Trojan Swimmers Make A Splash
By Jack Danilewicz
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For all the success Mililani High School’s girls and boys swimming teams have in the pool, there can be no doubt that the Trojans attract “character kids” first and foremost, to hear head coach Wes Endo tell it.
“Most of them have very good attitudes, and they’re highly intelligent,” Endo said of his teams.“I don’t have to worry about grades. Swimming is a demanding sport. We don’t have our own pool, and yet they do their best, which makes me very happy.”
As in past years, members of both teams are poised to have an impact at this week-end’s Local Motion State Swimming and Diving Championships at Kamehameha Schools. The state meet begins on Friday, with the swimming trials at 3:30 p.m. The finals will run on Saturday starting at 1 p.m. Last weekend, both teams were trying to defend their Oahu Interscholastic Association titles from 2009 in the overall league championships. Mililani claimed the OIA West regular-season championship in both the boys and girls division in earlier weeks.
In the girls division, senior Kiana White leads the way for Mililani. The OIA champion in both the 200-yard IM and the 100-yard breast stroke as a junior last season, White went on to finish second in the 200 IM last February at the state finals and has high hopes again this weekend.
“She’s always been steady, and she doesn’t like to lose,” Endo said of White, who competes on the 200 medley and 400 free-style relay teams as well. Fellow senior Desiree Mazzone also is poised to end her prep career in style, in her coach’s view.
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“She’s just powerful,” he said of Mazzone, whose events include the 100 back stroke and the 50 freestyle. “She has a good feel for the water.”
Elsewhere on the girls roster, underclassmen carry the day with junior Alex Daley (200 and 500 free), sophomores Josette Gose (100 fly and 100 IM) and Cassie Kawamata (200 and 500 free; 100 back stroke) and freshman Krislyn Cha (100 and 200 IM; 100 breast) among their top competitors.
“Alex comes every day to do what needs to be done to win,” Endo said. “Josette is very peppy - she’s versatile, and we can use her in any way to score points.When you tell Cassie to do something, she’ll try her best with no questions asked. Like Cassie, Krislyn says OK to anything you ask, and she’ll do it.”
In the boys division, senior Eric Roth (50 and 100 free) is among the great individual stories in the OIA, having returned to swimming after a year off. “He came back just as fast as when he had left,” Endo marveled. “He’s quite an athlete.
Like the girls team at Mililani, talented underclassmen figure to make the Trojans the early favorite once again in the OIA in 2011 with juniors Dane Kawamoto (200 IM and 100 fly), Kramer Ishimura (200 and 500 free) and Connor McGrath (50 and 100 free) expected back, along with sophomore Jack McGuire (50 and 100 free) and freshman Curtis Fildeth (200 IM and 100 fly).All were expected to qualify for this weekend.
“I wish we could put Dane in every event. He has a great attitude. Like Dane, when they come to practice, they all give it all they have.”
Endo and the Mililani swim teams are now in the “fine-tuning"stage in the last days of the season.
“We’ve cut down on ‘distance’ swimming and do more ‘quality type’ swimming,“he said.“We pay more attention to starts and turns - the finer details.”
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