Breakthrough win for MPI; records for Mau

Churning toward the wall on the final leg of the last girls event of the afternoon, Summer Harrison chased down a historic victory for Mid-Pacific Institute while washing away the angst that had fueled the Owls for the past year.

When she completed MPI’s comeback win in the 400-yard freestyle relay, the Owls could finally celebrate the school’s first state swimming championship.

"Just to touch that wall first and look up and see who won, it was a good feeling to represent Mid-Pac," Harrison said. "We’ve been training for that and we finally did it."

A year after coming up four points short of the title, MPI left no doubt on Saturday in winning the girls title in the OC 16/HHSAA Swimming and Diving Championship at the University of Hawaii’s Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex.

The Owls won two relays and two individual events and finished with 541⁄2 points to pull away from runner-up Kealakehe and defending champion Punahou.

"It’s a long, long time coming," MPI coach Drew Saranillio said. "Last year the girls came in second and they were mad, even today."

The Owls converted the anger into an intensity that powered them through the state meet, beginning with a win in the 200-yard medley relay.

Lena Hayakawa and Rebecca Walton then posted a 1-2 finish in the 200-yard freestyle and Harrison won the 100 freestyle after placing second in the 100 butterfly.

Although MPI had a cushion going into the 400 freestyle relay, the Owls refused to let their focus ebb entering the final race.

"They were seriously mad," said Saranillio, now in his eighth year with the MPI program. "I don’t even want to deal with them when they’re mad. But they were focused and they wanted it so much more.

"The swim they had. It was amazing."

Kealakehe led after the first two legs of the relay and Punahou’s Jasmine Mau — who’d set two individual records earlier in the meet — pushed the Buffanblu ahead in their third leg. But Harrison closed the gap, then pulled away to put a finishing flourish on the state title.

"Last year we got second, barely, we could have won, and that was not going to happen this year," said Harrison, a junior who teamed with sophomores Walton, Hayakawa and Gayla McQuaid on the Owls’ winning relay teams. "We were super determined and we put a lot of effort into all of our races mentally and physically and we went for it."

The MPI group was the core of the Pac-Five team that captured its first ILH championship, and their collective effort was enough to fend off Mau’s exemplary individual performance for Punahou.

Mau, a junior, finished the 200 individual medley in 2 minutes, 1.78 seconds, more than six seconds ahead of her nearest competitor, in the process breaking the meet record set by Kaiser’s Ashley Swart in 2002.

Mau then won the 100 butterfly in 52.78 seconds, bettering the mark held by Punahou’s Kathy Shipman since 1979 by nearly three seconds.

"I wasn’t focused on my time. I just wanted to have fun and go all out and make sure the effort was there," Mau said.