Yasmine Ware, 14, won three state championships over four days to help lead Swim Kaua‘i Aquatics to an overall 12th place at the Hawaiian Swimming Long Course Championships held over the weekend on Maui. Ware’s swim in the 50 Meter
Yasmine Ware, 14, won three state championships over four days to help lead Swim Kaua‘i Aquatics to an overall 12th place at the Hawaiian Swimming Long Course Championships held over the weekend on Maui.
Ware’s swim in the 50 Meter Freestyle of 26.73 earned her a Junior National Qualifying time and set a new Hawaiian Swimming Long Course Record, breaking the existing 6-year old record by .01 second.
She also won titles in the 100 Meter Freestyle (1:00.07) and the 100 Meter Backstroke (1:08.36), and finishing first overall in the Women 13-14 age group.
Ware also won silver medals in the 200 Meter Backstroke (2:31.30) and the 200 Meter Individual Medley (2:31.17) and a bronze in the 100 Meter Butterfly where she set a new Zone time of 1:08.50. She touched at 5:25.36 for a new Zone time in the 400 Meter IM with her fourth place finish and rounded out the meet with a fifth place in the 200 Meter Breaststroke (2:55.67).
This performance helped the team to its 12th overall finish.
SKA traveled to Maui with just eight swimmers, the smallest group they’ve sent to the state championships, but bettered its 15th place previous best finish.
Teammate Kate Machorek, 13, finished 4th overall in the Women 13-14. Her strongest swim came in the 100 Meter Backstroke where she touched at 1:09.60 for a new Sectional time and following Ware for the SKA one-two finish in that event.
Kate opened the four days, Thursday night with a third place in the 1,500 Meter event with a swim of 18:44.19, good for a new Sectional time. More bronze piled up at Machorek’s feet as she collected third in the 200 Meter Backstroke (2:31.83), the 400 Meter Freestyle (4:50.07), and the 400 Meter IM (5:25.36) where she earned a new Zone time standard.
She rounded out her showing with three fourth place finishes in the 200 Meter Freestyle (2:17.12), 200 Meter IM (2:34.04) and the 800 Meter Freestyle (10:08.79).
Kate’s young brother, Jack, medalled in seven of his eight events, finishing seventh overall for the Men 10 and Under division. His strongest swim was the 200 Meter Freestyle where he touched at 2:42.67 for fourth place and an 8.43 improvement over his seeded time.
He collected fifth place finishes in the 50 Meter Breaststroke (47.11) and the 100 Meter Freestyle (1:14.10) and seventh place in the 50 Meter Butterfly (38.82) and the 100 Meter Butterfly (1:33.23), rounding out the four-day meet with eighth place finishes in the 50 Meter Freestyle (35.72) and the 200 Meter IM (3:08.56).
“I am just so proud of these kids,” said Billy Brown, SKA Head coach, in an email. “They all swam with such confidence and heart. I was so impressed by the huge amounts of time the kids dropped on every event, especially our younger swimmers. Our long course training has really paid off this year.”
Tambrina Fairbanks, 15, earned her first state championship medal, Sunday, finishing sixth in the 200 Meter Breaststroke on a 3:02.53 swim.
Dutch Fairbanks, 10, Tambrina’s younger brother, just missed his first state finals, finishing with a pair of ninth place finishes in the 50 Meter Freestyle (34.97) and the 200 Meter IM (3:15.86). His performance saw better times in seven of his eight events.
Sophie Britzmann, 15, Quinn Hannah-White, 15, and Tyler Keith, 15, all Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation swimmers, also swam hard during the meet.
Britzmann, qualifying in eight event at the meet, dropped 3.10 seconds off her 400 Meter IM where she tripped the clocks at 5:50.47. Hannah-White found success in the 1,500 Meter Freestyle on a 19:04.89 swim, chopping 14.10 seconds off his seeded time and Keith also posted his best swim in the mile swim, taking 39.46 seconds off his seeded time with an 18:51.83 swim.
“The support we had from our team back home, along with our coaches and families who came to Maui was amazing,” Brown said. “But all of the congratulations go to the kids who swam their hearts out. They were awesome.”
SKA swimmers are back in the water at the YMCA of Kaua‘i pool, preparing for its next home meet scheduled for Aug. 6.
They enjoy a two-week break following this meet.
