BIIF Track & Field Championships « Wayne Joseph’s Blog

HPA girls, KS-Hawaii boys win BIIF Track & Field Team Titles

KS-Hawaii scored 15 pts in the 110 hurdles with Blas, McKee & Tanimoto. Also pictured Hilo's Calistro, Keaau's Packer & HPA's Oakes

KEALAKEKUA – The Hawaii Preparatory Academy girls and Kamehameha boys are flying high after winning the Big Island Interscholastic Federation track & field team titles Saturday at Yates Field in Konawaena.

HPA got a spectacular performance and 58 points from the “Queen of the Hurdles” Ku’uipo Nakoa.

: Ku’uipo Nakoa

Nakoa, a state leader in the 100 and 300 hurdles, captured the BIIF individual crown in both events and also won the 100 and 200 dashes, along with the triple jump. Nakoa’s long jump second place finish, by half an inch, during the first event of the day ignited the senior Ka Makani to a near perfect performance.

Kamehameha’s Victoria Evans Bautista saved her best jump for last leaping 17’ 3.75” to set a new meet record in edging out Nakoa for the long jump crown.

Moments later Nakoa responded by winning the 100 meter hurdles and in the process set a new meet record in a blistering time of 15.16 seconds. Later in the day Nakoa won the 300 hurdles of 46 seconds flat also set a new championship meet record.

“The 100 (dash) felt comfortable for me as I needed to play catch up,” Nakoa said. “This season I learned that I needed to run for me and not for anyone else. I always run for improvement and today I achieved what I had set my heart to do.”

HPA also showcased another “Queen” in the hurdles, Lana Queen; running on the heels of Nakoa all season long Queen helped her team by placing second in the 100 hurdles and third in the 300.

Ka Makani also gained points from middle distance runner Kela Vargas who finished fifth in the 800 and third in the 1500.

The real surprise for HPA came from freshman Zoe Sims in the 400 dash when she ran the race of her life winning in 59.55 seconds. “I’ve only run the 400 a couple of times this season, but I really enjoy this distance,” Sims said.

“We decided to save her (Nakoa) for the individual events and pull her out of the relays,” HPA coach Pat Lau said. “We needed her to carry us, points wise, in those events and she did extremely well.”

Lau also had high praise for his coaches. “We (coaches) make decisions together that are best for the team. Everything is a group effort and this year was tough for us as our track is under construction,” he said. “I also give a lot of credit to our AD (Steve Perry) who made sure we got what we needed to produce a good track program.”

While Nakoa was tearing up the track with her blistering speed the Kamehameha boys were racking up points with their sprinters.

: Kana Silva

Warrior Kanakalele Silva dominated the 100 and 200 meter dashes and provided the additional fire power to anchor the boys 4×100 relay team to victory.

Silva was aided in the sprint department by teammates Kaenen Akau and Everett “Maka” McKee and Francis Blas III in scoring which propelled Kamehameha to the team title.

Blas, in the 110 hurdles, took advantage of Kau’s Jacob Edwards false start during the preliminaries on Friday by winning the finals.

Akau, along with fellow Warrior Manta Dircks added points in the jumps with Akau winning the long, 21’ 5.5” and Dircks taking second. Dircks returned later to the jumping pit, taking second in the triple.

Discus thrower David Kekuewa placed second in the finals and scored additional points by finishing second in the shot put with teammate Hawk Hanoa taking third to round out the major scoring efforts for the Warrior boys.

In the finals of the boy’s pole vault, held on Friday, Warriors Isaac DeRego and Max Shimamoto went one-two respectively to aid 18 points to the team count.

Kamehameha coach, Kimo Weaver, was all smiles with his team’s title. “Our boys had real team depth,” Weaver said. “Our goal was to come into the championship meet and try to score points in all 16 events.”

Weaver contributed a lot of the Warrior success to the confidence gained while participating on Oahu during the season. “After going to Oahu the kids confidence level went really high,” he said. “We believe our team can get into the top 10 in the state and our relay teams will be very competitive.”

