AGE GROUP SWIMMING The final regular season meet of the 1996-97 Age Group Short Course Swimming season came to a close at the Lahaina Aquatics complex on March 8. Joining their Hawaii Swimming Club teammates on Maui were Leoho'onani and Mahinameli Reyes and Lenn and Loni Yonemura. Mahinameli rewrote the history books with her HSC teammates in the 8 & Under 100 Y Freestyle Relay to highlight the accomplishments of the foursome. Leading off the event, Mahinameli was followed by Kiana Johnson, Aja Suehiro, and Ailani Miller in clocking the relay at 1:05.66. That eclipsed the county record of 1:06.10 established by the Maui Swim Club. The relay followed two strong performances by Mahinameli in the 10 & Under 100 Y Individual Medley (IM) and the 50 Y Freestyle where she attained state qualifying times and achieved her season-long goals. After up-and-down performances over the past four months, she put forth a determined effort to make the state finals. She followed the relay with the 50 Y Backstroke and then finished with a "B" time in the 50 Y Butterfly event. Leoho'onani returned from a short illness for her second meet in the 11-12 division. She attained "B" times in the 100 Y IM and th 50 Y Free and swam her first 500 Y Freestyle event. She also teamed with Loni, Helena Suehiro, and Holly Fernandez to place second in the 200 Y Freestyle Relay. In addition to swimming in the relay, Loni achieved her tenth and final state qualifying time in the 50 Y Butterfly event by dropping nearly a second off her previous best. Earlier in the day, she lowered her qualifying time in the 100 Y IM. Loni will be moving to the 13-14 division in the upcoming long course season. Lenn went into the meet needing a strong effort in the 50 Y Freestyle to qualify for the state finals but came up two-hundreths of a second short. In his only other event of the day, Lenn swam the difficult 200 Y Butterfly and cut nearly 10 seconds from his previous best effort. The swimmers now prepare for the state championships to be held from March 21-25 at the Kalani High School Pool on Oahu. The Molokai Swim Team is able to fund their travel through the recently acquired grant from the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation. Molokai families and children who are interested in learn-to-swim classes are asked to call Head Coach David Kalani at 553-3719 or County of Maui Water Safety personnel Kalani Johnston, Lani Caparida, or Claire Perreira at 553-5775.