Monday Morning MIL: Baldwin High School boys, Maui Prep girls win league swimming team championships

KĪHEI — The Maui Preparatory Academy swim team was using a two-lane resort pool to train last season after the 2023 Lahaina wildfire closed their usual venue.

Now, Na Pueo are back at their old training grounds and back on top of the league, winning their third straight girls crown at the Central Pacific Bank Maui Interscholastic League Swimming and Diving Championships on Saturday at the Kīhei Aquatic Center. They finished with 78 points, 24 more than Maui High. 

“It’s the coolest, I’m super proud of these girls, they’ve all worked really, really hard … we have an insane group of awesome coaches,” Maui Prep coach Lindsey Stafford said. “It takes a village, it’s not just me.” 

Baldwin High School won the boys team title with 54 points — 12 more than Maui High — to claim the crown for the first time since 2019 when they won their last of eight straight. The Bears entered the swimming finals on a hot Kīhei afternoon with 13 points on their ledger after going 1-2-3 in the diving finals in the morning, led by sophomore Kieran Harper who won the event with 411.30 points.

“It’s really special, we have a really great team this year, they worked really hard, we’re really lucky to have (them), especially our divers, too, they contributed a lot,” Baldwin coach Arielle Obrero said. “I’m just very proud of everything that they did.”

Individually, Lahainaluna senior Jake McGill and King Kekaulike junior Xander Hurst each won two events among the boys, while Maui High junior Aika Swanson and Maui Prep junior Sacha Salem each won twice individually on the girls side. By National Federation of High School rules, athletes are limited to four events in swimming and diving championship meets — that combination can be one individual and all three relays or two individual and two relays.

McGill won the boys 50-yard freestyle in 21.20 seconds, 0.99 seconds in front of Seabury Hall junior Kai Pellettieri. McGill also won the 100 butterfly in 52.59, 0.92 seconds in front of Maui High sophomore Ryan Ong.

McGill was second in each of those events at the K. Mark Takai/HHSAA Swimming and Diving Championship meet last season and will be in contention for state titles in each when the 2025 state meet takes place Feb. 14-15 at the University of Hawai’i Duke Kahanamoku Aquatics Complex.

McGill plans to study architecture in college, either at Montana State University or the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Montana State does not have a men’s swim team, but UH does, so there is a possibility that McGill’s competitive swimming career ends with the state meet.

“I’ve been working at it for many years now and to be a state champion would mean a lot to me, and to do it for Lahainaluna as well,” McGill said, adding that the prospect of the end of his seven-year club and high school swimming career “is hitting me pretty hard. It’s just become such a routine for me, every Friday and Saturday is swim meet time. Time to lock in and just swim.”

Last season, in the wake of the devastating Lahaina wildfire, McGill was the only Lahainaluna boy swimmer and commuted to the Kīhei Aquatic Center from his home in Kahana to practice, driving his younger brother to club practice as well. The Lahaina Aquatic Center was closed for more than a year after the fire due to ash, sludge and debris. After volunteers led an effort to clean it up, the center reopened in October, making training for all of the West Maui swimmers much more convenient.

This year the Lunas have three boys swimmers, with freshman Levi Stoddart and sophomore Micah Ganis joining McGill at the MIL championships on Friday and Saturday. The Lunas also entered five girls in the meet, two more than last year.

“It means a lot, it makes it feel like much more of a team, people I can rely on, lean into, it just makes it feel a lot more warming,” McGill said. “Lahainaluna has such a backstory, especially with the fire, and to come out of that with all the struggles that were presented and to be able to represent such a strong team and such a long-lasting legacy is just very special to me.”

Salem won the 200 individual medley in 2:10.10 and the 100 breaststroke in 1:09.83. She said that the reopening of the Lahaina Aquatic Center was huge for her team, too, as Na Pueo were able to move back there after using a two-lane resort pool on the west side last season.

“It’s a blessing, it’s truly a blessing,” Salem said. “Coming from swimming in a hotel pool with nothing and now we actually have a pool, it’s amazing. It just shows that now we can work twice as hard.”

Na Pueo and Lunas swimmers share the Lahaina Aquatic Center and several of them share club coaches with the Lahaina Swim Club.

“I think we’re a family, I mean, we swim in the same pool, we’re around each other all the time for club and we also swim with each other, so we’re family,” Salem said.

Hurst won the boys 200 free (1:45.69) and 500 free (4:50.45) just seven weeks after breaking his right arm in a fall and only six weeks after re-entering the pool for workouts on a limited basis. Last season at state, Hurst was fourth in the 200 and second in the 500.

“I’m really hopeful of sometime in the next couple months to qualify for Junior Nationals and USA Futures,” Hurst said, adding that the next three weeks prior to state will be important. “I think the big thing is just getting in as much yardage in as possible in practice, just getting my aerobic base back up.”

“Within a week (after breaking the arm), I was back in the pool kicking, within two weeks I was doing modified swim sets and I’ve been now consistently training the last three weeks now. … It’s gotten to the point where it’s not really a hindrance to my training. … Seven weeks ago, I broke my arm and I couldn’t swim at all. Now, I’m here. First meet back.”

Swanson won the 50 free in 24.28 and the 100 butterfly in 57.96. Other individual girls champions in the meet included Kīhei Charter freshman Sova Meyer in 1-meter diving (363.15 points), Kūlanihāko’i freshman Isabel Gaggero in the 200 free (2:03.45), Maui Prep junior Sadie Stafford in the 100 free (55.36), Maui High senior Tea Jimenez in the 500 free (5:48.50) and Maui Prep sophomore Halia Caiserman in the 100 backstroke (1:03.27).

Among boys, Maui High senior LJ Almiron won the 200 individual medley (2:05.66), Kīhei Charter sophomore Eli Hazlet won the 100 free (49.67), Kamehameha Schools Maui freshman Cruz Storer won the 100 backstroke (54.92) and fellow KSM freshman Zeke Chang won the 100 breaststroke (1:03.35).

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GIRLS SOCCER: Kamehameha Maui seeded third for state tournament

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The Kamehameha Schools Maui girls soccer team, the MIL champion who finished 12-0-0 in league play while outscoring opponents 37-5, were seeded third for the Motiv8 Foundation/HHSAA Division I state soccer tournament. On Thursday at 3 p.m. at Waipi’o Peninsula Soccer Complex on O’ahu, the Warriors will play the winner of today’s match between Punahou and Kaiser. 

MIL runner-up Baldwin will host Campbell today at 4 p.m. at War Memorial Stadium — the winner will move on to play top-seeded Kamehameha Kapālama in the quarterfinals on Thursday at 3 p.m. at Waipi’o Peninsula Soccer Complex.

In Division II play, MIL champion Seabury Hall was seeded fourth and will start the tournament in the quarterfinals Thursday at 3 p.m. at Waipi’o Peninsula Soccer Complex against the winner of Wednesday’s Kailua-Waimea match.

Championship matches for both tournaments are set for Saturday — Division II at 5 p.m. and Division I at 7 p.m., both at Waipi’o Peninsula Soccer Complex.

HJI’s “Monday Morning MIL” columns appear weekly on Monday mornings with updates on local sports in the Maui Interscholastic League and elsewhere around Maui County. Please send column ideas — anything having to do with sports in Maui County — as well as results and photos to rob@hjinow.org.