Punahou's Sakamoto, Iolani's Eckert two of the best in nation
Advertiser Staff
Two head-to-head races matching two of the best high school swimmers ever in Hawai'i and a girls championship battle that promises to go to the final event again will highlight the Local Motion State Swimming and Diving Championships.
One of the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association's oldest championship meets, first held in 1958, will conduct its 46th renewal today and tomorrow at Duke Kahanamoku Pool on the University of Hawai'i campus.
Swimming trials begin at 3:30 p.m. today, running until 7
o'clock or later, and the championship and consolation finals begin tomorrow at 1 p.m.
Diving will start at 9 a.m. today and 8:30 a.m. tomorrow.
Iolani looks ready to win its second straight boys championship, but the girls teams of Waiakea, Punahou and Iolani appear evenly matched. Punahou has history on its side, but last year Waiakea won in the last relay.
Here are some things to watch for:
• Juniors Mark Eckert Jr. of Iolani and Noa Sakamoto of Punahou, two of the best in the United States, will go head-to-head in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle races. Eckert won both last year and had the nation's fastest private-school 200 time of 1 minute, 39.28 seconds.
But Sakamoto made the U.S. Junior National Team and captured a bronze medal in the 200 meters in a four-nation meet in Australia in January.
"The 200 freestyle is the hardest event of all," Sakamoto says. "It's all out all the way. After the race your head feels like it's going to explode."
• Iolani's Stanford-bound senior, Hongzhe Sun, will be going for the seventh and eighth state individual gold medals of his career — the most you can win.
He will defend his championship in the 100 backstroke, in which he holds the state meet record of 49.95, and will swim the 200 individual medley in states for the first time. His fastest time this season of 1:50.42 is more than three seconds under the state meet record.
• Seabury Hall junior Randall Tom is seeded first in the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly and could threaten both meet records.
• The three girls team contenders have each entered one or more of its best swimmers in only one individual event, meaning they can swim in three of the four relays. Relays score double the points of individual events in the team totals.
Punahou's Marina Morey, Iolani's Mallorie Lim and Waiakea's Tamarah Binek, Marlene Yafuso and Whitney Nekoba are all expected to swim in three relays.
Binek, Yafuso and Nekoba last year swam on the 400-freestyle team that won the final event of the girls meet — and with it the championship — in the All-America time of 3:33.49.
• Three Punahou divers, led by sophomore Drew Wallace, have already attained scores of 375 points or higher in one meet, which qualify for All-America status from the National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association. The others are Michael Ono in boys and Lauren Pocherova in girls.
Wallace and Punahou's Claire Schiff both were runners-up last year.
