Pope, Matthews strike gold twice

KIHEI — The numbers told the story at the finals of the Local Motion State Swimming and Diving Championships at the Kihei Aquatic Center.

One state record was broken, there were two near misses, and six swimmers hauled in two individual gold medals each.

The most important numbers belonged to Punahou School — 93 and 73, the number of points the girls and boys teams posted, respectively, to sweep the state team titles Saturday. The Buffanblu girls finished well ahead of second place Iolani (27) and third place Kealakehe (26), while the boys finished comfortably ahead of Kamehameha Oahu (33) and Hawaii Preparatory Academy (28).

‘‘They (the girls team) were outstanding, they’ve been working all year for this,’’ Punahou coach Jeff Meister said. ‘‘They’re just a great group of kids and they wanted to go out today and make a statement and I think they did.’’

Two Maui Interscholastic League swimmers won two gold medals each in individual events—Lahainaluna’s Jack Pope won the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyles, and Seabury Hall’s Libby Matthews won the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke.

Neither of Pope’s races were close. He posted a time of 1 minute, 42.75 seconds in the 200, about five seconds faster than Hawaii Prep’s Nick Penny, and finished the 500 free in 4:41.23, a little more than six seconds faster than Kapolei’s Jayson Hagi.

‘‘Oh my God, I was nervous coming in because I knew there were a few guys moving up,’’ Pope said. ‘‘But defending state title is the best thing I can do right now, maybe go off into the next level at juniors. A state record would have been awesome, but I’m just happy with my swims.’’

Pope became the league’s second six-time state individual champ, joining former Baldwin standout Cheyne Bloch.

‘‘He’s a six-time champion now, so it’s three straight years he’s won the 200 and the 500,’’ Lahainaluna coach Tom Popdan said. ‘‘He’s one of the toughest kids I’ve ever coached. He scares pretty much everybody out of the race. Nobody wanted to race him this year. He was really trying to do his races by himself, just trying to swim his best.’’

Matthews, who looked strong Friday in posting the top time in the preliminary heats, held off Punahou’s Rachel Cote in the 200 IM, winning in a time of 2:07.76 to Cote’s 2:09.20. And she edged out Mililani’s Kiana White in the 100 breaststroke, reaching the wall in 1:08.23, a shade faster than White’s 1:08.48.

‘‘It feels great, I’m equally as happy about my 200 IM time because I made my junior nationals cut,’’ Matthews said. ‘‘And I’ve been trying to do that for the past year, so it feels good because all the pressure’s been released.’’

One state record fell Saturday — Punahou’s Rachel Cote set the mark in the 100 backstroke, her 56.51 seconds surpassing her own record time of 57.40 that she set in 2007. The win was her third in a row in the event at the state meet.

‘‘It was great, I really wanted to do it for my team more than anyone, because they’ve been there through everything and I just wanted to put one down for the record books,’’ Cote said.

Cote narrowly missed being part of another record as part of the 400 free relay team, which won the event in 3:33.80 — just off the mark of 3:33.49 that Waiakea set in 2002.

Punahou’s Christel Simms won both of her events, posting a 1:49.72 in the 200 free, missing her own state record by nearly half a second. She also delivered a convincing victory in the 100 fly, finishing in 56.83, nearly two and a half seconds faster than teammate Marissa Yamamoto.

‘‘I really wanted to drop that standard lower,’’ Simms said of her record in the 200 free. ‘‘Today I came up short, but it was still a pretty good swim. I was really pumped up, especially in the finals, it’s really emotional. I really wanted to show something, do something outstanding.’’

Punahou’s Michelle Yoshida and Brett Gomes, and Kamehameha Oahu’s Kekoa Taparra also won two individual events apiece.

Maui High sophomore Sheyenne Machida, sister of 2007 state diving champion Chelsea Machida, stormed into second place in the diving final after beginning the day in fifth.

‘‘I thought my dive order today was a stronger list than yesterday. I was concentrating as hard as I can and it turned out good for me. I was going to be happy with fifth place because that’s where I was seeded,’’ Machida said. ‘‘A lot of my classmates expected me to do well because my sister was a very good diver. I just tried to do my best and not think about what was expected of me. I just tried to fulfill my expectations for myself.’’

Lahainaluna’s girls team finished tied for sixth with Seabury Hall with 12 points apiece. Baldwin finished eighth with seven points, and Maui High was 12th with four points.

On the boys side, Lahainaluna took sixth with 12 points, Baldwin was eighth with eight points, Seabury Hall was 12th with five points and King Kekaulike was tied for 13th with four points.

Seabury Hall’s Zach Johnson may have delivered the biggest surprise of the meet in the boys 200 IM. He came into the preliminary heat seeded 16th, qualified eighth with a preliminary time of 2:02 .62 on Friday, then touched the wall in fifth in the final with a time of 1:59.97.

‘‘I’m pretty stoked, I have the opportunity to train with all the Maui boys, and we all push each other,’’ Johnson said. ‘‘I was ready to go fast, I guess, and I’m just glad I did.’’

Three Lahainaluna girls relay teams finished in the top five Saturday. Popdan said the Lunas had never scored three relays in a state meet, and the 200 medley team’s third place finish was tied for the school’s best finish.

The 200 free relay team, which improved on last year’s fifth-place finish by finishing fourth Saturday, is made up of three seniors — Fuller, Natalie Austin and Mariah Gill — and junior Hailey Gill.

‘‘We’re kind of in shock that’s its over right now, seriously,’’ Austin said when Mariah Gill noted that the three of them would never swim a high school meet again.

‘‘It was a little anticlimactic after our MIL win, but its still fun,’’ senior Michelle Fuller said. ‘‘It was a great way to end our senior year. It was a nice experience to have states at our home pool our senior year. All of our friends and family came out to cheer us on, which wouldn’t have happened if it was on Oahu.’’