Nearing the halfway point of the 2000 Short Course season, three Molokai swimmers have earned qualifying times for the state championships in December. Mahina and Ilia Reyes and Loni Yonemura are having good seasons with the Pearl City Aquatics Invitational coming up during the Thanksgiving break and four more qualifying meets before the championships. The championships will be hosted by the Hawaiian Swimming Age Group local swim committee and held at the Punahou pool.

Ilia leads the way with eleven qualifying times. Although swimmers are limited to eight individual events, the more qualifying times a swimmer has allows the swimmer and coach better choices in selecting events to allow for rest periods, possible national qualifying times, and opportunities for top eight finishes. Ilia has improved his times in ten of the eleven events and needs only the 500 Free to complete a clean sweep of qualifying times. Although his times were attained in the 10 & Under division, Ilia just moved up to the 11-12 age group and his times will carry over to the new age group. The carryover times are already meeting the faster standards.

Between the current season and the past long course season, Mahina also has eleven qualifying times in the 11-12 division. Thus far, four of those times are personal bests for her and like Ilia, Mahina will be trying to qualify for the 500 Free in an upcoming qualifying meet. Mahina will move to the 13-14 division in late March, just as the 2001 long course season gets under way.

Loni has five qualifying times including two carryover times from last season and from the 1999-2000 high school championships. She is nearing the standards in two other events. Her season includes four personal bests.

Most recently, the Hawaii Swimming Club (HSC) participated in the First Annual Bill Smith/Kamehameha Invitational swim meet. Held at the beautifully renovated Kamehameha Schools' Kalaniopu'u Pool, the two-day meet featured an abbreviated format limiting the number of entries per day per swimmer and fewer relay events but the entire meet was very well received.

There was a new team scoring format that separated teams into two divisons depending on team sizes. HSC was in the "big" team division despite missing many swimmers, as were a number of other teams, due to conflicts with a number of other events.

With 619.50 points, HSC captured the team championship. The Aulea Swim Club was in second with 535 points and the Pearl Harbor Swim Club was third with 506 points.

Ilia and Mahina scored in all six of their entries and Loni contributed to the team scoring in four of her events. Daniel Coakley, a transfer to HSC on the Big Island, captured high scorer honors in the Boys 10 & Under division. Nicole Okuna, also of HSC-Hilo, was the high scorer in the Girls Open divison.

Smith is a swimming legacy in Hawaii. An Olympic Gold Medalist in the 400 M Freestyle and a member of the gold medal 800 M Freestyle Relay team, Smith is also a 6-time NCAA champion and held 12 national and 8 world records in freestyle events. He is a former coach of the Kamehameha Swim Club and coached the team for over 20 years. One of his swimmers included Kaili Chun, the top-ranked swimmer in the 10 & Under backstroke and the daughter of current Kamehameha Schools president, Dr. Michael Chun.

One of Smith's former teammates in that 1948 Olympics was Ralph Wright, a tremendous breaststroker who was a pioneer in the butterfly stroke. Wright's daughter, Katie, is currently the head coach for the Kamehameha Swim Club!