Hall pass: Lena Hayakawa

Swimming is an individual sport, but Lena Hayakawa became the first from Mid-Pacific’s strong program to be inducted into the Hall of Honor by keeping team in mind.

Hayakawa will be enshrined with 11 others on June 7 at the Dole Cannery Square’s Pomaikai Ballroom.

It’s not as if Hayakawa is not the state’s fastest female swimmer, because she has been since teammate Summer Harrison and fellow Hall of Honor inductee Jasmine Mau of Punahou graduated last year.

Hayakawa has hauled in seven individual golds in her high school career, five of them in relays.

She owned the 200 medley relay in her freshman year, but the Owls finished second to Punahou. After that, she seemed to make her sole purpose helping her talented teammates over the dynasty.

She took the 200 freestyle relay as a sophomore and second to Kealakehe’s Cara Jernigan in the 100 breast stroke, but excelled in the relays to take down the Buffanblu.

She teammed with Harrison, Rebecca Walton and Gayla McQuaid to take the 200 medley relay and 400 free relays and the Owls had their first team championship.

Mid-Pacific took second to Punahou in Hayakawa’s junior year, then she helped the Owls, who run a platoon at foes rather than the Buffanblu’s army, pull the upset again in her senior year.

With Harrison off to college, Hayakawa told her coaches to put her anywhere where she would score the most team points. That took away her chance of winning the 200 free for the second time in three years, racing the 200 individual medley for the first time at the state level and winning it. She finished second in the 500 free, also her first time in that event at the state level, but anchored the Owls to a second-place finish in the 200 medley relay and first in the 400 free relay.

Hayakawa, who will continue her career at Tulane, has been swimming since she was eight years old.

She closed her high school career knowing that she had never finished lower than fourth in a state race and counts her performance at the 2014 Oceana Games in New Zealand as one of her highlights.

She took to the pool with a 100 degree fever and all of the maladies that come with it but still finished in the top three of both of her races and earn a medal while wearing “U.S.A.” on her chest.

Hall of Honor recipients from Mid-Pacific
1984: Donny Ma’a, Football
1993: Robby Robinson, Baseball
1999: Kristopher Cuaresma-Primm, Football
2012: Keiki Carlos, softball
2014: Josh Terao, wrestling, judo
2015: Lena Hayakawa, Swimming

Hall of Honor Members