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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, February 24, 2002

Personal goals keep swimmers on top

Advertiser Staff

After cutting nearly two seconds off his lifetime best in the 200 freestyle on Friday, Iolani 15-year-old sophomore Mark Eckert Jr. trimmed another .61 of a second yesterday, lowering the meet record to 1:39.28.

"I took it out kind of hard on Friday," he said. "Today I was more controlled and had more coming home the last 100 and last 50 yards."

Eckert missed Jimmy Murakami's 21-year-old 500 freestyle record of 4:31.0 by a quarter-second in Friday's trials. Yesterday he demolished it by 2.4 seconds with a time of 4:28.60.

In two days, Eckert improved his lifetime best in the 500 by more than four seconds.

"Noa (Sakamoto of Punahou) was next to me and we pushed each other the whole way," Eckert said. "First I pushed him and then he pushed me. Then I sprinted as hard as I could and it all came together."

Sakamoto finished second in 4:31.57.

In the second of her two record swims, Kaiser senior Ashley Swart improved her lifetime best by 2.69 seconds in the 200-yard individual medley.

"I improved most in my backstroke, that was keeping me behind before," she said.

She was 86/100ths of a second under the record set seven years ago by Punahou's Jodi Jackson, who remains one of Hawai'i's premier athletes as an ocean swimmer.

Swart, who has signed with University of San Diego, said "because this is my senior year my goal was to break two records in every championship meet."

Daniel Toba, breaststroker on Iolani's record-setting boys medley relay, also helped set the old record, but at a different school. He was a member of the Baldwin team that set the record and won the state championship in 2000. His family moved to O'ahu last summer and he transferred to Iolani.

Although he broke a 16-year-old 100 butterfly record for the second time in two days, taking it almost a second-and-a-half lower than the 1986 mark with a time of 49.40, Iolani's Hongzhe Sun was "a little disappointed.

"My goggles came off right at the start and I couldn't judge where the wall was," he said. "I was swimming on instinct. I think I could have done a lot better." He swam 49.1 in the state age-group championships in December.

Sun, who has qualified for the 2004 Olympic Trials in the backstroke, was happier with his time in the opening leg of the 200 medley relay. It was 23.23, the best 50 backstroke split of his life.

Although he did not break his own 100 backstroke record, Sun said, "I'm happy. The team did great and that's what we're here for. We did what we came here to do."

Sarah Delara of Maui and Jonah Tyau of Kamehameha, both seniors, repeated their 2001 diving championships. It was the third in a row for Tyau, who achieved his goal of surpassing 400 points with a score of 414.15.

The next diving star may be Punahou freshman Drew Wallace, who finished second to Tyau.

Iolani coach Brian Lee will savor this championship, the Raiders' first since 1996 and second ever. "It feels good," he said. "This was a real special team. I enjoyed them and I'm really happy for them."

Waiakea's Dan Lyons had similar praise for his girls, who had finished second each of the past two years. "They set this as a goal, and performed incredibly. I'm really proud of them and happy for them."

Nelson Quan contributed to this report.