Swimming

With the OC16 State Swimming and Diving Championships coming up tomorrow, here are a few names of standouts from the recent past. Can Kamehameha’s Kanoa Kaleoaloha win his 11th gold to put him past legends like Ryan Stack, Nick Borreca and Kacy Johnson?: Most gold medals since 1998, girls 16: Christel Simms, 2006-09 Punahou 15: Michelle Yoshida, 2005-08 Punahou 13: Jasmine Mau, 2011-14 Punahou 13: Rachel Cote, 2005-08 Punahou 8: Brittany Beauchan, 2004 Kalaheo and 2005-07 Punahou 8: Kristin Simunovich, 1999-2002 Punahou 7: Summer Harrison, […]

TThe only thing holding the Punahou swimming and diving program from a national record is that there is no official national record for what it has accomplished. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been noticed. John Gillis of the National Federation of State High School Associations wrote a lengthy piece on the school’s 92 state championships. The girls have 48 state titles, 19 more than any other school in the country. The boys claim 44, second only to Louisville (Kent.) […]

Campbell’s Makoa Alvarez set two meet records at the OIA Western Diviison Swimming and Diving Championships last Saturday. Alvarez broke the mark in the 100-yard butterfly in 49.81 seconds during qualifying. The old mark was 51.32. He also set the record in the 100 backstroke in 49.79 (beating the previous record time of 53.35), also during qualifying, and he went on to win the final in both events. Alvarez also helped the Sabers to victories in two relays, the 200 […]

Punahou swimmers Maddie Balish, Lia Foster and Kelly Fricke each won two individual races at the ILH meet at Punahou on Friday. Balish, a sophomore, started her day with a win in the 200 IM, beating Pac-Five’s Kayla Ippongi by nearly 10 seconds with a time of 2:13.98. She then beat teammate Kara Machida by a second in the 100 free with the time of 55.46. She later teamed with Machida to come in second in the 400 free relay […]

Punahou sophomore Lia Foster put on a show in her school’s pool on Friday, winning two events in an ILH meet. Foster beat Mid-Pacific sensation Rebecca Walton by a wide margin in the 220 IM, clocking a time of 2:10.80 to the senior’s 2:16.00. Foster then took out another of Mid-Pacific’s fastest girls with a win over Lena Hayakawa in the 100 butterfly. Foster was credited with a time of 58.29 seconds to Hayakawa’s 58.60. Hayakawa earned a win of […]

The Campbell boys and girls swimming program has nearly tripled in size in four seasons under coach Laxmi Diaz. In the 2012 season, when she began coaching the Sabers, she was in charge of six boys and six girls swimmers. The next year, the total number was up to 24, and in 2014, it rose to 35. This year, there are 34 Sabers swimmers. “When I started teaching at Campbell, I couldn’t believe that the total number of swimmers was so low […]

Kamehameha’s Kanoa Kaleoaloha had just set his third of four meet records at the 38th annual Dorothy Aki Swimming Invitational on Saturday, when he was asked how his day was going. “Pretty good. The water was a lot warmer than yesterday,” he said. A little prompting was needed to — as the saying goes — lead this horse to, pun intended, water and get him to drink. “I ate some good food.” And? “I got a good rest and did some really […]