KEAAU, Hawaii >> Records are made to be broken, but they are not meant to be broken every day.
Punahou’s ‘Aukai Lileikis continued his assault on the record book at the HHSAA Swimming and Diving Championships at Kamehameha-Hawaii on Saturday, lowering his marks in the 100 and 200 free and adding gold medals in the 200 and 400 free relays as the Buffanblu won the team title for the third straight year.
Records seem to fall at the state swim meet every year, but it takes a special athlete to do it on both days as Lileikis did.
“We don’t talk about records much,” Punahou coach Jeff Meister said. “We talk about how to get better and let records take care of themselves. But it’s true that you don’t want to go for records on both days. ‘Aukai is a special case, though.”
Lileikis started his day in the 200 freestyle, where he obliterated the field by eight seconds and took down his record from the previous day. He was so fast, his 1:34.82 fell two hundreths of a second short of the national prep record. It didn’t bother Lileikis that he didn’t get it — he had a full day ahead of him.
“It really is about racking up points for the team,” said Lileikis, who is committed to the University of California. “It would have been nice to have, for sure, but records don’t mean as much as team points.”
Lileikis may not care much about the records, but the records follow him around like a puppy dog. He dropped his own mark in the 100 free from 44.02 in the trials to 43.92 in the final. He later led off the 200 freestyle relay with a dominant performance that led to a win and collected his fourth gold of the day in the 400 free relay. He finishes his career with seven gold medals.
In addition to Lileikis’ effort, Maryknoll’s M.J. Mao broke records in the 100 butterfly and 100 breaststroke.
Mao moved to Hawaii just two months ago and is already listed among Hawaii’s great swimmers as a junior. He fell 0.09 seconds short of the record in the 100 butterfly on Friday and shattered it with a 47.13 on Saturday. He lowered the record he broke in the 100 breaststroke on Friday to 54.40.
Despite being so close, he went to sleep the night before thinking the records were probably not out there for him.
“I knew I was close, so I was surprised,” Mao said. “But then I thought I might have lost my chance and was surprised again when I got it. I felt like I was fast, but I didn’t feel like I was that fast.”
‘Iolani junior Sung Je Lee was the meet’s other double winner on the boys side. He won golds in the 200 IM and 100 back to raise his career total to three.
Punahou’s Jacob Cornish didn’t get a chance to double up because there is only one diving event, but he defended his title and helped raise the team trophy.
Punahou swept the relays thanks to Lileikis, but the Buffanblu showed off their depth with nine different swimmers contributing in the three relays. They ended the night helping to dump Meister and the rest of the Punahou coaching staff into the pool without even letting them empty their pockets first.
“We’ve been through so many of these things, but this is what it is all about,” Meister said. “Look at the kids over there having fun celebrating, making memories. That is what it is all about.”