LIHUE — Ian Raquel, 11, picked up new qualifying times to earn Swimmer of the Meet honors at the Mokihana Manoa Qualifying meet Sunday at the Kauai High School pool. “Ian picked up the Swimmer of the Meet honor, his
LIHUE — Ian Raquel, 11, picked up new qualifying times to earn Swimmer of the Meet honors at the Mokihana Manoa Qualifying meet Sunday at the Kauai High School pool.
“Ian picked up the Swimmer of the Meet honor, his second, by making new qualifying times,” said Mokihana Aquatics coach Orlando “O” Anaya. “He had 70 percent best times, but made new qualifying times. Our meet was a qualifying meet.”
Raquel finished with improvements in seven of the 10 events he swam, nailing HI-AA time standards in two events including the 200 freestyle (2:32.96, or an improvement of 2.94 seconds), and the 100 backstroke (1:21.19, or a 4.38 improvement). His biggest improvement came in the 100 breaststroke where he touched at 1:42.75 for an improvement of 7.31 seconds.
Isabella Sorenson, swimming on just one day of the two-day meet, picked up four improvements in five swims, her strongest showing coming in the 100 Individual Medley (1:52.87) where she trimmed 18.10 seconds off her seeded swim.
Tyler Tanaka finished the two days of swimming by improving in seven of 10 swims, his strongest showing coming in the 200 freestyle (2:18.56) where he improved by 3.16 seconds over his seeded time.
Kaeleb Santiago, 8, chopped more than 24 seconds off his 100 IM (1:55.91), one of five swims where he posted best times. Kaedyn Santiago, 10, finished with four best times, his best showing coming in the 100 breaststroke (2:04.08) where he improved by 5.74 seconds.
Leonard Rhett, 8, posted five best times with his strongest swim coming in the 50 butterfly (56.01) where he improved by 3.51 seconds.
Leigh Idica, 11, finished with HI-A time standards in eight of 10 swims and posted two best times, her strongest swim coming in the 50 freestyle (32.97) where she finished first with an improvement of 0.45 second.
Madeline Hoesel, 14, finished with five HI-AA time standards over 10 swims, her best showing coming in the 200 butterfly where she touched at 2:57.02 for a 1.36 improvement.
Katharine Hoesel, 12, finished two days of swimming with three best times, her strongest swim coming in the 100 breaststroke where she touched at 1:47.06 for an improvement of 4.16 seconds.
“When I see a swimmer like Ian earn our Swimmer of the Meet award, I get chicken skin,” Anaya said. “We have so much to work on together that it gets me excited to think that with our work, he could become a great swimmer.”
