Depth propels Kaiser, Mililani

Superior depth was again the foundation for the continued dominance of the Kaiser girls and Mililani boys teams in the OIA swimming championships.

Kaiser’s Corrine Shigeta and Mililani’s Tomas Sodini claimed multiple individual titles in Saturday’s meet at Veteran Memorial Aquatic Complex. But they both found greater satisfaction in contributing to their teams’ collective success.

Shigeta had a part in four of Kaiser’s seven event victories, and the Cougars claimed their fourth consecutive OIA girls championship. The Cougars amassed 386 points as a team, with Mililani coming in second with 162.

"It helps that we all swim club together, everybody knows each other, we’re all friends outside of the pool as well," said Shigeta, a member of Kamehameha Swim Club. "So it’s like hanging out with your friends, it’s not just swimming."

Sodini had similar success, winning two individual events and swimming on two victorious relay teams, as Mililani captured its seventh straight boys title. Trojans junior Kevin Frifeldt joined Sodini in the relays, broke his meet record in the 100-yard butterfly and placed second in the 100 backstroke in one of the afternoon’s tightest finishes.

"The team from top to bottom is very deep," first-year Mililani coach Ryan Micale said. "We wouldn’t have won anything without having such a deep and dedicated team. All the way down every guy was fighting for points, every guy was fighting for position."

Micale was formerly the head coach at Moanalua and took over at Mililani this season with a considerable tradition to uphold.

"I definitely felt like I had some big shoes to fill when I came in, but I knew they could do it," Micale said.

It helped that he had Sodini and Frifeldt returning this season. They helped Mililani bookend the meet with wins in the 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay. In between, Sodini sprinted to victories in the 50 freestyle and 100 breaststroke.

"OIA and states are the two biggest goals," said Sodini, a senior who qualified for the state championships in both individual events and the relays. "I was just taking it a meet at a time and trying not to think too far ahead."

Frifeldt, a junior, changed his program to include the 100 backstroke in place of the 100 freestyle and split his duels with Campbell sophomore Makoa Alvarez in his individual events. He won the 100 butterfly in 50.91 seconds, breaking the meet record of 51.51 he set last year, and still barely held off Alvarez.

They met again in the 100 backstroke, and this time Alvarez was first to the wall at 52.70 seconds, with Frifeldt touching at 53.08.

"That’s probably one of the best parts of swimming," Frifeldt said. "You never know how the race is going to end and you just have to keep fighting."

Kalaheo junior Jacob Urbano also won two events, setting a record in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:42.67 and threatening the 100 freestyle mark in finishing in 47.80 seconds.

On the girls side, Shigeta was part of Kaiser’s 200 medley relay team that broke the meet record in Friday’s preliminaries and pulled away again in the finals on Saturday. She also placed first in the 200 freestyle and defended her title in the 100 free.

"It was really exciting. I really wanted to get those points for our team," Shigeta said.

Kaiser senior Kira Fox was also part of two relay victories before winning the 100 breaststroke. Freshman Lara Yasumi won the 500 freestyle for the Cougars.

The performance in the OIA championship serves as a springboard into the OC 16/HHSAA Swimming and Diving Championships set for Feb. 15-16 at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex. "But states is always really tough," Kaiser coach Asa Tanaka said.

"It’s a whole different caliber. We have a few qualifiers, so we’ll be there and hopefully they do as well there."