Monday Morning MIL: Lahaina Swim Club’s Cruz Storer leads nation’s 15-year-olds in 50 and 100 free times; nationals in Texas up next

Cruz Storer has always been fast in the swimming pool, but even he surprised himself at the Hawai’i Senior Championships at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex Nov. 21-23.

Storer, a 15-year-old sophomore at Kamehameha Schools Maui and member of the Lahaina Swim Club, set new records in the 50-yard freestyle (20.41 seconds), 100 free (44.66), 50 backstroke (22.52) and 100 back (48.96), winning all four races at the meet. He also won the 200 back in a personal best of 1:49.32, 3.1 seconds off the state record.

Also lowering four state age group records at the meet was Connor Ventura, a 12-year-old out of the Maui Swim Club, who came into the meet with his name already all over the record book for the 11-12 boys category.

Storer, who turned 15 on May 12, now ranks first in the country among 15-year-old boys in the 50 free and 100 free, and also ranks second in the 50 back, third in the 100 back and eighth in the 200 back. In the 15-16 age group, he ranks second in the 50 back, fourth in the 100 free and eighth in the 50 free.

“I definitely knew I could go that fast, but seeing those times and actually seeing it come through definitely surprised me,” Storer said Wednesday via phone before practice at the Lahaina Aquatic Center. “I was really happy about them.”

On Tuesday, Storer and Lahaina Swim Club coach Jack Pope will travel to Austin, Texas, for the Speedo Winter Junior Championships. The meet is for all swimmers 18 years old and below and is not separated by age groups. Storer is seeded 22nd in the 50 free, 77th in the 200 free, 29th in the 100 backstroke, 73rd in the 200 backstroke, and 24th in the 100 free among all swimmers 18 years old and below.

Pope was a six-time state high school champion for Lahainaluna High School before graduating in 2008 and then swam at NCAA Division I University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., from 2009 to 2012. Pope is now a language arts teacher at Lahainaluna High School.

Pope marvels at the schedule Storer keeps — he works out with Pope from 4:30 to 7 p.m. five days a week and has morning practices from 5:30 to 6:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

Storer catches the Kamehameha Maui bus right after practice in Lahaina or from his Kahana home a little after 6:30 a.m. each day for the one-hour ride to school in Pukalani. When he doesn’t have morning practice, he reads the Bible with his family for an hour before going to school.

After dinner and homework, Storer is usually in bed by 9 p.m. to get ready for his 5 a.m. alarm clock.

“He’s on fire right now,” Pope said of Storer. “The statement that he made (at the state age group meet) was that he’s still got four years ahead of him under Lahaina Swim Club on Maui and his sights are set so much further than … what he traditionally thought was possible.”

Pope said the sky is the limit for Storer.

“We’re trying to expand his horizons,” Pope said. “That’s a big reason as to why we’re going to this junior national meet is to show him that going from a big fish in a small pond to the great wide open … that’s where he needs to be looking next.”

Storer is grateful to have Pope as his coach and to have the Lahaina Aquatic Center to swim in. The pool was closed for more than a year after the Lahaina wildfire killed more than 102 people and destroyed much of the town. For that year-plus, Pope coordinated carpools to Kīhei Aquatic Center for Lahaina Swim Club workouts.

“I’m super blessed,” Storer said. “He’s a great coach and he’s helped me to stay committed, coming to morning practice and afternoon practices. Usually when it’s only like a few people, but he’ll still make that commitment for all of us. … He’s just an overall great coach.”

Last season at the K. Mark Takai/HHSAA state high school championships, Storer was second in the 100-yard backstroke in 50.35. His 100 back time at the recent state age group would have won the state high school championship by 1.15 seconds last year. Storer was also fourth in the 100 free at the state high school meet last year — his time at the state group meet last month would have won the title by 1.14 seconds.

Storer’s older brother Legend Storer finished third place in both the 50 free and 100 breaststroke for Maui Prep at the state high school meet in 2024. Legend Storer is now a sophomore at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa after swimming as a freshman at Concordia University in Irvine, Calif., as a freshman. 

Concordia University dropped its swimming program after last season, giving Cruz Storer one more sign that he is fortunate to be in the position he is now. Legend Storer used to drive his younger brother to practice when he was available.

Cruz Storer is grateful to his church, Kahana Door of Faith, his parents Destiny and Chris Storer, and his siblings, 20-year-old Legend and younger sister, 11-year-old Haven.

He has a simple message for his sister, similar to what his older brother told him over and over from the time they started swimming together seven years ago.

“I try to get her going to all of her practices, but yeah, I’m trying to get her motivated because she’s still super young,” Cruz Storer said of Haven. “But trying to get her swimming fast and getting more motivated early.”

This week’s trip will be a “full circle” moment for Pope, who traveled to a national meet as a 16-year-old with former Lahaina Swim Club coach Tom Popdan. The state high school meet is at Kamehameha Schools Hawai‘i on Feb. 13-14.

“There’s a lot of full circle moments going on,” Pope said. “Coach Tom took me to my first junior national meet when I was 16. Cruz is going to swim at the Kamehameha Big Island pool in Hilo. And that is where my first two high school state titles were accomplished. 

“So we’re definitely hoping he’ll be blazing a new track, but at the same time I’ll be there to kind of have some reminiscing.”

“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.