Eric Rhodes hasn’t been Kealakehe’s swimming head coach for all that long, but he already knows to stay out of the deep end of BIIF pools.
When going up against powerhouse Hawaii Prep of late, it’s been better to focus on individual races than chase team titles. Ka Makani are widely expected to sweep the BIIF boys and girls championships for the third consecutive year on Saturday at Kona Community Aquatic Center, but try as the might, they aren’t likely win all the gold.
HPA’s resistance will come from swimmers such as Kealakehe’s Joshua Bandt, Weylin Foo and Silas Wiley, Waiakea’s Mina Poppas, Kelee Shimizu, Noah Kimura and Daniel Kimura, and Hilo’s Shea Tsuha.
Taking over the Waveriders’ program from the incomparable Steve Borowski, for now Rhodes is just happy to have four premium swimmers who have qualified for the HHSAA championships. Bandt is a senior freestyle sprinter looking to add to the individual gold and silver he won last season, while Foo and Wiley are freshmen who represent the freshman foundation.
“It’s always been more about quality more than quantity,” Rhodes said. “We would like to see Josh go out with a really good 50 and 100.
“My goal, not this year, but when Silas and Weylin are seniors, that’s when we’d like to have a big group of kids” like HPA.
Foo enters as a contender in the 100-yard breaststroke and 100 butterfly, while Wiley is a medal threat in the 100 backstroke and 200 individual medley.
Rhodes says both are actually better at the longer races that are featured when they swim for Kona Aquatics at the age-group club championships.
“What’s fun about that is that they are last in BIIF races at the first 50, but then they catch up to everyone in a second,” Rhodes said.
He’s also high on the progression of sophomore Ku’ulei Patterson, who won silver (breaststroke) and bronze (200 IM) last season at BIIFs in races which were both won HPA’s Maile Lawson, now a also sophomore.
“She can swim everything,” Rhodes said. “She’s one of those kids that keeps getting better and better. Her goal is to break all of our school records.”
Shimizu busted on to the scene as a freshman in 2014 by winning 200 and 500 freestyle gold, and her greatest success since then came with two silvers in 2015 and three relay medals last year.
The senior’s best event this time could come in the butterfly.
“She always liked the butterfly,” Waiakea coach Bill Sakovich said. “A couple of year ago she was a distance swimmer, but now she tells me she’s sprinter. We’ll see how it works out.”
Poppas is a distance specialist who swims for Justin Pierce with Warrior Aquatic Club. She took silver last season in the 200 and 500, and the sophomore would love to replicate the time of 5 minutes, 9.61 seconds that was good enough to finish fifth in the 500 at the HHSAA championships.
Waiakea’s boys are the last non-Hawaii Prep team to win a BIIF title back in 2014, and their hopes are led by Daniel Kimura and Noah Kimura, who Sakovich said both will compete in the 200 IM. Noah Kimura took bronze in the event at BIIFs last season, while Daniel Kimura will try to improve upon the silver he won last year in the butterfly.
Hilo coach Jon Hayashida said Tsuha could contend in as many as four individual events, but they’ll have to whittle her program down to two ahead of Friday’s trials for the swimming and diving championships.
“She’s coming off a great 100, but that hadn’t been on our radar,” Hayashida said. “One of her best events is the butterfly, but those two are back-to-back, so we’ll have to pick one.”
Other options for Tsuha are the 50 – she won silver last year as well as bronze in the 100 – and the breaststroke.
Whatever events the sophomore chooses, it’s good bet that she’ll be going up against a standout from HPA.
Ka Makani girls won all 11 races last season, including the three relays. In addition to Lawson, Frida Berglund (200, 500), and Kira Parker (100 free, backstroke) also return as double champions, as well as Frederik Moller (100 free, backstroke) on the boys side.
Tereza Kanalosova, an exchange from the Czech Republic, is also a double gold threat, and don’t forget about Taylor Doherty. The senior enters the meet with 11 career medals, one off the maximum, eight of them gold.
HPA usually asserts its dominance in the relays, and this year they could chase history by becoming league record-holders in all three events. Doherty, Kanalosova, Karly Noetzel and Parker set the mark in the 400 freestyle relay Jan. 14, and Noetzel, Parker, Doherty and Berglund hold the mark in the 200 freestyle, recording it in 2016.
Next up is the longstanding time of 1:45.95 in the 200 IM relay, which Jessica Bartolome, Cassie Ka’apu-Lyons, Nicole Okuna and Tamarah Binek reached in 2002 in leading Waiakea to a state championship. That time stood as a state mark for a number of years, according to then-Warriors coach Dan Lyons.
“It’s attainable, and it’s an excellent goal for the crew to rise up to,” HPA coach Marl Noetzel said. “It would be an honor to battle that record.”