Punahou Girls Shatter Records at Hawaii State High School Meet

By Brian Savard

WAIOLA, Hawaii, March 4. PUNAHOU'S women set fire to the state record book at the Hawaii State High School Championships. Luckily, they were able to write a new one.

At the meet's start, the Punahou 200 medley relay of Rachael Cote, Brittany Beauchan, Christel Simms and Michelle Yoshida wrecked the competition and erased the former state record with a final time of 1:44.03. Waikakea set the former standard in 2002 with a 1:48.18 time.

Simms continued the record-setting trend by resetting her own 200 freestyle standard (1:50.46). In the 100 freestyle finals, Simms set her third record of the night in the form of a 50.15 100 freestyle. Mililani's Keiko Price swam the former record time (51.27) back in 1994.

Cote swam to two first-place finishes and put one individual record under her belt. Cote swam a 57.46 100 backstroke, which erased the former standard of 57.97 set by Steph Lister of Punahou in 1983. While not a record time, Cote's 57.90 finals time sufficed for a gold-medal finish.

Beauchan lowered her 100 breaststroke state mark and won the 200 IM. Her 1:04.04 preliminary time in the 100 breaststroke reset her former standard of 1:04.10. Beauchan's 2:08.38 200 IM bested the second-place finisher by nearly two seconds.

Simms, Beauchan, Cote and Yoshida teamed up to set a second state record in the 200 freestyle relay (1:35.43). Punahou's 200 freestyle relay held the former record, which they set last year with a 1:36.80 time.

Chelsea Machida of Maui High School placed first in the diving competition (357.45). Emily Tanaka from King Kekaulike High School (338.50) and Chelaine Eliazar from Punahou (333.40) took second and third, respectively.

Kealakehe's Daniel Coakley swam a preliminary time of 20.46 in the 50 free, which was enough to give him a top qualifying time into finals as well as a state record. Davis Kane of KS-Kapalama swam the former record of 20.73 at last year's state championships.

Jack Pope of Lahainaluna High School swam his way to two first-place finishes. Pope bested the field in both the 200 freestyle (1:42.98) and the 500 freestyle (4:39.12).

Punahou's men sacrificed the quality of their final relay by stacking the 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay. Their plan worked in the end, as they took home gold medals in both relays they stacked. The 200 medley relay quartet of Mitchell Chong, Josh Cutts, Brandon Ching and Brett Gomes took down Iolani with a 1:37.21 effort. Chong, Cutts, Ching and Gomes teamed up to edge out Iolani in the 200 freestyle relay clocking 1:26.24.

In the diving competition, James Keawe bested the field, however, the final scores fell within 10 points of each other. Keawe's 368.80 took first, Dylan Jude of Punahou placed second (361.20) and James Lentz of Baldwin High School placed third (359.55).

In the team races, the Punahou men outlasted the Iolani School (61-59). Kapalama placed behind the two juggernauts in third place with 43 points. Punahou's women had an easier time fending off their competition. Punahou scored 84 points, while Iolani followed far behind in second with 34 points. Kapalama and the Hawaii Preparatory Academy tied for third place with 25 points apiece.

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