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The Maui News 2015-16 MIL Swimming and Diving All-Stars

The Maui Interscholastic League has produced an impressive list of top-flight swimmers over the years. Kysha Altura, Maverick Donohue and Jared Gaastra learned that growing up.

Altura, a Maui Preparatory Academy sophomore, is the choice of the league coaches as The Maui News MIL Girl Swimmer of the Year. Donohue, a Baldwin senior, and Gaastra, a Lahainaluna junior, are co-MIL Boy Swimmers of the Year.

Altura won the 100-yard backstroke and the 200 individual medley at the MIL championships before placing second in the 100 backstroke and third in the 100 butterfly at the state meet. She follows former MPA standout Danielle Jefferies, who won the last two MIL Girl Swimmer of the Year awards.

“I’m actually kind of surprised I got it,” Altura said Friday while at a Hawaii Swim Club practice. “It’s really nice to have Danielle be the inspiration of trying to get that. I find it (good) that people can know about Maui Prep and so that you can, like, go to Maui Prep and see that we’re not just a small school. We’re also a great school. We focus on academics and also on swimming.”

Altura is joined on the girls first team by Seabury Hall’s Jasmine O’Brien, Maui High’s Lauryn Gillis and Caroline Short, Baldwin’s Rebecca Buenrostro-Gallimore, Kaimilani Matsumoto and Dana Leonhard and Lahainaluna’s Sydney Wagner. The first-team diver is Seabury’s Cloe Cadiz.

Altura lives in Paia, works out in the mornings and afternoons in Kahului and attends school in Napili. A typical day starts at 4:15 a.m. and homework often pushes well past midnight.

“I’m trying to get my (driver’s) license as soon as possible to help out my parents,” she said.

“I enjoy it a lot – two of my favorite things are school and swimming.”

Donohue took first place in the 200 individual medley and finished second in the 100 breaststroke in the MIL championships before placing sixth in the 100 breaststroke and seventh in the 100 butterfly at state. He plans to compete for Concordia University in Irvine, Calif., next year.

Donohue follows former Baldwin standouts including Troy Kojenlang, an international competitor for the Marshall Islands, and Jonah Hu, now a junior at Southern California, as a swimmer of the year.

“It’s amazing, it feels really great,” Donohue said. “Going to Baldwin and to see all my friends before me get this and then my senior year getting it, it just feels really great. “

Donohue said he also looks up to Renny Richmond, currently a junior at Arizona who won two individual medals and was on a pair of championship relays at the recent Pac-12 meet.

“Maui, being such a small place, provides so many good swimmers; the coaches are great, too,” Donohue said. “It feels really good to look at all those names and see mine there, too.”

Gaastra and Donohue have battled in the pool since they were young age-group swimmers.

“It was something I was thinking about during swimming this year, it was something I was trying to get,” Gaastra said of the award. “It’s really cool to share it with Maverick. We have grown up together swimming against each other, so to actually share it with one of my good friends and competitors, it’s a really cool opportunity. We both don’t like to lose and he is definitely someone who made me better.”

The rest of the boys first team comprises Seabury’s Dylan Kresge and Destin Altman, Baldwin’s Christian Saito, Haleakala Waldorf’s Riordan Grace, Maui Prep’s Coleman Kingwell and Molokai’s Keao Ross.

Gaastra, who has worked out with Richmond with Lahaina Swim Club, also said he will never forget watching Jack Pope, a six-time state champion for Lahainaluna who swam collegiately at Pacific.

“I remember watching him swim a 200 free once at a meet and watching him dominate the field,” said Gaastra, who won the MIL 200 and 500 free-styles and then was third in the state 200 and fifth in the 500. “And I thought to myself, ‘That’s who I want to be.’

“Growing up I remember seeing the records, Maui County records. Swimming with Renny was a big influence with me. I swam against him a few times, worked out with him. It was just a lot of fun. So, Renny and Jack.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.

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