LIHUE — The cold, 20 mph winds buffeting Vidinha Stadium may have helped the Kauai Interscholastic Federation track and field participants Thursday.
Tianalee Apilado of Waimea High School clenched her fist and pumped it after learning the results of her first throw in the girls discus.
“We practiced hard,” Apilado said after finding out her first throw of 99 feet exceeded her throw of 97 feet last week. “The wind kind of helped — it’s blowing in the right direction.”
Apilado was one six female student-athletes who earned state consideration standards in various events Thursday.
Natalie Nishioka of Kauai High School was a double winner and garnered consideration standards with her first finishes in the girls 100 meter hurdles, (17.06) and the girls 300 meter hurdles (52.01).
Waimea’s Leann Lopez, finishing second in the girls 100 meter hurdles (17.49) also surpassed the 2014 state consideration time of 17.74.
Kapaa’s Heather Faretta pocketed a consideration leap in the girls high jump, easily surpassing last week’s leap of 4 feet, 6 inches and the state consideration mark (4-08) by soaring 4 feet, 10 inches.
The Kauai High School girls 4×100 relay team completed the state performances and crossed the finish line at 53.83 for the consideration standard.
Michael Miller of Island School and Henry Delos Reyes of Waimea set the bar for the boys. Both student-athletes pocketed the first state auto times for the season. Overall, the boys nailed two auto standards and five consideration marks.
Miller broke into the state books with a run of 9 minutes, 36.34 seconds in the boys 3,000 meter run, surpassing the auto standard by nearly a second.
Delos Reyes, a multiple state standard winner, pocketed his auto standard in the boys triple jump, leaping for 42 feet, 9 inches, surpassing the auto standard by six inches. He also pocketed consideration standards in the boys long jump with his first finish of 19-02.25, and the boys high jump where he tied with Junard Mata of Kapaa at 5 feet, 8 inches.
Noah LaMadrid of Kapaa rounded out the individual state performers with a second-place finish in the boys long jump with a leap of 19-01.50.
The remaining consideration marks came with Kapaa High School’s (45.80) first finish in the boys 4×100 relay and Kauai High School’s (46.62) second-place finish in the event.
The next KIF qualifying track meet takes place at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 26 at Vidinha Stadium.
