Posted on: Tuesday, July 30, 2002

Three teens qualify for nationals

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

Three teen-aged swimmers from Hawai'i qualified for USA Swimming's Summer Nationals in five events during the past week at the Northwest Section Championships in Phoenix.

But only one is going to the championship meet at Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Aug. 12-17.

Recent Kaiser High graduate Ashley Swart, 17, and Punahou School student Noa Sakamoto, 16, each qualified in two events — the first time they have qualified for the Senior Nationals. Iolani's Hongzhe Sun, 16, qualified in one; he also qualified last year.

Sun is going to the nationals, as are Iolani's Mark Eckert Jr., who turned 16 last week, and Caleb Rowe, 19, of Maui and University of California-Berkeley.

University of Hawai'i diver Jonathan Coyle, 21, of Texas also will compete in Florida.

Rowe and Eckert did not swim at Phoenix and Sun "worked through" the sectionals; that is, he did not taper his workouts to be in top racing form.

Swart, who won two ocean races in the North Shore Series earlier this summer, is skipping the national meet to relax before she leaves Aug. 28 to enroll at University of San Diego.

Sakamoto said he probably would enter next year's Spring Nationals. The qualifying times stand for one year.

Sakamoto will be a junior at Punahou but swims for Kamehameha Swim Club in the summer. He swam personal best times in four events, placing third in the 200-, 400- and 800-meter freestyle races and fourth in the 200 butterfly. His 4:00.76 in the 400 and 8:22.27 in the 800 qualified for the next two national championship meets.

"That's probably the best meet I've ever had," Sakamoto said. "It's a nice feeling to be able to swim fast as well as have a lot of fun."

Swart, also swimming for Kamehameha Swim Club, finished second in the 200 individual medley and 400 freestyle and third in the 200 breaststroke, all in career-best times. Her medley time of 2:21.32 and her breaststroke of 2:38.09 qualified for nationals.

"I think this was my best meet," she said.

Sun, swimming for Iolani Swim Club, qualified Friday in the 100 butterfly in 55.99. He had previously qualified in the backstroke.

The five-day meet included athletes from about 10 western states, except California.