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Kamehameha’s Kanoa Kaleoaloha is primed to steal the show at Saturday’s OC16/HHSAA State Swimming and Diving championships at Central Oahu Regional Park.
The senior began Friday’s trials with a 20.27 swim in the 50 freestyle, beating the state meet record of 20.46 held by Daniel Coakley of Kealakehe in 2007. He then stepped up to the blocks in the 100 freestyle and beat former teammate Ryan Stack’s record of 45.19 seconds with a 44.93 clocking.
Kaleoaloha has won seven gold medals in his career and needs three to pass Stack for the most in school history. Kaleoaloha swam on two relays in the trials, and the Warriors won both of them.
Campbell’s Makoa Alvarez set himself up for his third straight gold in the 100 backstroke and put ‘Iolani’s Mark Eckert on notice in the process. Alvarez tied Eckert’s 2004 record with a time of 49.79 seconds last year but beat it on Saturday with a 49.55 effort. Punahou junior Aukai Lileikis had the only other record in trials, taking down Eckert’s 1:37.83 from 2002 with a 1:36.75 effort.
Mid-Pacific’s Lena Hayakawa could have a special day on Saturday. She swam in the fastest 200-meter relay for the Owls in Friday’s trials, then followed it up with top qualifying times in the 200 IM and 500 freestyle. Her 400 freestyle relay team finished second to Kamehameha on Friday.
Hayakawa and teammate Rebecca Walton are both two gold medals away from matching former teammate Summer Harrison’s school record of seven career gold medals.
Diving championships begin on Saturday at 8:30 a.m., with swimming events scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
Punahou is the defending champion for both genders.
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