LIHUE — Kauai Interscholastic Federation athletes posted eight state meet qualifying marks following the meet Thursday at Vidinha Stadium, one week ahead of the annual Rotary Track and Field Meet.
“That Kapaa boy, Zion Williams,” said Dan Ahuna, a parent volunteer handling the jump pit, “he jumped 42 feet, 7 inches in the triple jump to make the state mark (41-01.75). Last week, he made the long jump. This week, since he already qualified in the long jump, he thought he would add the triple jump to his qualifying marks. We gotta work on his high jump next.”
Taegan Keep from Kauai High School added a new state mark to her arsenal as well after qualifying for the discus in the first qualifying meet.
She continued to throw the discus, but had no improvement over her previous throw. However, she put the shot 32, feet, 11 inches to qualify for the state meet in that discipline, surpassing the standard of 32 feet, 1 inch by nearly a foot.
Kauai’s Waileia Edwards hit the state qualifying height of 4 feet, 10 inches in the girls high jump, beating out Kapaa’s Jaliyah Casem, who settled at 4 feet 8 inches.
The Waimea High School girls 4×100 relay team topped the field of three teams on a 53.04 run, surpassing the state mark by a tenth of a second.
Waimea’s Monique Joy Lorenzo has been battling Kapaa’s Briana Binder from the first meet, both girls already collecting state marks, by breaking into the 16-second mark earlier in the 100-meter hurdles.
On Thursday, the battle continued as the athletes tried to better their state marks with Lorenzo overtaking Binder before the midway mark en route to stopping the clock at 17.10 seconds, not better than her previous run but enough to beat the Warrior.
Menehune athlete Makana Duncan topped the 200-meter run, stopping the clock at 27.46 seconds, very close to the state qualifying mark of 27.04.
Kapaa’s Garret Smith and Island School’s Joshua Graves each netted state times with their first- and second-place finishes in the 1,500-meter run. Smith stopped the clock at 4:19.31, a mere .39 second ahead of Graves, who ended at 4:19.70. The state standard for the boys in the event is 4:23.64.
Kauai’s Mark Tabalbag hit the high jump at 6 feet even to claim his state mark that is set at 5 feet, 10 inches.
The annual Rotary Track and Field meet will contest Thursday starting at 4:30 p.m. at Vidinha Stadium.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
