Madison Hauanio is having a standout junior season as part of the Cal State East Bay swim team. The Kailua-Kona native is coming off a pair dominating early performances and a national swimmer of the week honor.
Hauranio most recently competed at the Bay Area Invitational on Oct. 24 in Oakland, California. The Pioneers dominated their competition with 762.5 points. The College of Idaho finished a distant second at 497.5.
“We have a bigger team this year with a lot of new people and it is exciting,” Hauranio said. “We did not taper off our workouts heading into the Bay Area Invitational because the coach wanted to see how we raced when we were sore and we did really well, especially in the relays.”
Hauanio could not be defeated in the five team Bay Area Invitational, picking up wins in the 100-yard backstroke, 200 backstroke, 100 butterfly and 50 butterfly. She captured the 100 backstroke in 58.72 and the 200 backstroke in 2:05.50. Hauanio won the 100 butterfly with a time of 58.64, and she out-touched teammate Alyssa Littlefield in the 50 freestyle by six-tenths of a second with a winning time of 24.12.
In all four of Hauanio’s wins, the Pioneers boasted the second-place finisher as well. Hauanio also helped East Bay capture first place in the 400 medley relay (4:00.09) and the 200 freestyle relay (1:39.62).
Based on her performance in the Bay Area Invitational, Hauanio was honored by CollegeSwimming.com as its Female Division II National Swimmer of the Week for Oct. 19-25.
“I was surprised by the honor because I didn’t even know they did that award,” she said. “I knew I had been swimming well, but I did not realized I was at that level.”
Through two meets this season, Hauanio has won every race she has entered — 10 in total. Hauanio swept individual wins wins in the 200 butterfly and 200 backstroke, as well as the 400 freestyle and 400 medley relay races in the first meet of the season at Mills College on Oct. 9.
Hauanio has honed her craft with a mixture of swim time in the pool and on the open water. She recently competed back home on the Big Island in the Kings Swim, Greg Cameron Fireman’s Fund Biathlon, Alii Challenge and Richardson Swim. Hauanio also competed in the Alcatraz Swim, where she was the first female out of the water, followed by several of her teammates.
“I did a lot more ocean swims this summer and they really helped me,” Hauanio said. “However, both are very different. Ocean swimming involves a lot more strategy. You can draft and you really have to pace yourself.”
Hauanio graduated from Kealakehe in 2013, where she was a 4-year member of the swim team. She was part of the 2009-10 squad that went on to win the school’s only state championship. That same year, Hauanio also won the 200 individual medley and the 200 medley relay titles. She finished her high school career as the Kealakehe record holder in the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, and 200 medley.
As a freshman in college, Hauanio made an immediate impact with the Pioneers. She earned All-America Relay honors after competing in the NCAA Division II national championship finals, and earned individual All-Ameirca Honorable Mention honors after finishing 12th in the 100 freestyle.
In her sophomore season, Hauanio participated in the first seven meets of the season and set the 200 backstroke school record of 2:03.30 during the regular season.
While Hauanio has dominated this year, she could not do it without her teammates, which includes fellow Big Island swimmer and Waiakea grad Rachel Shimizu. Shimizu, a senior, has also left her mark at East Bay by breaking a 34-year school record in the 1,650 freestyle race during her junior season. She is also an NCAA Scholar All-American Honorable Mention.
At the East Bay Invitational, Shimizu finished first in the 1,650 and 500 freestyle, and was on the winning relay team in the 800 freestyle. In the opening meet of the season, Shimizu won the 500 and 1,000 freestyle.
“Rachel had a big part in me coming to East Bay,” Hauanio said. “My coach helped her get into here and that is how I found out about it.”
The East Bay team will now prepare to battle the cold way up north as the Pioneers travel to Fairbanks, Alaska for a two-day dual meet starting Nov. 13.
“This is my first trip to Fairbanks and I am excited to see how cold it gets,” Hauanio said. “Right now the main focus is to win our dual meets. We want to do well in the conference and break a lot of records. We would like to send at least eight swimmers to nationals.”