For someone who hates losing, being the second to the wall sure has benefited Kamehameha senior Ryan Stack. "He is very competitive," Kamehameha coach Kevin Flanagan said. "That can get in his way a little bit, but it’s a good thing. He just hates to lose."
Stack, the reigning state champion in the 200 freestyle, will wrap up his prep career in the ILH and state championships next month and he expects to go out with a bang. He will be a favorite to fly back from the state meet on the Big Island with another haul of gold medals.
But it all started with a silver.
He was busy with other sports -— he has been on two state champion little league teams in baseball — and never truly devoted himself to swimming until his freshman year and was surprised to learn that he was expected to finish second to Hawaii Prep senior Logan Borowski in the 50 free.
"When I saw the psych sheet come out for that meet and I saw I was seeded second in the 50 it surprised me," Stack said. "I was kind of blown away, there is only one guy faster than me in the state and he is a senior. I thought, ‘Wow, maybe I can go somewhere with this.’ "
After dropping to third after prelims, Stack came back to take his rightful place behind Borowski and has since collected five gold medals from the HHSAA as well as being a big part of the past two team championships.
His mother told him she had never seen him so determined as that day, and he probably wouldn’t have had that fire if he had hit his mark in the prelims.
A disappointing showing in last year’s Junior Nationals was his latest humbling experience, where he followed up helping Kamehameha Swim Club to a second-place finish in a relay at senior sectionals but failed to make one of his finals against an elite field five months later.
"This year I am looking to just blow the doors open when I get there," Stack said. "There is always somebody faster than you, you are never at the top. You need to keep getting faster no matter what. It’s a motivation thing. I may not be as fast as you, but I’m going to come back next year and you get what’s coming."
For all of his accomplishments, it is still the losses that drive Stack.
His club team has won the past 23 state championships and his high school team is going for a third straight. But Kamehameha is not as deep as it was the past two years and will be an underdog next month.
For Stack, the big name is Mark Eckert. He will go after the records of the former ‘Iolani swimmer at states, aiming at Eckert’s 1:39.28 in the 200 free and 4:28.60 in the 500 free. Both records have stood since 2002.
"I look at those names and what they have done after Hawaii and am amazed," Stack said. "Even if you don’t break them, just to get close, it’s cool thinking some day I can be doing something like they are doing."
Stack has pledged allegiance to Wisconsin for college after visiting there, Purdue and Ohio State. A son of Notre Dame graduates, Stack knew he wanted to go to the Midwest and took it upon himself to contact coaches at his desired schools. When he first introduced himself to the Wisconsin coach via email, the coach’s first question was whether the young man even knew where Wisconsin was. Stack met the team again when it was training here last week, and he is already dreaming about what that group of young men can do with his times. It all starts with jumping in the pool six days a week and putting in the work required to make a run at the Olympic team.
Stack is the rare athlete who puts the "team" above "Olympic." For all of his accomplishments in this individual sport, nothing brought him greater joy than helping his teammates break the state-meet records in the 200 and 400 relays last year. Only junior Kanoa Kaleoaloha returns to help him try to defend them, but Colin-James Fellezs and the younger swimmers are plenty fast enough to fill in. It is those two, along with Mililani’s Kevin Frifeldt, who push Stack to shave fractions of a second off his times every day.
Not to mention Punahou senior Jasmine Mau, who practices with Stack and the Kamehameha Swim Club. Some losses are easier to take than others, but losing to a fellow rock star of Hawaii swimming takes some of the sting off of it, even if she is a girl.
"Having those guys in practice definitely helps, makes you race a little bit in practice," Stack said. "Jasmine, too, sometimes she beats me. Every now and then it happens. She tries to beat me in breaststroke, but I’ve still got her in that."
