Punahou took the boys and girls team titles at the Hawaii High School state championships over the weekend. Punahou senior Jasmine Mau broke four state records and a national independent high school record over the course of a dominant weekend for the girls. Punahou’s boys won a nailbiter, taking the 400 free relay to come back from 2 points down to beat Kamehameha by 2.
Girls’ Meet
Diving was recorded as the first official event of the meet. The 1-meter event turned into a tight showdown between Castle High’s Nikki Imanaka and Mid-Pacific’s Anna Archibald. Ultimately, the senior Imanaka prevailed with a score of 453.70, seven and a half points up on junior Archibald.
Future Cal Bear Jasmine Mau made her first appearance in the opening swimming race, taking the butterfly leg for Punahou’s 200 medley relay that both won and broke a 7-year-old state record. The team of Lia Foster, Maddie Balish, Mau and Roxy Kiessling went 1:43.77 to break the record of 1:44.03 set by Punahou back in 2007.
Mau came right off that relay to win the 200 free, smashing her second record in as many events. The senior went 1:47.14 to break Christel Simms record of 1:49.25, also from 2007.
The 200 IM, won by Mau last season, went to Cara Jernigan of Kealakehe. The senior’s 2:04.80 easily beat the field. The 50 free was a bit closer, with Iolani’s Aja Grande going 23.31 to beat Kauai’s Yasmine Ware‘s 23.55.
After that, Mau returned to break two more records – the state and national independent high school record. Her 52.23 in the 100 fly broke Kathleen Hersey’s national mark for private schools as well as her own state record from a year ago.
Grande of Iolani returned to take her second title in the 100 free. The 50 free champ went 51.13 to dominate her second sprint event.
The first non-senior to win a state championship was Rebecca Walton in the 500 free. The Mid-Pacific junior snuck under 5:00, going 4:59.68 for the title. Walton came right off that event to help her team win the 200 free relay. She swam third, taking over after Lena Hayakawa and Maia Petrides and passing a lead off to Summer Harrison for the relay that went 1:37.50.
Punahou freshman Lia Foster won a tight backstroke battle. She out-touched Kauai junior Yasmine Ware by .03, going 57.20 to take home the state championship.
One more state record dropped in the final individual event, with Kealakehe senior Cara Jernigan coming off her 200 IM win to take the 100 breast in 1:02.41. That broke her own prelims record by .7.
Finally, Punahou capped off its state title run with a state record in the 400 free relay. Mau led the team off, followed by Kelly Fricke, Katie Woo and Lia Foster – the crew went 3:30.33, the fastest time in state history by an incredible three seconds.
Top 5 Teams
1 Punahou 65
2 Mid-Pacific Institute 45
3 Iolani School 31
4 Kealakehe Swimming 25
5 Kaiser High School 17
Boys’ Meet
Diving went to Saint Louis senior Joey Sisler in a major blowout. Sisler’s 451.00 was 76 points ahead of the next closest competitor.
Kamehameha opened the swimming portion up with a narrow touchout win over Baldwin in the 200 medley. Kamehameha’s team featured Ryan Stack, Colin-James Fellezs, Kanoa Kaleoaloha and David Kea, Jr, who combined to go 1:37.37, just .06 up on their Baldwin rivals.
Following Mau’s lead, Stack came off that relay to win the 200 freestyle. The senior went 1:38.22, enough to win easily, but just off his state record mark from the prelims (1:37.83).
Baldwin’s Jonah Hu, the butterflyer on that opening relay, went 1:53.51 to win the 200 IM, topping the field by 3 seconds.
The 50 free state record nearly fell, surviving by just a tenth of a second – Maui Prep senior Sky Hirsch put up a 20.57, just missing Daniel Coakley‘s 2007 record of 20.46. Second place was Kamehameha’s Kanoa Kaleoaloha in 20.64.
Mililani senior Kevin Fritfeldt took home the 100 fly, which was its own tight race. His 48.99 beat Makoa Alvarez (of Campbell) by just over a tenth.
As with the girls, every winner up to this point had been a senior. Kaleoaloha finally ended that trend in the 100 free, going 45.65 to beat Punahou senior Noah Deer.
Ryan Stack won his third state title of the day in the 500 free. The senior went 4:30.96 to blow away the field, getting within two seconds of the 12-year-old state record.
Punahou ran away with the 200 free relay. Sam Sutherland, TJ Dawson, Jed Johnson and Zack Woo put up a 1:26.10 that crushed the field by about two seconds to help the team, locked in a tight points battle with Kamehameha, maintain momentum.
Campbell’s Makoa Alvarez, who took a close second in the 100 free, broke through with a 100 back win. His 49.79 tied a state record, set 10 years ago by Mark Eckert.
200 IM winner Jonah Hu came back to win the 100 breast for Baldwin, sneaking under the state record of 55.91 set last season. Hu went 55.72 to pick up the big win.
With one event to go, Kamehameha led the team scores by 2 points over Punahou, and still had one more event from star Ryan Stack. He led off the 400 free relay, but Kamehameha was unable to overcome Punahou’s depth as Noah Deer, Zack Woo, TJ Dawson and Sam Sutherland won Punahou’s second relay of the day, going 3:06.86 to top Kamehameha by two seconds. That win gave Punahou just enough points to get past Kamehameha and win the state team title by 2 points.
Top 5 Teams
1 Punahou 49
2 Kamehameha Schools Kapalama 47
3 Baldwin High 31
4 Lejardin Academy 17
5 Hilo High School 16
It’s great to see an article about our Hawaii swimmers on SwimSwam.com! There’s a lot of swimming talent hiding away on our little islands. Congrats to Punahou!