By Ireland Castillo
[email protected]
The final swim of the season, 16 MHS swimmers competed in the Hawaii High School Athletic Association (HHSAA) Swimming and Diving Championships held at Kamehameha Schools Hilo on Feb. 14 and 15. Although the team did not place at states, Senior Kevin Frifeldt emerged as the state champion with an overall time of 48.99 sec. in the 100-meter butterfly.
“(At the state competition) we had a lot of fast swims; several individuals had their best times. We had some really impressive team efforts with the relays so of course we had very strong individual performances (with Frifeldt) and (Junior) Jakob Dewald both dropping time in their individual events,” said Head Coach Ryan Micale.
As state champion in the 100-meter butterfly with a personal record of 48.99 sec., Frifeldt also qualified as one of the top 100 All-America athletes. Besides Frifeldt, swimmers like Dewald, who didn’t place, were able to improve on personal records. Before states, Dewald’s record for the 500-meter freestyle timed out to 5 min. 20 sec. and after the championship Dewald cut his time by eleven seconds with a final time of 5 min. 9 sec.
As MHS swimmers faced off against 20 schools, confidence, practice and dedication were the keys to success. “We changed up our practice philosophy a bit this year, we did a lot of heavy sprint training. We kind of scaled back on a lot of our longer distance training in favor of trying a new cross-over crossfit swimming training,” explained Micale.
By Ireland Castillo
[email protected]
For Frifeldt it was hours in and out of practice that lead to improvement. “I trained with (the Kamehameha Swim Club), but on the days that I did come to high school practice we did a lot of relays and team building things, kind of just the specifics that would apply to our races so like short, fast, perfect technique,” said Frifeldt.
Regardless of the results, success is measured by spirit. “We got closer as a team. It’s an individual sport (in the) sense that you can only measure your own success, you can’t have someone else do it,” said Frifeldt. Dewald added, “We are like family, we fight and we might not always get along, but we are very close.”
With the season over, this year’s swim team will lose half of its members after graduation, leaving next year’s team up to chance. “I don’t know at this point who’s coming up,” explained Micale, “But I expect, as I do every year, that the team practices, commits to what they’re doing and does their absolute best.”
For seniors like Frifeldt, the state championship was the final event with the team, but even seniors hold high expectations. “We might not win states but I mean it might be really close, it will be a good experience for (next year’s team),” said Frifeldt.
As the year draws to a close, senior athletes such as Frifeldt have only graduation to face, leaving their legacy of dedication and hard work for MHS to remember.
