Garrett, Nakachi and Chi lead BIIF Swimmers at HPA

Girls 200 relay at HPA

Garrett, Nakachi and Chi may sound like a law firm, but in the Big Island Interscholastic Federation the trio is best known for their talents in the pool.

This past weekend Hawaii Preparatory Academy played host to their own Invitational Swim meet on Friday and a regular season BIIF meet on Saturday.

Kealakehe’s Nicholas Garrett, Hawaii Prep’s Kaikea Nakachi and Waiakea’s Peter Chi each have etched their names into the BIIF record books by setting league marks in their signature events.

Last year Garrett broke a 22 year BIIF record in the 100-yard butterfly when he hit the wall at 52.02 seconds. Garrett later went on to better his mark at the HHSAA swim championships last year with a time of 51.74 seconds.

Now in his senior year Garrett continues to dominate the 100 butterfly going undefeated in BIIF competition during all four years of league competition.

“I plan on breaking my own fly record, either at Hilo this coming weekend, or in Kona,” Garrett said. “I know I can go 51.7 as I’m really excited this being my final year. I want to set the bar really high and make it a record that will be hard to beat.”

This past Friday Garrett ruled the pool as he kept his time under 53 seconds in his signature event at HPA. On Saturday Garrett was back in the pool winning the 100 freestyle in 49.84 seconds while placing second by a fraction of a second in the 200 individual medley to a talented Logan Borowski from HPA.

“I like mixing up my events because it’s good for training and it makes me a stronger, faster swimmer,” Garrett said. “Besides it’s fun to do all of these different events.”

Nakachi, a junior Ka Makani, set his BIIF record on Jan. 9 in the backstroke (53.87) and on Saturday, in the confines of his home pool, continued his winning ways when he once again finished first in that event.

Nakachi was also instrumental in helping Ka Makani relay squads to victories in the 200 medley where they set a new school record and in the 200 free where they established a new BIIF record.

Waiakea’s relay team had only a week earlier established the BIIF record in the 200 free relay to see it surpassed by a powerful Ka Makani squad in a time of 1:30.62 this past Friday with the Warriors clocking in at 1:30.97.

Waiakea’s Peter Chi is a master of the 100-yard breaststroke setting the new BIIF record of 59.84 seconds in Kona on Jan 9, then dominating the event this past weekend in Waimea.

Chi failed to break the 1 minute barrier on Friday, but continued to be optimistic about improving in his event.

“I still need to work on my technique in the 100 breast,” Chi said. “I’m always going to have some sort of competition and I need to keep improving.”

Chi has gone undefeated for the past two seasons in BIIF competition, but he believes that if he doesn’t continue to hone his skills his stiffest competitor, HPA’s Logan Borowski, could surpass him.

“Logan Is rapidly improving and if I’m not careful he could beat me during a BIIF meet,” Chi said.

In Saturdays meet Chi swam the 200 Medley relay, the 200 free relay, and the 50 and 100 freestyle events.

“I could only swim in four total events and I wanted to switch things up a bit and see if I could qualify for states in a variety of events,” Chi said. “I qualified for states on Saturday in the 100 and had previous qualified in the 50.”

Chi could be correct about Logan Borowski getting close to him in the 100 breast as the HPA junior finished the age group season with a time two tenths of a second slower that Chi.

: Logan Borowski

“I swim all the strokes the same and I don’t really have a weak event,” Borowski said. “My best event is probably the 50 free as I went 22.20 seconds on Friday. It wasn’t my best time, but I’m okay with it at this point in the season.”

On Saturday Borowski edged out Garrett by one hundredth of a second in the 200 IM to display his multitalented swim stroke skills in the pool.

“I won the BIIF championships in the 200 IM my freshman year,” Borowski said. “But last year I had to sit out and wasn’t allowed to compete at the high school level due to the transfer rule as I switched schools.”

For the girls Waiakea’s Rachel Shimizu, just a sophomore, is making a name for herself in the freestyle events, winning the 200 and 500 in convincing fashion on Friday.

“My favorite event is the 500 free because it’s a long race and if I make a mistake early on I have time to make it up,” Shimizu said. “My goal is to try and get under 5:10 (Shimizu swam 5:18.40 on Friday).

On Saturday Shimizu was back in the pool winning the 200 individual medley and finishing second in the 100 breast.

“My coach (Bill Sakovich) wants me to try different races and I’m okay with doing that,” she said.

Shimizu also leads a solid Waiakea relay team, made up of three freshmen, which have already qualified with a state time.

“It kind of makes me feel old (being the oldest on the relay team) but it’s all about having fun and doing well as a team and today we did very well,” Shimizu said.

Kealakehe’s Alyssa Foo continues to make big waves in her premiere event, the 200 individual medley. A master of various swim strokes Foo is a natural in the IM where she needs to go 50 yards with the fly, followed by 50 yards in the back, then 50 yards in the breast and ending with a 50 yard sprint finish with the free.

Last year Foo won the BIIF title in the 200 IM and placed second during the state championships. The Waverider senior continues to dominate the event going undefeated the past two seasons in BIIF competition and is considered to be a contender for a state title.

“I didn’t swim the IM this weekend because my coach (Steve Borowski) wanted me to work on my slower events,” Foo said. “I think my strengths are in the butterfly and backstrokes and this weekend I added the free and breast.”

Despite not swimming in the 200 IM Foo still won the 100 back on Friday and the 100 fly and 500 free on Saturday.

“My times weren’t that good, but I did okay,” she said of her 100 back and 100 breast events. “I like doing all the strokes and I like the variety.”

“I think I’ll be doing the 200 IM on Saturday when we swim at Kamehameha,” Foo said.

The BIIF swim season continues on Saturday with an all-schools meet at Nae’ole Swimming Pool on the campus of Kamehameha Schools-Hawaii.

For more results on the HPA swim meet go to: https://waynejoseph.wordpress.com/2010/01/17/biif-swimming-results-from-hpa/