Kalani’s DongJin Hwang finished his remarkable swimming career with two more gold medals at the Oahu Interscholastic Association championships Saturday at Veterans Memorial Aquatic Complex.
All told, Hwang has 10 total gold medals in his collection.
Hwang also topped his 500-yard freestyle record twice over the weekend. In Friday’s trials, he covered the distance in 4 minutes, 36.58 seconds to break the mark of 4:37.17 he set last year.
Then, on Saturday, Hwang, who says he goes by DJ, blazed to a 4:33.76 to win the OIA 500 free title for the third time. He also swam to a win in the 200 freestyle (1:45.03) Saturday.
Hwang is the first 10-time OIA gold-medal winner since Kevin Frifeldt of Mililani, who chalked up 11 golds from 2011 to 2014.
“It’s a good indication that (I’m) doing the right things,” said Hwang, who will swim for Northwestern next season. “There are couple of things to tweak here and there. Wish I could have gone faster.”
Early next month, he’ll go for his second straight state gold medal in the 500 free.
Hwang was asked where some of his other Hawaii high school swimming friends are going to college, and he noted the following commitments:
>> Lia Foster, Punahou (UCLA)
>> Maddie Balish, Punahou (BYU)
>> Maia Petride, Mid-Pacific (Washington State)
He also said two other top Hawaii swimmers are undecided:
>> M.J. Mau, Maryknoll
>> Albert Zhi, Maryknoll
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