LIHUE — Kauai Interscholastic Federation swimmers made a splash Saturday when the first qualifying swim meet was held at the YMCA pool.
Jack Machorek, a senior at Kauai High School, led the charge by setting two of the three new KIF records as well as qualifying for the state swim meet in three individual swims. He was also part of two relay teams — the boys 200-yard medley and the boys 400-yard freestyle, both qualifying for states.
Machorek, aspiring to continue swimming at West Point where his sister Kate Machorek swims, made his mark on the boys’ opening event — the 200-yard medley relay with Dutch Fairbanks, Zachary Safford, and Luke Roberts — who put in a qualifying swim at 1 minute, 47.14 seconds, nearly nine seconds better than the state qualifying mark of 1:58.29.
This relay swim was three ticks off the KIF record (1:44.99).
Machorek charged back in his next individual event, the 200-yard freestyle, where he set a new KIF meet record on his 1:43.72 swim, bettering the qualifying mark by 13 seconds and toppling the KIF record of 1:45.57, which he set on Jan. 30, 2016.
Machorek’s second KIF record swim came in the 500 freestyle (4:42.16), where he qualified for states and broke the KIF record (4:47.89) he set in 2016 by over five seconds.
Zachary Safford, Machorek’s teammate, set the third KIF record while qualifying for three individual swims and being part of the qualifying relay teams.
Zachary Safford made his mark in the 100 breaststroke, where he qualified on the swim that broke a minute (59.46) and broke the KIF meet record of 1:01.84 that he set in January at the KIF championship meet.
Henry Scherer, a junior at Island School, picked up a state-qualifying swim in the 100 freestyle (52.45), making the cut by .04 second.
When the water subsided in the crisp morning air punctuated with sprinkles, KIF swimmers made qualifying marks in a dozen events starting with the first event — the girls 200 medley relay, where the team from Kauai High School, including Kaira Ka‘aihue, Julia Safford, Alana Cayabyab and Kelli Okayama touched the wall in first place with a qualifying swim of 2 minutes, 8.15 seconds, nearly a second better than the qualifying standard of 2:09.89.
The Red Raider women’s 400 freestyle relay team of Cayabyab, Okayama, Julia Safford and Ka‘aihue also picked up a qualifying swim with a 4:10.88 swim, nearly five ticks better than the qualifying pace.
Kapaa sophomore Maddie Hoesel came close on several events, missing the qualifying mark in the 200 freestyle (2:06.46) by .07 second, and coming up short in the 50 freestyle (26.86) by .43 second despite finishing first in both these events.
The next KIF qualifying swim meet will hit the water at the Kapaa Swimming Pool on Jan. 6 starting at 10 a.m. The KIF swim championships is scheduled for Jan. 27 at the YMCA pool, and the state meet will be hosted by the Maui Interscholastic League on Feb. 9.
