STATE SWIMMING
Punahou’s boys, girls dominate
Star-Bulletin staff
Punahou defended two state titles yesterday, dominating the Local Motion Swim & Dive Championships at Kihei, Maui.
Senior Rachel Cote was the lone swimmer to break a state record in the meet, but it helped her Buffanblu squad put up one of the biggest scores in the state's history.
The Punahou girls scored 93 points in the meet, the highest total since the Buffanblu scored 94 in 1992. Iolani was the runner-up with 27 points, followed by Kealakehe with 26.
Punahou's boys were just as impressive, winning their title with 73 points over Kamehameha's 33. Hawaii Prep was in third with 28 points.
It was a total team effort for Punahou, with eight girls either winning individual events or swimming on first-place relay teams. Seven Punahou boys were in on winning efforts.
Cote was the most impressive individual, breaking her own record in the 100 backstroke. She trimmed nearly a half-second off her effort from last year, moving through the water in 56.51 seconds after gliding through the event in 57.40 last year. Cote warmed up for the record-breaking effort with a 57.81 in the preliminaries this year.
Punahou junior Christel Simms came within a half-second of her own record in the 200 freestyle, winning in 1 minute, 49.72 seconds but falling short of her state mark of 1:49.25. She also won the 100 butterfly and participated in a pair of relay wins.