LIHUE — The cold winds and strong threat of rain may have deterred track and field fans from Vidinha Stadium Thursday during the Kauai Interscholastic Federation qualifying track meet.
The weather also pared down the field to those set on making state-qualifying standards.
Kapaa’s Brianna Binder stumbled to Waimea’s Monique Joy Lorenzo during last week’s girls 100-meter hurdles, Lorenzo surging past the finish electronics just .10 shy of the 17.14 qualifying bar. This motivation fueled the results of the Thursday night meet where Binder, getting help from the chilly winds blowing in off the Lihue Airport, cleared the finish line first on a 16.81 run, dogged by Lorenzo who stopped the clocks at 16.97 — both runners making the qualifying standards.
Kauai’s girls 4×100 relay team also pushed strong in the cold winds to take first in that event, nearly two seconds ahead of the Warriors’ team. The effort resulted in a 52.55 run around the track, bettering the state qualification time of 53.14. Kapaa’s second finish at 54.30 is still chasing the bar.
Red Raider Waileia Edwards was jockeying between sprints, high jump and long jump. After missing the cut in the other events, Edwards found her mark in the long jump, where she topped the field of 13 leapers to clear 16 feet, 8.75 inches, surpassing the state mark of 16 feet, 2 inches.
Kauai’s Taegan Keep, the state 2017 girls discus champion, rounded out the evening’s girls’ achievements after extracting gasps from the audience with her longest toss clearing 137-07, easily surpassing the qualifying standard of 103-02, and even farther than her state championship throw of 135 feet.
Following a string of almosts, led by Island School’s Kyle Leibow in the sprints and Joshua Graves in the distance running, Kapaa’s Zion Williams found his mark.
“He made states,” said Dan Ahuna, the KIF volunteer in charge of the jump pits. “Zion hit 21 feet (3 inches), easily getting past the state standard of 20 feet, 5 inches. He said they didn’t have a coach. After hearing that, I thought I would help him out because he was missing his mark. Just that little thing made a big difference. He’s going to states!”
The difference carried over to the boys triple jump, where the Kapaa athlete finished with a leap of 37-07.75, falling short of the state standard 41.01.75.
“Look at where he started from,” Ahuna said. “He is missing his mark. If he makes that adjustment, he definitely can add an easy 4 feet to make states.”
The next KIF qualifying meet is 4:30 p.m. March 29 at Vidinha Stadium.
