[ HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS ]
For just the third time since Hawaii has run state championships in swimming and diving, Punahou is coming home without a title. Records fall as Iolani,
Waiakea win titlesStar-Bulletin staff
The Buffanblu have won at least the girls or boys title every year except 1996 and '98, and taken both titles 38 times since they started competing in 1958. Add 2002 to the list of upset years after Punahou finished second in both competitions at the Local Motion State Swimming and Diving Championships at the Kailua-Kona Aquatic Complex yesterday.
Waiakea's girls won their first state championship -- and the first by a neighblor island school -- by winning the last two events to nip Punahou 59-54 while the Iolani boys blew out the Buffanblu 91-52 to take their first title since 1996.
Punahou had run up a 46-41 lead with two races to go, but Waiakea took the lead 47-46 in the 100 breast stroke when Cassie Kaapu-Lyons won the event and the Buffanblu did not score a point.
The Warriors clinched it in the 400 yard freestyle relay when Tamarah Binek, Marlene Yafuso, Whitney Nekoba and Nicole Okuna beat Punahou to the line by just over a second. Both were record times.
And Waiakea was not only the fastest team of the day, it was the fastest in history. Nicole Okuna and Tamarah Binek anchored the Warriors to a state record time of 1:48.18 while Punahou finished third behind Iolani. The previous record was 1:49.51 set by Punahou in 1983.
Before helping the Warriors win their relays, Binek won two individual races. She started off by winning the 50-yard freestyle, then beat Punahou's Kristin Simunovich in the 100-yard freestyle.
The year of 1983 took a big hit yesterday, as Kaiser's Ashley Swart kicked Diane Williams' 19-year-old record in the 500-yard freestyle out of the books. Swart swam the distance in 4:56.76 to win the race by more than nine seconds and nip Williams' time of 4:57.33 for Hawaii School for Girls.
Swart also won the 200-yard individual medley and started off fifth-place finishes in the 200 and 400 yard freestyle relays to score 16 of the Cougars' 17 points.
The only drama in the boys race was how many records Hong Zhe Sun and Mark Eckert would break for Iolani.
The answer was two, as Eckert broke his teammate's year-old record in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:39.28. But just as quickly as his name was erased in one event, Sun wrote his name in another category when he broke Matthew Cerizo's 1986 record for St. Anthony in the 100-yard butterfly. Sun swam the distance in 49.4 seconds while Cerizo's mark had been 50.85.
Sun and Eckert each won one other race, as Eckert took the 500-yard freestyle and Sun did the same in the 100-yard backstroke. They then teamed up to lead Iolani to wins in two relays, the 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard medley. All told, the duo accounted for 48 of the Raiders' 91 and would have put them in third place in the team standings on their efforts alone.
Nick Borreca of Punahou was the meet's only other dual winner, taking the 50-yard freestyle and helping the Buffanblu beat Iolani in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
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