Kaua‘i High Senior Darren Acoba shattered the No. 1 state time he set Thursday at the Rotary Track Meet with his performance Friday at the Honolulu Marathon Invitational track meet at the Kaiser High School arena on O‘ahu. Acoba set
Kaua‘i High Senior Darren Acoba shattered the No. 1 state time he set Thursday at the Rotary Track Meet with his performance Friday at the Honolulu Marathon Invitational track meet at the Kaiser High School arena on O‘ahu.
Acoba set a new state standard of 15.25 during the Thursday run in the Boys 110 Meter Hurdles. He broke into the 14-second mark Friday on O‘ahu with his first-place finish of 14.94, beating out Matt Feeley of Punahou (15.15), Duke Bukoski of St. Louis (15.39) and Daniel Wagner of the Mid Pacific Institute (15.58). All of these finishers qualified with auto state time standards.
Acoba finished fourth in the Boys 300 Meter Hurdles with a 41.87 run, gaining a consideration standard. Top performer in this event went to Feeley (40.84) who nailed an auto standard.
“We did pretty good considering we had the Rotary meet the night before,” said Peter Riopta of the Kaua‘i coaching staff. “The students left early Friday for the event, competed at Kaiser and took a late night flight back. It was just a trip for them to compete and see where they stand outside of Kaua‘i.”
Kawehi Louis-Diamond, a sophomore who earned outstanding female athlete honors at the Rotary meet, finished second in the Girls 100 Meter Hurdles, running a 15.24, a tad slower than the 15.20 she clocked at the Rotary. Zhane Santiago of Kahuku topped that event with a solid 14.84 run.
Kelsey Cadiente beat out Punahou’s Lahaina Zoller by a scant 0.07 second to take second place in the Girls 100 Meter Dash, stopping the clock at 12.80, a state auto time standard.
Cadiente finished second in the Girls 200 Meter Dash with a consideration standard 27.18 run, falling behind Raion Black of the Christian Academy who got an auto time with her 26.55 run.
Both girls were part of the Kaua‘i Girls 4×100 Meter Relay team which topped that event with a first finish 50.39 run and an auto time standard.
“They still need work with this event,” Riopta said. “The girls had trouble passing the baton. If everything when well, they might break the 40-second mark.”
Those woes were evident at the Rotary meet when both Kaua‘i girls relay teams were disqualified after dropping the baton.
Joshua Herr earned a consideration standard with his sixth place finish in the Boys 3000 Meter Run at 9:46.87, the top finish going to Jordan Thibodeau of Kamehameha Schools who got an auto time standard with his 9:15.61 performance, more than 14 seconds ahead of Chris Mosch of Honoka‘a (9:29.29).
Reanna Javinar also earned a consideration standard with her eighth place finish in the Girls Triple Jump on a leap of 33-02.00. Top finisher in this event went to Sharee Acosta of Moanalua High School who nailed an auto standard leap of 35-08.25.
Micahel Kahoekapu-Cruz overcame the ringside banter to finish third in the Boys Discus Throw with a toss of 148-11.00, a state consideration standard. Top finisher in this event went to Lopeti Fonoklifi of Kaiser who tossed the discus for 161-02.00, falling short of the 163-11.00 thrown by Kapa‘a’s Kevin Marshall Adkisson during the Rotary meet.
Riopta said the students are back on island in time for the final Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation qualifying meet, Thursday, starting at 4 p.m. at Vidinha Stadium.
