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Brown continues family legacy

Maui High senior excited to take her swimming talents to Rhode Island

Maui High School’s Jordynn Brown competes in the girls 200-yard freestyle final at the K. Mark Takai Swimming and Diving State Championships on Feb. 15, 2020 at Kihei Aquatic Center. Brown finished second in the race. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

WAILUKU — Jordynn Brown was born for this.

The Maui High School senior recently signed to swim for the University of Rhode Island.

Her mom, Kristine Hayashi, was a four-time state champion in the 100-yard breaststroke for Baldwin who competed collegiately at the University of San Diego.

Brown’s late grandfather, Rodney Hayashi, was a highly respected veteran swim coach for Hawaii Swim Club.

Even with her senior season of high school swimming swept away by the COVID-19 pandemic, Brown is excited for the future.

Maui High’s Jordynn Brown finishes fourth in the girls 100-yard backstroke at the state championships on Feb. 10, 2018 at Kihei Aquatic Center. Brown’s best state finish in the 100 back came in 2019, when she placed third. The Maui News file photo

“I think I’m OK, I’ve accepted it and I’m just looking forward to the future,” Brown said before HSC practice at Sakamoto Pool on Thursday evening.

Having her swimming scholarship in hand has given Brown peace of mind.

“I’m very relieved — I know some people that don’t know where they’re going, athletes that don’t know where they’re going and it’s stressful,” Brown said. “With everything going on I’m just happy that I can have that be done and over with and I’m excited.”

She is enjoying the workouts that are being allowed by the county at Sakamoto Pool.

Brown said that the workouts help ease the pain of losing her senior prep season.

Brown

“It definitely does because we’re all sad together,” she said. “We’re all trying to help each other through and we’re, like, ‘It’s OK, we can do this,’ have fun and coach Reid (Yamamoto) has been super, super encouraging.”

Yamamoto coached HSC with Rodney Hayashi for many years and is a former state champion at Hawaii Baptist Academy and standout for the University of Hawaii. Hayashi died in 2016 at the age of 69.

“He says, ‘Yeah, we lost our season, but we’ve got to make the best of what we’ve got,’ “ Brown said of Yamamoto.

At states, Brown posted runner-up finishes in the 200-yard freestyle in 2019 and 2020. She also placed third in the 100 backstroke as a sophomore.

Yamamoto smiled under his face mask as he stood poolside when asked about Brown.

“It’s great, I’ve always wanted all my kids to go on and swim at the next level,” he said. “But to go (NCAA) D-I and to swim, I just feel happy for her, happy for Coach Rodney who passed away a few years ago. She’s competing at the next level and continuing her journey.”

Rhode Island swimming is getting a nearly always-smiling, cheerful young lady who has always been determined to step away from the norm.

“I’ve always known I wanted to go to the East Coast since I was a freshman,” Brown said. “And then when I was looking through schools — I had West Coast schools as well — but my biggest one was always East Coast. So, I focused a lot more on that.”

Once the online connection was made with the URI program, the die was cast pretty quickly.

“The Rhode Island coaches and the girls on the team just made me feel like I kind of belonged there — even though I couldn’t visit — just how they made it so amazing for me to, like, just chat with them,” Brown said. “I was, ‘OK, this is where I want to go.’ I felt as much at home as I could without being there.”

She can only remember being in the snow two times in her life, the last time about a year ago when she went to visit a friend in Alaska. She has been told she needs solid rain boots for the trek from campus to the URI pool.

“Rhode Island is on a hill, so walking from my dorms to where the pool is it’s a steep hill and I need good boots or I’m going to slip,” Brown said with a chuckle.

Brown knows she is following an impressive list of standout female swimmers from Maui, starting with her mom.

“It does feel good, I’m glad that I get to do the same thing she did,” Brown said. “Definitely a different place, but it’s still really awesome.”

She feels her grandfather — with whom she was extremely close — is somewhere watching with a smile.

“I think he would have been proud of me no matter what, whether I went to school for swimming or not,” Brown said. “When I made that decision the first place I went was my grandpa’s grave to tell him.”

Brown is looking forward to competing in the same conference — the Atlantic 10 — as former HSC teammate Kysha Altura, who is currently a junior at Fordham.

“It’s very, very cool,” Brown said. “It always has been a dream and growing up and watching the kids go to college swim D-I, I was like, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ I’ve always known and I’m so, so happy to be doing it.”

Brown lists her mother, Altura and former HSC swimmers Jenn Cahill and Libby Matthews as role models for her growing up. Matthews swam at Brown, while Cahill competed at Boise State and is now an assistant coach at Missouri.

“I really look up to Jen Cahill because she’s always been there for me and seeing her compete through school and now coaching, she’s a really big inspiration,” Brown said.

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com

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