In beautiful tranquil waters and clear blue skies, a pair of West Hawaii swimming standouts claimed top honors at Sunday’s Anaehoomalu Splash, a one-mile open water swim race held at Anaehoomalu Bay.
Kailua-Kona’s X Rose stopped the clock in a time of 20 minutes and 19 seconds to win the overall title on the men’s side, and Michelle Axelson won the women’s division with her time of 22:09.
While it was the first open water race wins for the duo who swim for different clubs — Rose with the Kona Dolphins and Axelson for the Kona Aquatics — both have recently smashed records in the pool thereby establishing them as pre-race favorites long before entering the ocean.
Rose, who is 15 years of age and home-schooled, won eight gold medals earlier in the year at the Hawaii Short Course Age-Group Championships. While 16-year-old Axelson claimed four gold medals at the BIIF Swimming and Diving Championships in February. On Sunday, it was time to make their splash in the ocean.
Shortly after the 8 a.m. start of the race, Triple Crown series race director and head coach for the Kona Aquatics, Dave Gibson, shared his thoughts on the turnout, the swim conditions, and who he felt were the ones to watch.
“We have over 175 participants today,” he said. “This is the first post-COVID open water race we’ve had on the island in awhile, so it’s actually turned out really well. So far, the conditions are calm though the wind is starting to pick up a little bit. But I think we will get the race done before it actually gets really windy out there.
“I think it’s the younger swimmers (who will win). I know Michelle Axelson is one of the better swimmers but there’s also Brenda Avery. Nolan Morton and X Rose for the men. Given the conditions today, the ocean is really flat. It’s really swimmable so we should see some fast times.”
Sure enough, Gibson was right.
From the shoreline, spectators could see that two swimmers had separated themselves from the field and now approached the final buoy line. One had an advantage, with the other right on his feet.
First to pop up from the water was Rose, who quickly transitioned into a full sprint up the beach to cross the finish line first in 20:19. Two-time defending champion (2018, 2019), Brock Imonen, chased just a few strides back to finish in second place with his time of 20:23. The race for third turned out to be an exciting tie between Nero Loreto and Kyle Katase, who each were given the time of 21:12.
“It feels pretty good,” Rose said of winning. “I’ve done this series before, but it’s been a long time since I’ve done this race and I’ve never won.”
Rose said his race strategy was to pace off of who he considered to be the fastest swimmer in the field, Imonen, as well as a few other key swimmers.
“(Imonen) lead for most of the way and then right at that last orange buoy turnaround, I kind of just picked it up. I was like, ‘I better hurry up because he is such a good swimmer.’ I just knew I had to push it to the end.”
Rose credited the calm conditions and his fellow swimmers for his first win.
“The conditions were good — it was nice to not have a lot of waves or wind. I like this swim because it’s a race and I love racing. It’s fun. But also thanks to Brock and the other people I’ve paced off of that helped to push me today.”
While the conditions were relatively calm, the women’s competition caused quite the commotion.
On the last straightaway to the sandy shoreline, the fight for first place came down to the wire — the final sprint up the beach. Simultaneously, three women touched sand and popped out of the water. Axelson had the speediest legs.
Axelson claimed gold in the women’s division in a fantastic time of 22:08, with Masters swimmers Susan Groff and Brenda Avery, hot on her heels to secure silver and bronze with their times of 22:13 and 22:14 respectively.
“Woo-Hoo! I don’t know how to describe winning any other way,” Axelson said just after crossing the finish line. “I know winning this is a big deal especially on this island and it’s just so cool to be able to swim against these top competitors. I honestly feel honored just being in the water with them. It’s just so exciting!”
Axelson, who is a sophomore at Kealakehe High School, said that while she has never competed in this race before, she liked the course.
“In the beginning it was a little murky, but once I got further out it then became beautiful, you could see everything because it was crystal clear,” she said. “I thought my coach (Brenda Avery) would be my competition, but I honestly didn’t know who else would be swimming today so I thought to just wing it. I just tried to stay in front of all the other girls.”
Axelson said that up until the halfway point, she only saw Avery swimming next to her.
“Then I saw that there was a third woman (Groff) with us. She swam in the middle of us and we stayed steady, swimming side-by-side the whole way. We were all so close, constantly bumping into each other. At the end I knew it would come down to whoever wants it more.
“Once I saw the boat, I started to pick up my pace, but I also noticed that they picked up their pace too. So, it didn’t really make much of a difference since we all were picking it up. Right at the end, I started to do longer strokes until I hit the sand. And then, I started running.”
Both Rose and Axelson plans to compete in the Triple Crown Swim Race Series. The swimmer with the fastest accumulated time from all three races will be deemed Big Island’s best — the Triple Crown winner.
Sunday’s Anaehoomalu Splash was the first stop in the Triple Crown Swim Race Series with the next race being the Hapuna Rough Water Swim on June 12, and the Kamakahonu Swim on July 3. Registration is open for the upcoming swim races on the Triple Crown website: www.oceanswimhawaii.com.