KEAAU, Hawaii >> One by one, state champions from Punahou climbed to the top step of the podium at the HHSAA Swimming and Diving Championships at Kamehameha-Hawaii on Saturday.
And once they got there, they thought about everyone except themselves. That attitude helped them regain the team championship.
“It really is an ohana,” Punahou swimmer Nohea Lileikis said. “I feel so honored to be on this team because of the connections we have.”
She was then interrupted by her three teammates on the 400 free relay, who said in unison and of one mind: “We are all one big happy family.”
That ohana worked together enough to regain the title it lost to Mid-Pacific last year, and with the strength of the team coming back, it might be another long run.
That’s what happens when you have the winningest coach in Hawaii history, Jeff Meister, preaching about the process instead of results.
“The trophy doesn’t really mean anything,” Punahou’s Lia Foster said. “It’s more about the memories and the hard work.”
Foster and Maddie Balish led the way for the Buffanblu, each grabbing four gold medals to double their career totals.
The juniors consider themselves team moms for their younger teammates and gushed with pride at the accomplishments of their younger classmates after every relay.
Foster and Balish started their day by teaming up with senior Natassia Dunn and freshman Lyra Gonzalez to win the 200 medley relay and then went their separate ways to pick up points for the team. Foster got her second gold medal with a win in the 200 IM and her third in the 100 backstroke. She also led off Punahou’s winning effort in the 400 freestyle relay.
Balish picked up gold in the 100 butterfly and 100 breaststroke, and contributed to Punahou’s win in the 200 free relay.
That haul accounts for seven wins in 12 events, not leaving much else to the rest of the field.
Sacred Hearts sophomore LeGrand Pound still got her share, winning the 200 freestyle and 100 freestyle for her third and fourth trips to the top step of the podium. That puts her halfway to a slam in both events — she would be the first since Punahou’s Celeste Jacroux in 1992 to do it in the 200 free and the first since Mililani’s Keiko Price in 1996 to do it in the 100 free.
The thing about Pound is that it seems the hard part is over.
“I used to get really nervous,” Pound said. “I still get nervous but not so much, mostly because all the other swimmers are my friends. Hopefully in two years I will be even faster and I won’t have a reason to be nervous any more.”
Other individual winners were Punahou’s Deborah Wen in the 1-meter diving, Le Jardin senior Clancy Doyle in the 50 free, and ‘Iolani junior Cagla Brennan, who shaved nearly six seconds off her personal best on Friday to beat Mid-Pacific’s Maia Petrides in the 500 free.
