Now is the time of year when swimmers switch competitive focus from the club season to high school meets.
Masau Lee and X Rose won’t have that chance – they’re to young – so they made sure to finish with a bang at the Hawaii age group short course swimming championships.
Simply put, Lee, 10, couldn’t have fared better at the meet earlier this month on Oahu, claiming seven gold medals for Hilo Aquatic Club to win his age group (9-10).
“He’s a racer,” club coach Jon Hayashida said. “His job was to stay close and push through.”
Entering as the top seed in two events, Lee was one of three swimmers at the championships to prevail each time he touched the water (seven is the maximum allowed events), winning three freestyle events along with two breaststroke races and two individual medleys.
Hayashida called Lee a “breaststroker and his best events are the (IMs).”
“He’s a natural swimmer and natural competitor,” Hayashida said. “Those two aspects make him very complete.”
Swimming for the Kona Dolphins, the 11-year old Rose grabbed five golds (two breaststrokes, two IMs and a free) and a silver, tying for third in points in the 11-12 division.
The high schoolers represented the Big Island as well:
• Hawaii Prep’s Maile Lawson claimed four golds (two breaststroke events, two IMs) along with relay silver for the Dolphins.
• For Academy Swim Club, HPA’s Brock Imonen won the 500 freestyle, along with a silver and two bronzes.
• Kealakehe’s Ku’ulei Patterson was the high point-scorer in the 15-18 girls division, earning two silvers and a bronze and helping Kona Aquatics finish second-highest among Big Island clubs in eighth.
Academy was seventh.
• Waiakea’s Mina Poppas won the 200 free and was third in two other freestyle events for Warrior Aquatic Club.bronze
• Korrie Tengen also swims for Warrior Aquatic Club and attends Waiakea, and the 15-year-old came through with a positive effort as well, taking home two silvers and a bronze to finish third in the girls 15-18 division.
Those are the kind of results Waiakea coach Bill Sakovich hopesTengen can duplicate when the BIIF season resumes Saturday at Kamehameha.
“She can do it if she just puts it in her mind that she can do it,” Sakovich said of Tengen. “For our girls team, I will be counting on (Mina and Korrie).
Also winning gold from the Big Island were Kai Hayashida and Kanoa Birdsall in boys 13-14, a division in which Kona Aquatics’s Duke Becker finished second in points-wise.
Birdsall of Academy Swim Club won the 1,650 freestyle and was second in the 100 and 500.
Hayashida captured the 200 butterfly, an event his father/coach won back in the day.
“His butterfly has turned out really well,” Jon Hayashida said. “It’s nice to see his times are pretty close to how mine were.”
