KIHEI — Cheers erupted through the Kihei Aquatic Center as the Maui Preparatory Academy boys and girls were announced over the intercom as Maui Interscholastic League champions, the first-ever team swim titles for the school.

Achieving program history and sweeping the meet was “a long time coming,” head coach Mike “Tex” Ritter said Wednesday.

“These guys have worked so hard and I’ve just been so fortunate to have such great kids to swim with us this year,” Ritter said. “The school has been supporting us greatly and it’s just been a dream come true. This is our 16th season, my 16th year coaching the team and we’ve been working really hard every year to get to this point.”

While the focus for teams is oftentimes on the relays since they are worth double the points, Ritter said Na Pueo’s success is owed to the teams’ depth, with swimmers earning spots all over the podium.

“I’m so proud of all of them, they are great kids,” he said.

It was “absolutely amazing” to watch the athletes from the small Napili school compete Wednesday, said athletic director Zach Bailey after giving congratulatory high-fives and handshakes.

“The coaching staff and the kids, they came out and they performed, which they have been doing all season long,” Bailey said. “It’s a testament to their dedication and work that they put in the offseason, in season, and I’m just extremely proud to be a part of this school and recognize these student-athletes because they absolutely deserve it.”

The girls standings were close as Maui Prep fought defending MIL champion Maui High for the title. Na Pueo finished with 66 points, just three ahead of the Sabers. Seabury placed third with 42 points.

The MPA boys won with 61 points, beating out King Kekaulike (45 points) and Baldwin (34).

Na Pueo’s boys were led by junior Legend Storer, who captured two individual gold medals on Wednesday and helped MPA to wins in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.

“I love my team, it feels good,” Storer said. “It feels really great. All the hard work that I put in and seeing results, it’s really great.”

Early in the afternoon of the championship meet — which had been postponed Saturday and consisted of timed finals after Friday’s prelims were canceled due to inclement weather — Storer won the 50 free with a time of 22.11 seconds, two-tenths ahead of Lahainaluna sophomore Jake McGill.

In the 100 breaststroke, Storer battled side by side with Bears senior Ken Yamashiro. One last push after the final flip turn got the junior a time of 1:02.20 — he hopes to break a minute at next week’s state championship.

In two exciting races, Maui High freshman Aika Swanson won gold in the girls 200 and 500 freestyles with times of 1:57.10 and 5:07.28, respectively. She was also on the winning girls 200 medley relay that finished with a time of 1:53.30.

“It feels really good, It’s my first (MIL championship). It’s really fun, I like it,” Swanson said. “Both were goals of mine, I’m really happy about it.”

In the 500, Swanson had Maui Prep’s strong freshman Sacha Salem and Seabury veteran Helena Colletta tied on her left and right shoulders through most of the laps.

“My coach just told me to race and try to dominate as much as I can, so I always just wanted to be ahead of everyone,” Swanson said. “As soon as I saw one of them catching up, I was like, ‘oh, I have to go,’ and I could see my coach yelling and jumping.”

From the pool deck, it was about 300 yards in that Swanson surged ahead by a few strokes and maintained her lead until the end.

“It’s a great experience, I’m so excited,” said Salem, who had won the girls 200 IM earlier in the day with a 2:12.13. “I think I could have swam faster in the 500, but hey, it’s OK. It’s my first year in high school so I think I did pretty good. It was tough, Aika is really fast. It was fun.”

Still, the top girls’ 500 times were competitive among the boys results, which was led by Maui High’s two-time gold medalist Niji Wada with a time of 4:53.24.

Maui High’s Karissa Ginoza and Seabury’s Kalla Pellettieri were also two-time champions on Wednesday, which made the team standings interesting.

Ginoza won the girls 100 butterfly in 58.15 as Maui Prep’s Yuna Lee hung on for second with a time of 1:00.03. The Sabers senior was also victorious in the 100 backstroke with a 59.30 and led the girls to a win in the 400 free relay at the end of the day.

Pellettieri swam a winning time of 24.80 in the girls 50 free, which qualifies her for sectionals, and a 54.18 in the 100 free just a few races later.

“I’m really happy, I’ve been training really hard for the past couple of months,” the Spartans senior said. “I’m not sure if I could have gone faster. I’m kind of sad about not having prelims and having that second chance, but I’m overall pretty happy.”

After 16 of 24 events, Maui High led MPA in the girls team scores 39-35, while Maui High and King Kekaulike were tied at 24 points atop the boys standings.

However, the Na Pueo coach was confident about where his swimmers stood.

“I knew the back half of the meet was ours,” Ritter said. “I knew that if we were in range come the 200 freestyle relay, the back half was ours, just with the depth that we had in the breaststroke and the backstroke. It was great.”

And the Na Pueo girls team of Layla Merrill, Danna Kuperman, Sadie Stafford and Mia Merrill followed suit as they earned key points in a thrilling 200 free relay, just edging the Spartans by half a second.

Shortly after, the Maui Prep boys team of Storer, Noah Caiserman, Carter Bozich and TJ Hehemann won their 200 free relay by over 5 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Baldwin.

The Pueo boys finished off the meet with medals around their necks from the 400 free relay, where they swam a 3:21.80, a performance that they hope will get them on the podium at the K. Mark Takai/HHSAA Swimming & Diving Championships at the University of Hawaii, Storer said.

“Those are my boys,” he said. “We train hard together and then we come here and do our best and it feels good to see results.”

* Dakota Grossman is at dgrossman@mauinews.com.