Freshmen make Big Impact at BIIF Swim Meet

Desiree Ashley (P), Emma Kimata (H), Nicole Paulachak (Waik), Madisyn Uekawa ( Waik), Shea Pitoy (H),Katie Torigoe (WAIK), Kirsten Nakamura ( WAIK), Ariana Nussbaum (LAU) photo by Kyle Chock

The freshmen class in the Big Island Interscholastic Federation made a big splash at the start of the swim season this past Saturday.

   Hilo High’s Edward Kawachika Pool played host to an all-schools swim meet that saw seven boys and three girls reach state qualifying times in individual events in addition to Hawaii Prep and Waiakea relay teams making state.

  In the girls 400 yard freestyle relay it was three freshmen and one sophomore for the powerful Waiakea swim team making state qualifying by clocking 3:55.31.  Freshmen Akemi King, Jayna Jobes and Madisyn Uekawa teamed with sophomore Rachael Shimizu to out distance the runner up team by more than 26 seconds.

   Uekawa earlier in the day had qualified for state in both the 50 freestyle and 100 breaststroke, while Shimizu logged state times in the distance races of the 200 and 500 freestyle events.

   “We had a good meet,” Waiakea coach Bill Sakovich said.  “Unfortunately Kealakehe was not present and we know they have some great swimmers, how many, we don’t know.”

   The only other girl to break the state time barrier in an individual event was Hilo’s Sharae Ichinose in the 100 backstroke.  Ichinose swam away from the rest of the field winning by more than five seconds with her time of 1:03.94.

   “I am happy with the team’s results after the first meet, but we have to work harder and get the whole team involved,” Coach Sakovich said.  “We need to work on the technical aspects of swimming, finishes, turns and relay starts.”

   HPA freshman, Bhillie Luciani looked good in her high school swim debut.  Luciani won the 200 Individual Medley event and her coach, Mark Noetzel, had high praise for his youngster.

   “We were impressed with our freshman, Bhillie Luciani, and senior Bridgett Walker,” Noetzel said.

200 IM Chris Hu and Patrick Peng

On the boys side Noetzel had a solid effort put in by his 200 IM relay team which made a state time of 1:43.05.

   “HPA’s strengths came from our boys, Logan Borowski, Kaikea Nakachi, Ryan Ross, Kyle Katase and Sonny Hapgood,” Noetzel said.  “Many of our other team members had personal bests which helped our team overall.”

   HPA’ Borowski also won the 50 yard freestyle event (22.71) by out swimming a pair of talented Waiakea sprinters in Peter Chi (22.93) and Grant Uekawa (23.02) as all three made state qualifying time.

   Borowski later returned to the pool to win the 100 yard butterfly (56.88) with teammate Ryan Ross following in second (57.55) as both reached qualifying time.

   Another Ka Makani, Kaikea Nakachi, lost to Waiakea’s Ryan Rimando in the 200 IM by .11 seconds as both qualified for state.

  Despite the good showing by Ka Makani swimmers Coach Noetzel gave a lot of credit to other schools.

   “I was really impressed with both Hilo High and Waiakea,” Noetzel said. “They have fine teams in both divisions.”

   Waiakea’s Peter Chi has finished third in the state for the past two years in the 100 yard breaststroke and this past weekend Chi dominated the event by winning in 1:00.94 over teammate Ryan Rimando (1:04.14) as both made state time.

   Another Warrior, David Sumada, won the 100 yard freestyle (49.49) to also make state.

   In the final event of the day, the 400 yard freestyle relay, it was the combination of Waiakea’s Uekawa, Chi, Sumada and Ryan Kawano that swam away from their competition winning by more than 20 seconds over a talented HPA squad.

   “Our non-club swimmers did extremely well,” Sakovich said.  “Come through swims were pulled off by Dustin Soriano, Owen Cooper, Kaimi Scott, Patrick Peng and Kristen Nakamura.”

   Meet host, Coach Jon Hayashida of Hilo, felt that the Vikings did a good job in the season opener.

   “Our kids did pretty good and our relays, on both the boys and girl’s side looks strong,” Hayashida said.  “Hopefully we will qualify both relay teams for state.  We have a few kids injured and they should return to competition in a week or two and will make a difference.”

   Hayashida also had high praise for one of his freshmen, Beth Tsuha who finished second in the 50 yard freestyle (26.54) and made a state consideration time.

   “I think Beth will make state time as she is very close,” Hayashida said.  “She is a good swimmer and will help us during the season, along with Sharae Ichinose.  I’m looking forward to our next meet in Kona.”

   Coming up this Saturday is an all league meet at the Kona Community Aquatic Center starting at 10 a.m., hosted by Steve Borowski and his Kealakehe Wave Rider team. 

   “We’re really looking forward to this upcoming meet as we should have our full squad back and ready to go,” Borowski said.

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