LIHU‘E — Swim Kaua‘i Aquatics’ 18 swimmers earned 28 medals over four days of swimming at the 2012 Hawaiian Swimming State Championship held at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center on O‘ahu recently. Swimming through blustery conditions, Yasmine Ware, 15, and Kate
LIHU‘E — Swim Kaua‘i Aquatics’ 18 swimmers earned 28 medals over four days of swimming at the 2012 Hawaiian Swimming State Championship held at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center on O‘ahu recently.
Swimming through blustery conditions, Yasmine Ware, 15, and Kate Machorek, 15, considered the “senior girls” for SKA, set the pace, finishing fifth and sixth overall in the Girls 15-16 age group, states an SKA release.
“Our kids performed great at states,” said SKA Coach Billy Brown in the release. “We had our veteran swimmers out there leading the charge, we had the Boys 11-12 and the Boys 13-14 relay teams, and we also had seven swimmers attending their first-ever state championships. It was really exciting to see them all race hard.”
Ware, who will be hitting the water Dec. 29 for Kaua‘i High School when the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation swim season begins, captured the state championship in the 200 Yard Backstroke, setting a new sectional time of 2:05.26. Kate touched third in the event with a sectional swim of 2:06.38.
Ware continued to pull in the hardware, taking second place in the 50 Yard Freestyle (23.57), 100 Yard Butterfly (58.00), 100 Yard Breaststroke (1:05.64), and the 200 Yard Individual Medley (2:10.53).
Third place honors for Ware came in the 100 Yard Freestyle (52.41) and the 200 Yard Breaststroke.
Kate, new to the age group, finished with four new sectional time standards in the 50, 200 and 1,000 Yard Freestyle and the 200 Yard Backstroke. She added a second place in the 1,650 Yard Freestyle, touching at 17:35.71, a third place in the 100 Yard Backstroke (59.12) and the 200 Yard Freestyle (1:55.36), and fourth places in the 50 Yard Freestyle (24.54), 400 Yard IM (4:39.93) and the 1,000 Yard Freestyle (10:37.32). A fifth place in the 500 Yard Freestyle (5:13.43) rounded out her performance.
Sophie Britzmann, 17, another KIF swimmer, finished with six state championship medals in the 1,000 Yard Freestyle where she cut 28.26 seconds off her seeded time to touch in fourth at 11:20.83. She also medaled in the 400 Yard IM (4:57.68), the 100 Yard Breaststroke (1:15.05), the 200 Yard Breaststroke (2:39.67), the 200 Yard Freestyle (2:03.12) and the 500 Yard Freestyle (5:13.02).
Quinn Hannah-White, 16, pocketed his medals in the distance events, capturing fourth place overall in the 1,000 Yard Freestyle where he cut 10.14 seconds off his seeded time on a 10:45.21 swim. Hannah-White secured eighth place in the 1,650 Yard Freestyle (18:21.30), ninth in the 500 Yard Freestyle (5:13.02) where he just missed the medal stand on his new best time in the event.
Tambrina Fairbanks, 16, donning the Red Raider suit in the KIF swim season, pocketed a sixth place in the 200 Yard Breaststroke on a 2:32.20 swim. She also had improvements in her 200 Yard IM (2:25.91) and the 400 Yard IM (5:03.52).
Jack Machorek, 12, broke the six-minute mark in capturing the seventh place in the 500 Yard Freestyle, touching at 5:55.58. He posted new personal best swims in the 100 Yard IM (1:12.65) and 200 Yard IM (2:35.08).
Kaira Ka‘aihue, 12, and Jackson Evans, 12, set the bar for the first-timers at a state championship, both swimmers posting “perfect meets,” or new personal best times in all eight of their events.
Ka‘aihue reached the finals, or top eight, in three of her eight events, finishing sixth in the 200 Yard IM (2:26.58, a 7.78 improvement), seventh in the 100 Yard Freestyle (58.73) where she broke the one-minute mark, and an eighth place in the 100 Yard IM (1:08.50).
Evans just missed the finals in the 50 Yard Butterfly (30.51) and the 100 Yard Freestyle (1:01.70), finishing ninth in both events. But that did not deter the young swimmer who posted improvements in all his events, his biggest coming in the 200 Yard Freestyle (2:17.36) where he chopped 6.94 seconds off his seeded swim.
Joining the pair of first-timers at the state meet, SKA fielded James Pratt, 10, Julia Safford, 10, Akira Williams, 11, Ryden Williams, 9, and Riley Young, 14.
Zach Safford, recently aging up to the 13-14 age group, knocked 1.97 seconds off his 200 Yard Breaststroke and Dutch Fairbanks, 12, earned a new personal best in his 100 Yard Backstroke (1:16.68).
The SKA Boys 11-12 relay team of Evans, Dutch Fairbanks, Jack Machorek and Akira Williams earned fifth place berths in the 200 Yard and 400 Yard Freestyle relay events and an eighth place in the 200 Medley relay.
The SKA Boys 13-14 team of Sam Britzmann, 13, Saber Fairbanks, 14, Zack Safford, and Young earned sixth place in the 200 Yard Freestyle relay.
“Our kids got a lot out of this meet,” Brown said. “We are excited for the new year and a new season of racing. I am so proud of these kids.”
Currently, SKA is enjoying a holiday break, preparing to run the KIF swim meets, which start Dec. 29 at the Kapa‘a pool starting at 10 a.m.
