Iolani swimmer quietly making name for self
By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer
Mark Eckert Jr. is the "other" really good swimmer on the Iolani School boys team.
Eckert, a 15-year-old sophomore, doesn't get the attention of 16-year-old junior Hongzhe Sun, who won U.S. Open championships in two events in November and has qualified for the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials.
"Mark is always in Hongzhe's shadow, but he has already qualified for the Senior Nationals in two events. As a 15-year-old, he's very young for a boy to be at that level," says Brian Lee, who coaches Eckert and Sun on the high school team and with Iolani Swim Club the rest of the year.
Sun, Eckert and a handful of other athletes will try to lead Iolani past 39-time champion Punahou and win the second state championship in school history this weekend at Kailua-Kona on the Big Island.
"It's a real nice situation, that's a lot of talent," Lee said.
So much talent that Eckert will defer to U.S. Open backstroke champion Sun and pass that event — also one of Eckert's best — so that Iolani can get first-place points in another event instead of 1-2 in the backstroke.
"It's better for the team," Eckert said.
Instead of the backstroke, in which Eckert won two national age-group (13-14 years) championships last year, he will swim the 200- and 500-yard freestyle races this weekend.
Not that he's a slouch in those. Eckert set a meet record of 1 minute, 41.79 seconds in the 200 at the private-school Interscholastic League of Honolulu championships Feb. 9 and set a meet record of 4:32.89 in the 500 at the Kalani Invitational last month. Both are high-school state best times this season.
"It makes more sense to spread them out at states," Lee reasoned.
Eckert moved to Honolulu from Okinawa, where he learned to swim, with his military family in 1995. His father is an Air Force master sergeant.
He started to earn recognition in swimming before his 10th birthday, placing high in national meets in backstroke, butterfly and freestyle events. Last year, before he turned 15 on July 24, he set six state records in the 13-14 age group. After his birthday he set two more in the 15-16 age group.
Like Sun, Eckert lives a few blocks from Iolani. But it's almost as close to Waikiki and Ala Moana, and when he has a break from competitive swimming, Eckert says, "you probably will find me (and his surf board) at the beach."
"I need the fix," he said. "In swimming, you worry about your technique, strategy, how fast you are going and pacing. When you're surfing, you don't have to think. You just relax and enjoy it.
"Basically, swimming and surfing is my life."
Well, not quite.
He's also found time to earn a 3.5 grade-point average last fall, taking honors courses in algebra, chemistry and Spanish. Last year, he also found time to act the role of Captain Orton in the Iolani spring musical, "The King and I."
And, he says, he has free time, which he spends "hanging out" with six fellow Iolani swimmers. "We call each other The Brothers. We eat lunch together and hang out on weekends," Eckert said.
Saturday, Eckert and "The Brothers" — Sun, Kimo Yamashiro, Joshua Anaya, Daniel Toba, Damen Jones and Ian Kusao — as well as the rest of the Iolani swim team, hope to be hanging out around the winners' podium at the state championship meet.
