LIHU‘E — It was a banner year for the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation track and field participants, with conference records falling in numerous events. That success continued into the HHSAA Island Movers Track & Field Championships, Saturday night as the KIF
LIHU‘E — It was a banner year for the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation track and field participants, with conference records falling in numerous events.
That success continued into the HHSAA Island Movers Track & Field Championships, Saturday night as the KIF was represented in 11 final heats and will be heading home with six medals — including five golds — and a new state record.
Waimea High School’s Moses Fierro successfully defended his 2009 gold-medal sprint in the 200 Meter Dash, gathering another gold with a run of 22.23 seconds, more than a half-second faster than the second-place finisher.
Unlike last year where Fierro came from way down the seeding list to a surprise first place, he was no underdog this time around as one of the top sprinters in Hawai‘i.
Fierro added to his collection with another gold-medal sprint in the 100 Meter Dash, crossing the tape in 11.07 seconds. Waimea teammate Torrey Santiago finished just off the medal stand in fourth place with a time of 11.31 seconds.
Santiago was not shut out of the hardware, as he secured the gold medal in the Long Jump. He leapt 22 feet, 5 inches to win the event by a full five inches after coming in as the top seed in the state.
Santiago also made it to the Triple Jump finals, along with fellow Menehune teammate Malcolm Carter. The boys finished in seventh and eighth place, respectively. Santiago went 43 feet, 2 1/2 inches, while Carter went 42 feet, 11 1/4 inches.
They had another shot at a medal in the 4×100 Meter Relay after making the final eight, but the Waimea foursome was disqualified in the final.
The Waimea boys team finished third overall in team competition with 34 points. Punahou took first with 70 points and Kamehameha-Kapalama was second with 66.67 points.
Island School’s Pierce Murphy has secured his spot among Hawai‘i’s top long-distance runners over the past two seasons. He made certain he stayed there with his performance Saturday in both the 1,500 and 3,000 Meter runs.
Murphy is now the HHSAA meet record-holder in the 1,500 after putting up a time of 4 minutes, 2.1 seconds to just eke out the gold against Kamehameha-Kapalama’s Jordan Thibodeau, a mere 0.6 seconds behind.
Both runners outpaced the rest of the field by more than 10 seconds and broke the previous HHSAA state mark of 4:03.98, set by King Kekaulike’s Reid Hunter just last year.
Back on the track for the 3,000 Meters, Murphy almost notched his second state record of the night, coming home in 8:53.47 — just 0.57 seconds behind the Hawai‘i record set last year by Bryce Jenkins of Leilehua.
Murphy saw little resistance from the rest of the field, finishing almost 34 seconds ahead of the second-place runner.
In the girls events, Kaua‘i High School’s Kawehi Louis-Diamond, who showed tremendous natural ability in the KIF as just a freshman this season, took the bronze medal in the 100 Meter Hurdles on a time of 15.71 seconds.
Waimea’s Jayme Jacinto also raced in the 100 Meter Hurdles final and took sixth place, finishing in 16.07 seconds.
Jacinto then placed fifth in the 300 Meter Hurdles, completing the course in 47.41 seconds.
Kaua‘i’s Reanna Javinar made it to the Girls Triple Jump final and finished in seventh place at 34 feet, 1/4 inch.
The Raiders also made the final for the Girls 4×100 Meter Relay and just missed the top three, finishing fourth with a time of 50.70 seconds. That race featured two teams, Radford and Punahou, both breaking the meet record of 48.92 seconds, which had stood since 1999.
