Two Kauai Interscholastic Federation records fell as the Waimea girls track team and the Kapaa boys track team earned titles Friday at Vidinha Stadium. The Menehune ladies finished the two-day event with 152 points to claim the KIF Girls Track
Two Kauai Interscholastic Federation records fell as the Waimea girls track team and the Kapaa boys track team earned titles Friday at Vidinha Stadium.
The Menehune ladies finished the two-day event with 152 points to claim the KIF Girls Track Championship followed by Island School at 109 points, Kauai at 107 points and Kapaa at 94 points.
On the boys’ side, Kapaa High School rose to 169 points and the KIF title followed by the Kauai boys at 141 points, Waimea at 78 points and Island School at 67 points.
School representatives will decide which athletes they’ll take to the state tournament May 9-10.
Close calls,
top finishes
Although finishing second in the boys’ arena, Kauai’s Christian Sarmiento broke a 1997 KIF record set by Kelly Ueoka in the long jump, when he jumped 21 feet, 9.75 inches, qualifying for the state meet (21-77.25) and breaking Ueoka’s record of 21-9.
Chan Hsu, second-year distance runner for Island School, claimed a KIF record in the girls’ arena, crossing the 400 meter dash on a 1:03.24 run to earn a consideration for the state (1:03.14), but bettering the 1:03.72 KIF record set in 1999 by Jasmine Barber.
Basil Scott, the KIF scorekeeper, said the weather turned tougher Friday with the increase in winds slowing down runners.
Kauai’s Krista Schnackenberg had been eyeing the KIF record of her coach Chelsea Wishard-Smith (2:28.02) set in 2006. With a season-best 2:29.22, Wishard-Smith was confident her record was going to fall during the Friday championships.
“You got it! You got it!” an excited Hsu of Island School said, hugging Schnackenberg in the blustery finish.
But the effort fell short as Schnackenberg’s top finish (2:29.28) was .26 second short of the record. But it did earn a state consideration (2:33.64).
Hsu finished second at 2:34.62, just short of the consideration. But she earned the KIF record in the 400 meter dash and finishing tops in the 1,500 meter run (5:13.05) for a consideration standard (5:20.34).
Boys results
Sarmiento battled Waimea’s Henry Delos Reyes through the entire series, finally getting a KIF record in the boys long jump. Delos Reyes finished second at 20-07.50.
The tables turned in the triple jump where Delos Reyes rose to the top on a 41-10.75 leap for consideration (40-01.25), edging out Sarmiento, who finished second at 40-01.00.
Sarmiento rounded out his achievements with a top finish in the high jump at 5-08 for a consideration.
On the discus field, Kapaa’s Rusty Ah Loo Brewer and Kauai’s Kalani Lemalu earned consideration flings. Ah Loo Brewer topped the event at 129-06 and Lemalu ending second at 129-0 for consideration (125-10).
Kauai’s Charles Samuel was on a record pace in the 800 meter run Thursday. But with just one runner, there was no record. Instead, Charles posted his season-best 2:06.45 for a top finish Friday, beating out Island School’s Josh Miller (2:13.59) for a consideration (2:07.64) run and falling short of the 2:05.31 KIF record set in 2009 by Island School’s Pierce Murphy.
Samuel was also part of the boys 4×400 relay team, which earned a consideration (3:50.84) with its first finish of 3:44.77 nearly four seconds ahead of the Island School team (3:48.80) who also earned a consideration run.
Joining Samuel, who ran the third leg of the relay, the Kauai team included Joshua Manini, Jared Okayama, Samuel and Sarmiento.
“He wanted an individual event,” said Dean Okayama, Jared’s father. “But he was just .40 second short, finishing 23.70 in the finals of the boys 200 meter dash for third place.”
Kapaa’s Gavin Bryan, placing fifth in the preliminaries Thursday, rose to run a 23.57 to finish first, falling just short of the consideration 23.34.
In the 100 meter dash, Jared posted a second finish to Waimea’s Destin Miguel (11.26) for a season best run and a consideration (11.44), leaving Jared (11.48) just .04 second shy of a consideration.
The Island School Boys 4×400 Relay team saw Josh Miller open the event with Kellan Wortmann in the second leg, Emanuel Zafirides in the third leg and Kyle Riddle on anchor.
Zafirides earlier posted a consideration with his first finish in the 400 meter dash at 52.94.
Miller had earlier posted his season-best run in the 1,500 meter run where he overtook Kapaa’s Micah Nobriga-Ferris in the final 400 meters to claim first at 4:30.94 over Nobriga-Ferris’ 4:32.28.
Waimea, Kapaa and Kauai high schools’ 4×100 relay teams earned consideration performances with their 1-2-3 respective finishes. Waimea stopped the clocks at 45.19, Kapaa at 45.40 and Kauai at 46.28 for consideration runs (46.84).
Girls results
Over on the girls’ course, Island School’s Allison Culliney leaped for a season-best 33-07 to beat out teammate Moeko Fukada (32-09) who also posted a season-best leap, but settled for second after leading the event throughout the season. Both girls earned consideration leaps.
Waimea senior Kawena Warren had control of the long and high jumps through most of the track season. During the finals, however, she was upset in the high jump, when teammate Talia Young topped the event at 4-10. Warren finished third below Kapaa freshman Heather Faretta. Both jumpers clearing 4-08 but Faretta did in fewer tries. All three girls get state consideration at 4-08.
In the long jump pit, Warren finished below teammate Taylor Gaspar at a season-best 16-00.25 tie, Gaspar getting the top spot on jumps.
Warren redeemed those performances by posting a season-best 15.62 first finish in the 100 meter hurdles for a qualifying (16.24) run. She gave teammate Leann Lopez a huge hug after Lopez (17.59) finished second ahead of Kauai’s Natalie Nishioka (17.68. Both Lopez and Nishioka earned consideration nods (17.74).
Warren closed her night with a top finish in the 300 meter hurdles (51.40) for a consideration. Hsu, in addition to her KIF record, topped the 1,500 meter run at 5:13.05 for a consideration (5:20.34).
From out of nowhere, Kauai’s Jordan Ganam shook up the 100 meter dash, breaking in a season-best 13.01 for top seed in the preliminaries and relegating the season leader, Waimea’s Kaena Kaohelaulii (13.30) to No. 2.
Ganam repeated the performance during the finals, stopping the clock at 12.96 bettering her Thursday’s run and getting a consideration along with Kaohelaulii (13.04) in the finals.
The girls rounded out their state performances as the first and second place teams, both from Kauai High School earned consideration runs in the girls 4 x 100 meter relay at 52.99 and 54.68, respectively.
The girls 4×400 meter relay teams also earned consideration (4:36.64) runs with its first and second place finish.
Kauai High’s team stopped the clock at 4:26.34, followed by the Island School team at 4:30.74.
