100 yard
WAIMEA — Kauai High School swimmer Zachary Safford set the pace for the Kauai Interscholastic Federation Saturday as Waimea High School hosted the first qualifying swim meet of the season at the Waimea Pool.
Swimming in the boys 100 yard breaststroke, Safford bettered the KIF record set by Riley Young, also of Kauai High School, last year when he touched the wall at 1 minute, 1.88 seconds. The record set by Young in January stood at 1:03.40.
Ninety-three swimmers representing four KIF member schools finished the day with 10 qualifying swims spread out over nine events, including Safford’s record-pace swim.
Safford was on the Kauai boys 200 yard medley relay team which took one of the qualifying swims with a swim of 1:53.84, nearly five seconds faster than the qualifying standard. The team included Jack Machorek, a junior, Tristan Hanks, a senior, and Dutch Fairbanks, a junior.
Safford continued to splash, picking up a qualifying spot in the 100 yard breaststroke where he touched the wall first at 1:01.88.
He also pocketed a qualifying swim in the 200 yard individual medley with his first finish at 2:03.60, and Machorek pocketed an individual qualifying swim in the 50 yard freestyle on a 23.29 swim.
Machorek topped the 500 yard freestyle event on a 5:01.07 swim, being joined by Island School sophomore Henry Scherer who finished the event second at 5:10.96 to qualify.
Safford and Machorek were on the Kauai 400 yard freestyle relay team who copped the final qualifying spot of the day when the team finished first at 3:47.13. Nainoa Klindt and Tristan Hanks were the other two team swimmers.
Kapaa High School fielded two girls teams in the 200 yard medley relay with their first and second place finishes. The A team, including Madeline Hoesel, Heather Faretta, Chloe Zumwalt and Grace Stokes, touched the wall at 2:04.66, seven seconds off the qualifying standard.
The B team for Kapaa, including Victoria Hinkel, Jordan Fleming, Alana Tamashiro and Juliana Tampas, also qualified with its runner-up swim of 2:10.20.
Stokes, Tampas and Faretta were on the Kapaa 200 yard freestyle relay team with Asiana Nelson who also picked up a qualifying spot with its first finish of 1:51.83.
The next KIF qualifying swim meet is scheduled for Jan. 7 at the Kapaa Pool starting at 10 a.m.
