Posted on: Sunday, August 5, 2001
Swimming
Iolani's Sun off to Nationals
Advertiser Staff
There are two big events coming up in the life of Iolani School junior-to-be Hongzhe Sun of McCully.
On Aug. 15 he will mark his 16th birthday and be eligible for a Hawai'i driver's license. He prepared for that by taking driver's education this summer at Iolani.
But he won't be able to take his driving test Aug. 15 because it is the same day Sun will swim in the USA Swimming Senior National Championships for the first time.
He sharpened up for that last week by setting a meet record and qualifying for the nationals in two events at the Northwest Senior Long Course Championships in Gresham, Ore.
Sun swam personal best times in winning the 100-yard backstroke in 57.95 seconds (a Northwest Sectional meet record) and also winning the 200 in 2:04.25. He improved his personal best 3/10th of a second in the 100 and 1.5 seconds in the 200.
"He was phenomenal," said Brian Lee, Sun's coach at Iolani School and for the summer Iolani Swim Club. "For most of the entries, this was their final meet of the summer and they pointed for it. But he didn't taper his workouts because he is pointing for the nationals."
Sun took third place in two other events, the 200 individual medley (his better time was 2:10.58 in preliminaries) and 100 butterfly (56.81).
Those times were also personal bests for a 50-meter pool, but didn't qualify for nationals, which will be held Aug. 14-18 in Clovis, Calif.
Going to the nationals, Sun said, is a big step on the trail of his goals. "All the big guns will be there . . . the best in the country," he said. "I heard Aaron Peirsol, who won a bronze medal at the 2000 Olympics, might enter, and maybe even Lenny Krayzelburg (world record holder and 2000 Olympic champion)."
Sun's goal is to swim the 200 backstroke in 2:01, another 3 1/4-second improvement. Using conversion charts, that would equal his best short course (25-yard pool) time of 1:46.15, which ranks second among U.S. 15- to 16-year-olds this year.
"If I get lucky, maybe I could go under 2 minutes," he said. Peirsol is the only American to have broken 2 minutes at age 15. Sun would miss that by a day.
Many swimmers peak at a young age, but Sun thinks he has a lot of room for improvement. "I don't like to think I'm going to hit that down-curve any time soon," he said. "I just try to improve on a day-to-day basis and not worry about the future."
To keep on the upslope of his improvement curve, Sun swims 45,000 to 50,000 yards a week in nine workouts over six days. Sunday is a day of rest.
But next week he will start reducing his workouts, or tapering, to be at maximum energy and freshness for the nationals.
After Senior Nationals, some of his big goals are qualifying for the 2004 Olympic team and again in 2008, when the Olympics will be held in his native China. "My family back there is looking forward to that," Sun said.
He started swimming just before his fifth birthday when he was hand-picked by Chinese officials to be groomed into a world champion. But his parents moved the family to Hawai'i in 1992, when he was 7, and he has prospered under the less regimented training here, setting 45 Hawai'i age-group records and reaching the finals six times in national meets. His short course 100-backstroke time of 49.34 is ranked No. 1 in the U.S. in his age-group this year.
Six other individuals and several relay teams from Hawai'i also qualified for the finals in 22 events at the Northwest Sectional meet last week and finished in the top nine. The meet brought out the best swimmers from Washington, Alaska, Oregon, Montana and Idaho as well as Hawai'i.
Best finishes besides Sun were Punahou Aquatics' Nick Borreca, tied for second in the 50 freestyle; and Iolani's Mark Eckert, third in the 200 backstroke and 400 individual medley.
"I'm proud of our team, everyone did real well," Sun said.
The meet was held at Mt. Hood Community College near Portland. It is one of 15 regional meets of the USA Swimming/Speedo Champions Series.
Hawai'i swimmers who reached the championship races, their places and times (preliminary time is listed first if it was faster):
Hongzhe Sun (Iolani Swim Club): 1st 100 backstroke 57.95 (meet record, Senior National qualifying time); 1st 200 backstroke 2:04.25 (Senior National qualifying time); 3rd 200 individual medley 2:10.58, 2:11.05; 3rd 100 butterfly 56.81
Mark Eckert (Iolani): 3rd 200 backstroke 2:08.29; 3rd 400 individual medley 4:37.27; 6th 100 backstroke 1:00.38; 6th 200 individual medley 2:11.96.
Kim Ono (Iolani): 6th 100 backstroke 1:08.46, 1:08.56; 7th 200 backstroke 2:25.36, 2:26.76.
Iolani Swim Club boys relay teams (Hongzhe Sun, Mark Eckert, Kimo Yamashiro, Joshua Anaya): 7th 800 freestyle; 8th 400 freestyle; 9th 200 medley; 9th 400 medley.
Nicole Okuna (Hawai'i Swim Club): 5th 100 butterfly 1:04.81.
Tami Binek (Hawai'i Swim Club): 9th 50 freestyle 27.97.
Hawai'i Swim Club girls relays: 4th 200 medley; 5th 200 freestyle; 9th 400 freestyle.
Ashley Swart (O'ahu Club): 4th 200 breaststroke 2:41.50; 4th 400 individual medley 5:04.02; 4th 200 individual medley 2:25.48; 8th 100 breaststroke 1:16.59, 1:17.38.
Nick Borreca (Punahou Aquatics): tie 2nd 50 freestyle 24.28; 4th 100 freestyle 53.50; 6th 200 freestyle 1 57.43.
