LIHU‘E — Eight Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation records fell and student-athletes pocketed a number of state times at the KIF Track and Field Championships, Friday night at Vidinha Stadium. Of the eight KIF records, one came in the girls arena and
LIHU‘E — Eight Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation records fell and student-athletes pocketed a number of state times at the KIF Track and Field Championships, Friday night at Vidinha Stadium.
Of the eight KIF records, one came in the girls arena and seven, eight counting the Boys Discus throw set during the Thursday qualifying round, came in the boys arena.
Overall, the KIF championships go to the Kaua‘i High School girls with 195 points with one new KIF record, and to the Waimea High School boys with 162 points and five new KIF records.
Waimea High School girls came in second with 166 points, followed by Kapa‘a High School with 103 points.
The Kapa‘a High School boys finished second with 148 points, followed by Kaua‘i (117 points) and Island School (33 points) with two new KIF records.
KIF new standards are always one of the exciting facets of the KIF Championships, and the record set by Kaua‘i freshman Kawehi Louis-Diamond was no exception.
Jumping off the blocks in the Girls 100 Meter Hurdles to open the evening, Louis-Diamond clearly established her control of the field by the third hurdle, striding smoothly to a 15.55 run, bettering her record-setting 15.70 run from the Thursday night preliminaries.
In the run, both Louis-Diamond and second-place finisher Jayme Jacinto of Waimea ran improved times over their Thursday preliminaries and bettered the state standard of 16.64. Third-place finisher Kim Liberato of Kaua‘i stopped the clock at 16.96, just short of qualifying.
“It just felt like I went faster than Thursday night,” Louis-Diamond said following the meet. “I might have gone faster, but I didn’t feel that good. I had more time to visualize on Thursday.”
But the audience waited in anticipation for Waimea’s Moses Fierro to make his appearance, and when he did, they were not disappointed as Fierro broke KIF records in the Boys 100 Meter and Boys 200 Meter dashes as well as being part of the KIF record-setting 4×100 Relay team.
With a proven 10-second performance through several KIF qualifying meets, Fierro stopped the clock at 10.69 in the Boys 100 Meter Dash, getting a state time while bettering the 2004 record of 10.8 set by Kapa‘a’s Joseph Locey.
In that event, fellow Menehune Torrey Santiago qualified for a state berth on a 10.94 run. Third-place finisher Darren Taylor of Kapa‘a stopped the clock at 11.31, bettering the state consideration bar of 11.44. Darren Acoba of Kaua‘i finished fourth at 11.65.
Fierro continued to break records, stopping the clock at 21.56 in the Boys 200 Meter Dash, besting a 2005 KIF record of 22.2 set by Locey and besting the state standard of 22.84. Taylor, finishing second at 23.32, bettered the state consideration of 23.54.
Fierro also ran the anchor leg of the Boys 4×100 Relay team that stopped the clock at 43.06, bettering the 2005 KIF time of 43.9 set by the Waimea team of Thomas Batis, Kenny Estes, Eric Oroc and Troy Yamase. The first-place finish for the team made up of Jordan Kitabayashi, Malcolm Carter, Santiago and Fierro also bettered the state standard of 44.24.
Santiago went on to break his own KIF record in the Boys Triple Jump, finishing with a leap of 43-10.50 and besting his 43-03.75 leap set in 2009 while surpassing the state standard of 42-06.25.
Carter, in his second-place finish in the event, leaped for 43-04.50, followed by Taylor leaping for 42-09.75, all state qualifying jumps.
Pierce Murphy of Island School, the island’s long-distance phenomenon, broke his own KIF records set in 2009 in both the Boys 1,500 Meter and the Boys 3,000 Meter runs.
Murphy bested his 2009 record in the 1,500 Meter Run with a 4:08.67 time, bettering the KIF 4:11.51 record and bested the state standard of 4:19.64.
In the Boys 3,000 Meter Run, Pierce stopped the clock at 9:05.90, bettering his 2009 KIF record of 9:42.14 and the state standard of 9:39.44. Kaua‘i’s Joshua Herr, finishing second in the event, stopped the clock at 9:53.15, bettering the consideration standard of 10:08.24.
Darren Acoba of Kaua‘i High School topped both the Boys 110 Meter Hurdles and the Boys 300 Meter Hurdles, stopping the clock at 15.08 in the 110 Meter event for a state time (15.74) and finishing at 42.60 in the 300 Meter event for a consideration time (43.24).
Logan Domingo of Island School topped the Boys High Jump on a leap of 5-08, making the state consideration standard of 5-08.
Carter (20-08.50), Taylor (20-02.50) and Santiago (20-02.50) filled in the top three spots for the Boys Long Jump, each jumper besting the state consideration standard of 19-10.50.
Following Louis-Diamond’s record-setting pace in the 100 Meter Hurdles, no records fell in the Girls 300 Meter Hurdles, but the top three finishers all stepped up from their Thursday night preliminary runs and bettered the state standard of 49.14.
Jacinto rose from her second finish Thursday to stop the clock at 48.59, an improvement from her 49.19 preliminary run. Similarly, Kapa‘a’s Rachael Hinkel, finishing first Thursday at 48.94, bettered her performance but ended second at 48.81, her strong challenge being held off by Jacinto on the top end. Louis-Diamond, finishing at 49.00 in the preliminaries, ended in third at 48.92.
In the Girls 4×100 Relay event, the Kaua‘i A team of Kelsey Cadiente, Louis-Diamond, Kristle Henry and Reanna Javinar finished first on a 51.15 run, bettering the state standard of 51.94. The Kapa‘a A team of Windy Check, Hinkel, Shannon Paleka and Mia Cabulisan finished second in the event at 53.63, bettering the consideration standard of 54.95.
Henry went on to top the Girls Long Jump on a 15-08.5 leap, surpassing the consideration standard of 15-04 and Javinar went on to top the Girls Triple Jump on a 33-03 leap, bettering the consideration standard of 32-06.75.
Uila Langi threw the discus for 101-07 to top that event, surpassing the consideration standard of 94-04.
The Waimea “A” team in the Girls 4×100, Natasha Abadilla, Maite Rivera Sainz, Jacinto and Jayme Knapp, stopped the clocks at 4:32.48 for first place in the event, getting past the consideration standard of 4:35.84.
In a final event that shook up the preliminaries, Mason Vegas of Kaua‘i made his move at the makai turn in the Boys 400 Meter Dash to take over the top spot over Keoni Mattos of Waimea, stopping the clock at 53.84 over Mattos’ 54.51.
Vegas came from a 58.95 second-place showing in the Thursday preliminaries to finish first. Mattos rose from his 59.39 fourth finish to finish second. Thursday’s first finisher, Maximilian Drubba of Kapa‘a, also stepped up to a 55.53 run over his 58.33 preliminary time, but slipped to third place. Michael Alonzo, finishing at third, Thursday, on a 58.52 run, improved his pace to a 57.82 finish, but settled in fourth place, Friday.
“He (Mason) promised he was going to do this,” said Peter Riopta, the Kaua‘i coach. “He said he was hungry and was going for it.”
With the completion of the KIF Championships, athletes now wait to see who will advance to the Island Movers Boys and Girls Track and Field Championships, May 14-15 at the Kamehameha Schools in Kapalama, O‘ahu.
