Peter Chi was not with his teammates when the University of Hawaii won the Conference USA swimming championship a year ago. His heart was willing, but his body not yet able. That Chi’s heart was even beating was something of a miracle.

A little more than a year ago, the sophomore from Hilo went into cardiac arrest while sitting with friends on Kapahulu Avenue after a practice. All he remembers is parking his car to go get shave ice and waking up "two or three days later" with sister Sharon and father Robert in his hospital room at Straub.

"My friend told me I ate half the shave ice in one bite," Chi said. "Then I keeled over."

He was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome — an extra electrical pathway in the heart. It is present at birth and leads to periods of very fast heartbeat, usually first occurring in the teens or early 20s.

Chi spent about two weeks at the hospital and, within two months, underwent two ablations — a catheter-based procedure that should permanently correct his heart rhythm problems. He is with the Rainbows this week at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships, about to jump in a pool at Monterey Park, Calif.

It has been a memorable year, maybe more so for his emotional health than anything physical.

Chi felt fine walking out of the hospital, if a bit dazed. He was initially cleared for light exercise. After the second ablation, he could work out again. By April he was back in the pool.

It was his longest break from swimming since he started doing it competitively at age 10.

"I was really confused," Chi admitted. "The first time I jumped in the water, I thought, ‘What is this?’ I hadn’t been in the water in so long I didn’t know what I was doing.

"After the summer I felt decent. I could swim perfectly fine at first, but I felt awkward. When you leave the water, even for five days, you lose the feeling. My feeling for the water was completely off."

When it returned, Chi focused on his endurance, which had also flatlined initially. Understandably, he was afraid to move too fast.

"At that point you don’t want to push because … geez you just had cardiac arrest," said Chi, who is planning to follow his sister to med school. "The other part was, I got tired easy. The first time I was back in the pool I did a straight 50-meter swim and I was so tired. It was like I was learning to swim all over again. I’m sure it looked pretty terrible. Before I was cranking out workouts like nothing and after I could barely warm up."

UH coach Victor Wales hesitated to ask for more as Chi struggled, but eventually told him it was time to move forward. "I just decided if he wanted to achieve his goals in swimming he’s got to get over this," Wales said. "I pushed him a little harder and a little harder and one day he pushed himself."

In November, Chi returned to the Arena Invitational, a year after the scare of his life. He had personal bests in every event.

"Comeback of the year, right?" Chi asked with a laugh.

That doesn’t even begin to cover it. This week, Wales hopes to get a few points from his miracle man. Maybe it will be enough to boost the Rainbows to another conference championship, in their MPSF debut. The nine-team field, in what is one of two men’s swimming conferences west of the Rockies (the other is the Pac-12), includes two more "defending" champions in UNLV (Mountain West) and Cal State Bakersfield (MPSF).

"Peter has worked real hard this year and I think he can score some points for us," Wales said. "He’s an extremely intelligent student-athlete and a great kid. He was going to be a big surprises for us last year and this year has been one of those learning experiences for both of us. He’s done a great job. I’m just super excited he can swim and he’s alive and thriving."

For his part, Chi has learned a lot about "second shots at life" and the experience has only confirmed his desire to become a doctor.

"What I heard about everybody involved in aiding and helping me, they all basically did the most perfect job that could be done," he said. "There was something about the time I was received at the hospital … I probably should not be as well as I am today. The people in ICU did a great job, my doctor did a great job, they all did it perfectly because I was basically perfectly fine. Maybe even better. It was textbook."

Spoken like a student-athlete, and a survivor.