The Pac-Five girls swimming team won its first ILH championship, and the Kamehameha boys kept on cruising with a repeat as league champs Saturday at Punahou.
The Wolfpack finished second at states last year, and would like to do one better this time around. The core of the team spent the summer swimming together and a lot of their dry time talking about missed opportunities. Coach Drew Saramillo says this team hit the water focused from the first day of practice, and his kids agree.
"We’ve been looking forward to the ILH season for a while," Pac-Five swimmer Rebecca Walton said. "We have been training really hard and we have a strong team, so I thought we were going to win."
Walton, a sophomore, helped her team pick up 12 points with a good second leg in the 400-yard freestyle relay to set up a strong anchor leg by Summer Harrison that made the difference and helped Pac-Five beat ‘Iolani by a little more than a second. Pac-Five also won the 200 medley relay and got individual golds from Lena Hayakawa (200 free and 100 breast), Taylor Peralta (100 back) and Harrison (100 free). The Wolfpack didn’t break any records, but they did break through.
"Winning’s not easy," Harrison said. "All of the other teams are super strong, but we got close last year, and that definitely motivates us."
Pac-Five scored 83 points and Punahou finished second with 71. ‘Iolani was third with 57. The Buffanblu, who won every girls title from 2005 until losing to ‘Iolani last year, have now gone two years without being ILH champs. But they can still boast of having the best female swimmer in the pool.
Punahou’s Jasmine Mau broke the ILH record in the 200-yard medley, skimming through the water in 2 minutes, 3.46 seconds. Mau swam a 2:20.92 in the prelims to best Kathy Shipman’s mark of 2:08.40 in 1978. Mau also won the 100-yard butterfly in 54.28 seconds, better than her ILH record of 55.58 seconds in the event last year. If she can match both performances at the state championships Feb. 15 and 16 at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex, she will break both of those records as well.
The Kamehameha boys relay team of Ryan Stack, Kale Ai, Kaikena Naone and Sean Terada broke the ILH record in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:11.06. ‘Iolani had held the record since 2002. Stack and Naone were also in on Kamehameha’s record in the 200 free relay. Stack and Naone joined with Patrick Delos Santos and Kanoa Kalealoha to post a time of 1:26.01, just a few ticks better than ‘Iolani’s 1:26.76 in 2003.
Stack took the record in the 100 free, besting the 46.73 by Kamehameha’s Davis Kane in 2006 with a 46.62 in the prelims. It was one of many dominating performances for the defending state champions, with Stack winning in the 100 backstroke and Ai taking the 500 free.
Kamehameha scored 83 points to Punahou’s 74 and Pac-Five finished third with 34.
