Some kids swim through high school taking the least amount of science possible.
Not Paulina Ruelas. The Kalani senior, who won four gold medals in the pool at the recent OIA championships, is doing swimmingly well with schoolwork. She’s the kind of kid who seeks out classes for more knowledge. So far, her academic outreach has included these science disciplines — honors biology, honors chemistry, advanced placement biology, marine science, human physiology and anatomy, and physics.
In a word, she’s inquisitive
“We’re all humans, but it’s funny, none of us really know what’s inside us, what we’re made of,” Ruelas said before a practice last Thursday. “I thought some of the words in the textbook were made up. I was like, ‘Really?’ My mom (Victoria Ruelas, who is also the Kalani swimming coach) is always pushing my brothers: ‘You gotta do your homework.’ She never told me about that because I always did it anyway.”
It’s not surprising, then, that Ruelas has 28 college credits already and sports a 4.1 grade-point average. She’ll be attending and swimming for the University of Sioux Falls in South Dakota starting in the fall.
In the pool, Ruelas is coming off a fantastic performance at OIAs and is preparing for the K. Mark Takai/HHSAA Swimming State Championships on Friday and Saturday on Maui at the Kihei Aquatic Complex. She wants to finish her high school career strong, after losing her love for the sport at one point before a rekindling.
Pushing through the wall
As a youngster at a state meet in Kentucky, Ruelas wasn’t doing well, so she didn’t finish all of her events.
“I hadn’t dropped time (got worse) in two years before that and I was dropping in every meet I swam,” she said. “Everything was horrible. I just hit a wall. I just quit. I was done. Well, my dad said, ‘You can’t quit anything as long as you’re living under my roof.’ I stayed in swimming, but I didn’t like it.”
About six months later, now living in Hawaii, Ruelas’ spirit for swimming slowly but surely picked up. But after her first club competition here, she cried.
“I left my friends,” she said. “I didn’t know anybody. Strangers. It was going to take me two months to even know their names.”
Those who were strangers to Paulina, at first, became a lot more than that.
“I kept swimming because of the people I met and the lessons it taught me,” she continued. “I met most of my lifelong friends and I met by boyfriend (Rayne Duhaylonsod, who is also a Kalani swimmer) from swimming.”
Family ties
For Victoria Ruelas, it’s not a total picnic coaching her daughter.
“It’s the mother/daughter clashing kind of thing,” the coach said. “I call it constructive criticism. To her, it’s just criticism. I don’t give her much feedback because of that. I try.”
According to Victoria, Paulina’s greatest asset in the pool is her ability to go the distance.
“She’s not a sprint flyer,” the mom said. “But she can outdo and outlast. The long-distance fly is one of her strengths.”
Ruelas’ OIA championship meet victories came in the 200 individual medley, the 200 freestyle, the 200 medley relay (in which she did the backstroke leg) and the 200 freestyle relay.
But topping all of that was the league team championship.
“We finally beat Kaiser after their 10 years of back-to-back-to-backs, with just nine girls making finals,” Ruelas said. “Before my mom became the coach, our school only had two OIA titles for the girls team — 1986 and 2002, the year I was born. I told my mom that it’s a sign that’s why we won. Every year, it was Kaiser, Kaiser, Kaiser. We were like, ‘Yeah, we know.’ This time, we didn’t know. It was so close. It could have been either of us, and we finally did it. I was like, ‘Yes! It’s my senior year. We won. We did it.’ ”
Varied interests
Ruelas’ pursuit of other sports and activities rivals her zest for science. She was on the bowling team for four years, on the track team (discus and shot put) for two and in the marching band for two. She will also take part in her second season of water polo this spring.
“The first time I did water polo last year, I didn’t know anything,” she said.
“The coach threw me in one of the scrimmages. I didn’t know what to do, swimming around. She said, ‘Do this, do that.’ I was doing it, so she said, ‘You’re not that bad.’ ”
Trying, at the very least, to be the — as her mom calls it — “meticulous, perfectionist” with anything she tries.
PAULINA RUELAS
Kalani swimming, water polo, bowling
>> Grade: Senior
>> Height: 5 feet 4
>> Weight: 145 pounds
>> College swimming commitment: University of Sioux Falls
>> Club team: Kamehameha Swim Club
>> OIA championships gold medals: 200 individual medley — 2017, 2019, 2020; 200 freestyle — 2020; 200 IM relay — 2020; 400 freestyle relay — 2017, 2018, 2020; 200 freestyle relay — 2019.
>> Other championships: overall winner Duke’s One-Mile Ocean Swim in ’19; state (non-high school) 400 IM in ’17
>> Other sports/activities: Track and field, marching band
>> Favorite movies: “The Help”, “Thor: Ragnarok”
