Liberty’s Kevin Hays | Senior swimmer spotlight

Simply put, Liberty senior Kevin Hays can fit more into a day than most. Hays had a strong performance at the KingCo swim meet in the evening Feb. 4, making the finals in four events and helping the Patriots to third place overall.

Simply put, Liberty senior Kevin Hays can fit more into a day than most.

Hays had a strong performance at the KingCo swim meet in the evening Feb. 4, making the finals in four events and helping the Patriots to third place overall.

In the morning he was at the Lynden Open, improving on his world-record time in the 6 X 6 Rubik’s Cube (he also won the 2 X 2 and 3 X 3 categories at the Lynden competition).

Hays owns the world record in both single time for a 6 X 6 cube, at one minute, 54.81 seconds and the average time, at 2:00.43.

“It’s pretty amazing to hold the world record in anything,” said Liberty coach Kris Daughters. “I will remember Kevin years down the road because he’s just got a mind for numbers.”

Hays has MIT and Stanford as his top two options for college, where he’d like to study match and physics. He’s also considering Carnegie Mellon, Tufts and Case Western.

“If I go to one of the Division III schools I’ll probably swim on the team, which would be a lot of fun,” he said.

In the pool, Daughters said Hays is an excellent leader because he’s a club swimmer that makes high school swimming his priority. Despite the fact that he’s also been swimming with the Issaquah Swim Team, he’s only missed one Liberty practice in his four years.

“It’s nice for the other kids to see a club swimmer who doesn’t miss practice,” Daughters said. “He loves high school swimming and it’s really nice to have someone like that on the team.”

Hays made the 3A state meet in all three relays for the Patriots last year, placing fifth in the 200 medley and seventh in the 400 free. This year he’s qualified individually in the 100 breast and will also be a key part of the Patriots’ relays.