By Lauren Barbour
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In addition to winning at the Oahu Interscholastic Association (OIA) championships, Senior Tomas Sodini and Junior Kevin Frifeldt broke records for the 50-meter freestyle and 100-meter fly events respectively.
“We’re talking about an improvement of a few tenths of a second so (there’s) really not a lot that can be said at that point,” said head coach Ryan Micale, “There’s no magic word that’s going to be said that’s going to make them suddenly break that record. It comes down to a point where training and dedication kind of just meet in the middle and they swim. And in their cases, they had excellent swims and they broke records.” Frifeldt set a new record of 50.81 seconds in his event, surpassing last year’s time; the old record for the 50-meter freestyle event was broken with the new time of 21.37 seconds that Sodini set.
For Frifeldt, it was the time he had set last year that he beat. “I felt really good breaking it. It was quite satisfying to see the progress I have made, since it was my record earlier as well,” he said.
As for Sodini, he won all events he participated in, scoring the most points at the meet. “There are probably a number of swimmers who won three out of four (events) but since (Sodini) won both of his individual events and both of his relays, he would have been the highest point earner at the meet,” explained Micale. Sodini felt there was still room for improvement. “It was okay. (I) could have gone faster,” he said.
What they did achieve did not come easily. “They put in a significant amount of hours of practice every week,” Micale said. “I swim for Kamehameha Swim Club so I train year round. I’m planning on swimming that race again next year and hopefully breaking it again,” Frifeldt added.
The season has ended and Sodini will be graduating this year, but Frifeldt will be returning to the swim team, hoping for a similarly successful record.
