Swim Kaua‘i Aquatics swimmers added to their list of state times during the “Makin’ Waves VI” meet Saturday at the Kaua‘i High School pool. According to a press release from SKA, five swimmers and the club’s 13-14 Girls 200 Free
Swim Kaua‘i Aquatics swimmers added to their list of state times during the “Makin’ Waves VI” meet Saturday at the Kaua‘i High School pool.
According to a press release from SKA, five swimmers and the club’s 13-14 Girls 200 Free Relay team earned state qualifying times during the daylong event.
Heading up the list of qualifiers, Kate Machorek, 9, led the girls with two new state times, one coming in the 100 Individual Medley (1:27.36) where she shaved two seconds off her previous time, and the other coming in the 50 Fly with a 38.37 swim, more than a second better than her previous time in the event.
The addition of these two state times gives her a total of four qualifying times.
Bryson Baligad, 9, earned a qualifying time in the 100 IM on a 1:29.29 showing, more than six seconds better than his previous swim.
Jackson Littlefield also qualified in the 100 IM with a 1:30.86 swim, almost four seconds ahead of his previous time.
Anya Littlefield, 13, notched her first qualifying time in the 1000 Free event on an 11:58.29 swim for her fifth state qualifying event.
Ryann Linthicum, 13, also competed in the 1000 Free for the first time and qualified for the state event on a 12:00.82 swim.
Linthicum, Littlefield, Emma Rausch and Lana Vali made up the 13-14 Girls 200 Free Relay team that compled the event on a swim of 1:58.00, almost five seconds below the cut.
With the additional state times, SKA now has 10 individual swimmers qualified for the Hawai‘i State Age Group Championships scheduled for December on Maui.
“All the SKA swimmers swam extremely well this weekend,” Greg Davis, SKA coach, said in the release. “It is very early in the season and the kids raced and swam aggressively, even though many of the swimmers are tired and broken down from training.”
Hunter Rogers, 13, finishing the meet with improvements in four of her five events, had her best performance in the 500 Free where she stopped the clock at 6:59.11, a performance of almost a minute improvement.
Talia Abrams, 8, Baligad, 9, Sheila Blum, 6, Cody Ishiguro, 14, Aaron Pigott, 15, Austin Taylor, 12, and Brandon Taylor, 15, all posted perfect meets with improvements in all their participating events, Davis said.
Maliana Kaui, 9, also finished the meet with improvements in four of the five events entered, her best event being the 100 IM where she cut off almost eight seconds from her previous time with her 1:55.36 swim.
According to Davis, other swimmers achieving best times included Nick Krueger, 16, Makana Ledesma, 14, Rex Linthicum, 8, Juan Pigott, 9, Meaghan Sims, 18, Jack Machorek, 7, and more.
Vali swam in her first meet and earned a AA time in the 100 Back event on a 1:16.65 swim. Her brother Lars also had a good event, swimming well in multiple events, Davis said.
Nani Rugendorf, a newcomer to swimming, earned several new A times in her first competitive experience, Davis said.
“I am very pleased with the all-around performance from all age groups,” Davis said. “We have been working hard, establishing an aerobic base and working all four strokes. The times this weekend were impressive across the board from all the SKA swimmers.”
SKA plans on traveling to O‘ahu in two weeks to take part in the Bill Smith Invitational. Its next on-island open competition will be “Makin’ Waves VII,” on Nov. 10.
For more information, visit the SKA Web site at www.swimkauai.com.
