Raider swimmers win season-opening meet

LIHU’E — The 8th Annual Mokihana Aquatics KIF Swimming Invitational

officially opened the 2000 swim season last Saturday at the Kaua’i High School

pool.

And if you think swimming is a sport without controversy, then you

missed out on a good one.

While the big story was that Kaua’i High School

became the first Garden Isle team to win the overall award since Kapa’a did it

in 1990, the most excitement came when the meet referee attempted to disqualify

all ahtletes from the first heat of an event.

Three girls swimmers picked

up their event cards on the first call, but failed to show up for the start on

the second and final calls.

The referee disqualified all three, but, after

some delays and arguments, he reversed his decision.

In a nutshell, the

referee gave the swimmers a break, and let them swim anyway, but he also let it

be known that there won’t be any more breaks the rest of the season.

The

arguments and delays didn’t take away from very noticeable

performances.

The Kaua’i High School girls’ domination in terms of number

of swimmers should make it difficult to unseat them as defending champions of

the Kaua’i Interscholastic Federation this year.

Kaua’i High also won the

girls division.

Also, the visiting Moloka’i Farmers team — despite

bringing over a small squad — had some top-notch swimmers.

The Farmers

entered in just 13 events, but placed a swimmer in either first or second place

in 12 events.

Moloka’i also had the only state qualifier when Leen Yonemura

swam a 1:07.46 in the 100-yard breaststroke.

Waimea easily won in the boys

division, helped along by the fact that no other schools couldn’t produce relay

teams.

Most of the KIF swimmers enjoyed personal best times.

The first

KIF quad-meet will be held this Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Kapa’a Pool

With no starting blocks or wall targets, the times may drop some.