Four KS Maui swimmers qualified for Hawaii High School Athletic Association state finals yesterday, Feb. 10, at the Kihei Aquatic Center.
Sophomore Mika Kane, seniors Palani Hassett and Keala Kama, and freshman Spencer Shiraishi qualified in the Boys 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:48.24, a little over six seconds off the leader, Mililani High School.
Shiraishi remained humble even with their triumph. “It was fun. And tomorrow I get to come and actually do something,” He said.
Kane also qualified for the boys 100-yard backstroke coming in at 56.55 seconds, about five and a half seconds behind Island Pacific Academy’s Austin Herstein. Kane said that he hopes to score points for his team tomorrow by placing in the top five.
“I felt like I did all right. I was upset that I touched the wall though. I know I would have gone faster if it wasn’t for that,” he said.
Coach Leighton Hao was proud of the team overall. In a talk after the meet, Coach Hao them that they had done a good job. They met their goal times and did even better than expected. The seniors especially had beautiful swims that were, in fact, their best swims of the season, he said.
“They worked hard and peaked where they were supposed to. They really pushed themselves towards improvement this season. Their progression has been obvious between their first meet and now. Their times have dropped by entire seconds. They’ve also become really close as a team,” Coach Hao said.
He said that the strategy for tomorrow’s meet is to do their best, use the skills they’ve been taught and “just leave it all in the pool.”
The HHSAA state finals will be held tomorrow at Kihei Aquatic Center at 1:00 PM. Kamehameha Maui teams will be racing in events 4 and 20 of 24 events.
The top eight finishers in each of Friday’s races qualified for Saturday’s finals. Ninth and tenth places received consideration times and will race if a qualified swimmer or team does not.
The events and their scoring were as follows for KSM swimmers
(for relays: swimmer, total time, individual leg time[s]):
Girls 200-Yard Medley Relay: 13th place
1) Mia Czerwinski 32.10
2) Sarina Kong 1:03.82 (31.72)
3) Kela Killam 1:34.50 (30.68)
4) Riley Shiraishi 2:01.20 (26.70)
Boys 200-Yard Medley Relay: 8th place (qualified)
1) Mika Kane 26.54
2) Palani Hassett 56.31 (29.77)
3) Keala Kama 1:23.19 (26.88)
4) Spencer Shiraishi 1:46.24 (23.05)
Boys 100-Yard Freestyle: 18th place
Mika Kane 53.90
Boys 500-Yard Freestyle:
Keala Kama 5:11.29
Girls-200 Yard Freestyle Relay: 14th place
1) Riley Shiraishi 27.14
2) Sarina Kong 53.45 (26.31)
3) Kela Killam 1:22.97 (29.52)
4) Mia Czerwinski 1:49.51 (26.54)
Boys 200-Yard Freestyle Relay: 9th place (consideration)
1) Mann, Makai 23.94
2) Hassett, Palani 47.08 (23.14)
3) Kama, Keala 1:11.14 (24.06)
4) Shiraishi, Spencer 1:34.15 (23.01)
Boys 100-Yard Backstroke; 7th place (qualified)
Mika Kane 56.53
Girls 100-Yard Breaststroke: 11th place
Sarina Kong 1:10.83
Girls 400-Yard Freestyle Relay: 16th place
1) Mia Czerwinski 28.63 1:00.17 (1:00.17)
2) Janessa Cordeiro 1:30.65 (30.48) 2:05.52 (1:05.35)
3) Sarina Kong 2:36.49 (30.97) 3:11.08 (1:05.56)
4) Leimana Hassett 3:42.34 (31.26) 4:19.38 (1:08.30)
Boys 400-Yard Freestyle Relay: disqualified due to early take-off swimmer #4
1) Keala Kama 25.46 53.58 (53.58)
2) Christian Fernandez 1:20.64 (27.06) 1:51.12 (57.54)
3) Palani Hassett 2:15.52 (24.40) 2:43.96 (52.84)
4) Makai Mann 3:08.28 (24.32) DQ (52.77)
