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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Best BIIF Swimmers Take to the Pool

Waiakea's Peter Chi favorite event the 100 breaststroke

Looking to see some of the best of prep swimmers in the state of Hawaii?  Then grab a seat in the bleachers at the Edward H. Kawachika Swimming Pool at Hilo High School this Saturday for the Big Island Interscholastic Federation season opener.

Leading a group of top notch competitive swimmers is Kealakehe’s Nicholas Garrett who returns for his senior season.

Garrett broke the BIIF record in the 100 butterfly last season with a time of 52.75 seconds.  The previous record was set by Waiakea’s Jonathan Pauole in 1987 when he was coached by the late Ed Kawachika and stood for 22 years before Garrett etched his name into the record books.

 At the Hawaii High School Athletic Association championships a peaked Garrett took a full second off his BIIF butterfly record by clocking 51.74 while placing second in the state.

‘Rider teammate Alyssa Foo is back as she looks to defend her BIIF title in the 200 individual medley and improve upon her second place state finish from last season.  Foo also won the BIIF 100 yard butterfly event and placed fifth in the state in the 500 freestyle as she leads an extremely talented ‘Rider squad.

Kealakehe coach, Steve Borowski, believes that the low numbers on his boys and girls teams will make it difficult to challenge for team titles, but the ‘Riders are strong in high quality talent with Garrett and Foo leading the way.

 “Our boy’s team is very lean, but a new freshman, Dane Uy, is good,” Borowski said.  “Our girl’s team is also a bit lean, but not too bad as we have a freshman standout in Madison Hauanio.”

Despite the low numbers Borowski always seems to find a way to compete well.  Last season the ‘Riders brought only five girls to the HHSAA championships and still scored enough points to place them in a tie for fifth place.

Borowski predicts that Waiakea and Hawaii Preparatory Academy will again compete for the BIIF team titles.

Last season Waiakea won the BIIF girls team title while HPA took the boys.  Ka Makani boys went on to place third in the state, the highest finish by any BIIF team.

Waiakea returns Peter Chi, the BIIF champion in the 100 breaststroke, for his final season.  Chi is a confident and experienced swimmer who continues to improve on his time.  At the state championships, for the past two seasons, Chi has placed third in his signature event, and has dropped his time down to 1:00.39.

The public school Warriors also return sophomore sensation Rachel Shimizu who is dominate in the 200 and 500 freestyle events, finishing third at states in both.

“We are shooting to repeat at winning the BIIF girls team title with Rachel Shimizu and freshman Madisyn Uekawa leading the way,” Waiakea Coach Bill Sakovich said.

Uekawa, a strong age group swimmer, will add firepower to an already potent Waiakea swim squad.  “Several other girls could step up and help out and several of them are freshmen,” Sakovich said.  “If everyone does their best we should repeat.”

The Waiakea boys also look to challenge HPA for the team title with Chi leading the way in the 100 breast and David Sumada looking strong in the 200 free.

Waiakea was the leagues runner-up to HPA last year for the boys and according to Sakovich his Warrior relay teams look to be stronger and more competitive this year.

“I think our toughest fight will be with HPA in the boys and Kealakehe in the girls, but that may change over the shortened swimming season,” Sakovich said.

Defending boys team champions, HPA, looks to be dependent on several younger swimmers to step up after losing three of their relay swimmers to graduation.

Ka Makani boys swept all the relay events at the BIIF championships last year to claim the team title, but will need to fill large gaps to get past Waiakea this season.

“The only person we have returning from our state relay team is Kaikea Nakachi,” HPA coach Mark Noetzel said.  At the HHSAA last season Ka Makani boys finished third in the 200 IM and 400 freestyle and second in the 200 free.

The number of swimmers looks good for HPA as they carry 15 boys and 11 girls on their roster and are expected to be competitive.

“On the boys side of things I think we’re in position to challenge Waiakea for the team title,” Noetzel said.  “We’ve got a lot of work to do if we want to be in the fight for the BIIF title.”

Ryan Ross, Sonny Hapgood, Logan Borowski and Kyle Katase, along with Nakachi, will lead a solid Ka Makani squad in defense of their title.

On the girls side HPA returns multi talented Bridgette Walker who Noetzel will heavily depend upon.  “Bridgette is a senior that we need to lead this team as she is committed to water sports,” Noetzel said.

State age group swimmer, Bhillie Luciani, will add strength for the girls.  “Bhillie is a strong all around swimmer,” Noetzel said.  “I see the fight for the girl’s team title to be between Waiakea and Kealakehe.”