Led by a strong effort from its senior class, Punahou School swept the boys and girls Interscholastic League of Honolulu swimming championships yesterday at Waterhouse Pool.

The Buffanblu boys won five of the 11 races and finished with [0xad]93 points. Runner-up 'Iolani had 59 and Kamehameha finished third with 43.

Punahou's girls tallied 82 1/2 points, while second-place 'Iolani had 62 1/2 and Pac-Five finished third with 51.

"It's always great to win and this is a great group of kids," Buffanblu coach Jeff Meister said. "They've worked really hard for it and I'm very proud of them."

Senior Marc Okimura was one of several stars for Punahou yesterday. Okimura won the 100-yard breaststroke in 59.22 seconds and was on the winning 200 medley and 200 freestyle relay teams.

"Some of us won some individual events, but it's not just about one person winning individual events," Okimura said. "We were talking in our team meeting about how you don't always have to win to be able to contribute to your team. You can still come in second, third, fourth, fifth and still score points and every point counts. Every individual on this team counts and everyone plays the same role."

Meister echoed Okimura's sentiments in emphasizing teamwork.

"We've talked about that since the beginning, that we're going to need everybody to step up," Meister said. "We've got 30 or so kids on this team and all of them had to come in and contribute and they did. We were really quite surprised. We had a really good team effort, and the individual ones just made it look better."

Jason Frifeldt, another Punahou senior, won the 50 freestyle in 22.31 seconds and swam the opening leg for the winning 200 freestyle relay team.

The Buffanblu also got some help from underclassmen. Junior Nigel Ng won the 100 backstroke in 56.43 seconds and was also on the 200 freestyle relay team.

Ng had extra incentive to win the 100 backstroke after his sister, Naomi, a sophomore, won the girls race just moments earlier.

Naomi, who also swam the first leg of the winning 200 medley relay, won the 100 backstroke in 1:02.18.

"Yeah that did give me a lot of extra motivation," Nigel said.

Naomi said her teammates — including her brother — served as inspiration during her races.

"It's always nice to win your individual race, but I think it just makes it so much better when your team is there with you and they're all racing with you and cheering for you," Naomi said. "I think that's what makes you want to win, because you want to do it for the team and it also helps that my brother was there because I wanted to be able to tell him that I got first before he did."

The Buffanblu girls won eight events, led by senior Rachel Fujita's four gold medals.

Fujita won the 50 and 100 freestyle races in 24.51 and 53.04 seconds, respectively, and also was on the winning 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams.

"For relays you don't really feel that much pressure because you have all your other teammates swimming with you, so you know that you have other people to count on," Fujita said. "But we were a little behind and I heard my teammates shouting my name — I heard Marc (Okimura) shouting my name — so it kind of made the energy higher. You always swim better when you have your team behind you."

The Buffanblu were trailing 'Iolani in the 400 freestyle relay when Fujita began the third leg, but held a narrow lead by the time junior LillyBelle Deer began the anchor leg. Deer extended the lead and the Buffanblu held off the Raiders by more than three seconds.

Meister said he hopes to send out his senior class on a high note.

"Our seniors talked about what a great experience they've had and they hope to have another great experience in two weeks," Meister said of the state championships. "We may or may not win, we don't know, but they want to go in there and do their best. It's just a great group of seniors. "

The Hawai'i High School Athletic Association/Local Motion Swimming and Diving State Championships will be held Feb. 12 and 13 at Kamehameha-Hawai'i.