LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i High School track and field team captured the overall honor for the combined scores of both boys and girls at the Mayor’s Invitational Track Meet, Friday at Vidinha Stadium. En route to that feat, the Red
LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i High School track and field team captured the overall honor for the combined scores of both boys and girls at the Mayor’s Invitational Track Meet, Friday at Vidinha Stadium.
En route to that feat, the Red Raider boys took top honors with 147 points, leading to the 318 combined points.
Kapa‘a High School, almost all of its athletes already disappearing into the night, was announced as the girls winner with 184 points.
Bill Arakaki, the Kaua‘i Complex Area Superintendant, was among the spectators watching the action unfolding in the brisk night wind.
“I remember coming to this meet with the Waipahu team,” Arakaki said in a casual conversation. “Those days, we ran on a dirt and cinder track with hand timing.”
A lot of things have changed since those days.
Vidinha Stadium now sports a rubberized track, a computerized timing system, and qualified officials on the field.
There also were only the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation field of athletes from Island School, Kaua‘i, Waimea and Kapa‘a high schools.
Arakaki suggested the Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association should consider having the Vidinha Stadium in its rotation for state meets.
“If the athletes from the other schools know the state meet will be held here, they would come to run on the Vidinha track because this would be one of the state sites,” Arakaki said. “Even if we had the rotation once every 10 years, it would help.”
Adding to the distraction, the Velasco track meet is being held on O‘ahu this weekend and coupled with high inter-island travel costs, the field was limited to KIF student-athletes taking advantage of the event to try and qualify for the upcoming state track meet.
Waimea’s Jayme Jacinto, this week running in the absence of Kawehi Louis-Diamond who qualified for states last week, opened the meet with a first-place run of 16.53 in the 300 Hurdles, handily besting the 2009 state standard of 17.14.
Second place finisher Rachael Hinkel of Kapa‘a stopped the clock at 17.89, less than a second off the state standard.
Jacinto’s second medal run, the 300 Meter Hurdles, came up short, 49.70 for first place, but about a half-second short of the state standard of 49.44.
Waimea’s Moses Fierro came up with double state qualifying events, finishing first at 10.95 in the Boys 100 Meter Dash and stopping the clock at 22.11 in the Boys 200 Meter Dash.
“Right now, that’s the fastest time in the state,” said Ross Shimabukuro, athletic director for Kaua‘i High School who referred to a Web site which keeps track of leading track student-athletes’ performances.
Dave Walker, a Waimea coach said the Web site is pretty accurate in what it posts.
Fierro’s performance in the 100 Dash bested the state standard of 11.24, and his run in the 200 Dash bettered the 23.04 state standard.
“He stumbled, too,” Walker said. “Can you imagine if he didn’t have the stumble? He would have been faster.”
Pierce Murphy of Island School continued to rule the distance events, but for this week, tried out for the Boys 800 Meter Run.
As in the distance events, Murphy was first across the line by about 18 seconds over Keoni Mattos (2:24.30). Murphy stopped the clock at 2:06.12, earning a state consideration (2:06.84).
“This is a hard event because it’s between a sprint and the distance run,” Walker said.
But in the 1500 Meter Run, Pierce stopped the clock at 4:13.14 (4:24.14 state standard) over second finisher Joshua Herr of Kaua‘i High School, who worked his way up the pack to finish second at 4:55.83.
“Right now, that’s top in the state,” said Dr. Shawn Murphy, Pierce’s dad who called out lap times during the race. “He finished today by taking about six seconds off his last race.”
Kaua‘i’s Darren Acoba picked up a state time on the Boys 110 Meter Hurdles, coming right off Jacinto’s run to stop the clock at 15.44 for first place and bettering the state standard of 16.04. Waimea’s Nelson Acosta finished second on a 16.87 run, about a half-second short of the state consideration standard.
But the Menehune Boys 4×100 Meter Relay team edged out Kaua‘i High School’s team en route to getting a state standard, stopping the clocks at 43.39 (45.14 state).
Kaua‘i High School’s “A” team in second place, stopped the clock at 45.31, besting the state consideration standard of 45.94.
Waimea’s Torrey Santiago, already qualifying for state last week, topped the Boys Long Jump on a leap of 21’2” to surpass the state standard of 20’1.25.”
Malcolm Carter, already qualifying last week, topped the Boys Triple Jump on a leap of 41’1,” besting the state standard.
Santiago, in his second-place finish in the Triple Jump, earned a consideration leap (40.10.50”) with his jump of 40’3.”
The next KIF qualifying meet will start at 4:30 p.m., Friday at Vidinha Stadium.