Last season it was Hilo winning the boys team title with Kamehameha edging out HPA by two points for the girls crown. This season Ka Makani runners and jumpers left little doubt on reclaiming the BIIF crown beating runner up Kamehameha girls by more than 40 points.

“Every year people expect HPA to win team championships,” Coach Lau said. “Those expectations make us work harder and is the reason why we have such a good program.”

A total of eight BIIF championship records were set, according to track official, Bob Martin.

“We had two records broken during Friday’s preliminaries and six more broken during Saturday’s finals,” Martin said. “This was the most records set during a championship meet this past decade.”

May 9, 2010 Posted by waynejoseph | High School Track & Field | BIIF Track & Field Championships, Bob Martin, Cameron Calistro, Damien Packer, David Kekuewa, Dylan Oakes, Easten Tanimoto, Everett McKee, Francis Blas, Hawk Hanoa, Isaac DeRego, Kaenen Akau, Kanakalele Silva, Kela Vargas, Kimo Weaver, Ku'uipo Nakoa, Lana Queen, Manta Dirks, Max Shimamoto, Pat Lau, Victoria Evans Bautista, Zoe Sims | 1 Comment

Two Defending Champions Falter in BIIF Track Qualifiers

: Jacob Edwards

KEALAKEKUA – It was a day filled with highs and lows as the Big Island Interscholastic Federation held the Track & Field Championship Preliminary’s at Yates Field in Konawaena on Friday.

During the first running event of the day Kau’s BIIF and state champion in the 110 meter hurdles, Jacob Edwards, jumped the starting gun and received a disqualification, false start, to leave him out of Saturday’s championships.

“It happens,” Edwards said of his false start. “I guess I was a little excited going into the race, but its okay.”

Edwards went on to win the 300 hurdles in 39.53 seconds and also set a new BIIF championship record in the triple jump with his leap of 45’ 4”, eclipsing Waiakea’s David Doll record of 45-2 set in 2004. The Trojan also qualified for the BIIF finals in the 100 and 200 dashes and the long jump.

Along with Edwards’s disappointment in the 110 hurdles was Hawaii Preparatory Academy’s Mindy Campbell in the high jump as she failed to make her opening height of 4’ 8” and failed to advance.

The high jump event was delayed for nearly an hour while event officials scrambled to find a cross bar. By the time the event got under way showers came in which made footing challenging.

: Ericka Cushnie

Campbell came into the meet as the defending state champion in the high jump and with her dropping out early, opened the door for Waiakea’s Erika Cushnie and Keaau’s Randi Estrada to compete for the BIIF crown.

Cushnie won the high jump event by clearing 5 feet on her second attempt while Estrada cleared the same height on her third attempt with neither girl going higher.

“Today was a very weird day,” Cushnie said after winning her gold medal. “It normally never rains when we come over to Kona, but the rain made it difficult to warm up and to stay warm. I wish I could have gone higher, but I know I will when we go to states next week.”

The BIIF held two finals on Friday, the girl’s high jump and the boy’s pole vault, with Kamehameha’s Isaac DeRego winning the event by clearing 13 feet.

“After letting the BIIF wrestling title slip away this past season winning the pole vault title is redemption for me,” DeRego said. DeRego was the BIIF wrestling running up in the 171 weight class.

Leading performances during the qualifying day came from HPA’s Ku’uipo Nakoa in the 100 and 300 hurdles, 100 and 200 dashes, and the long and triple jumps.

Ka Makani teammates Zoe Sims in the 400 dash, and Shane Brostek in the shot put and discus throw.

Kamehameha sprinter Kanakalele Silva will lead Saturday’s finals in the 100 (11.14) and 200 (22.66) dash and teammate Kaopua Sutton discus throw of 126 feet 6.5 inches will separate her from the rest of the field.

The private school Warriors boys 4×100 relay team ran a 43.71 qualifier time and ranks as one of the state’s fastest, but will be challenged by strong Keaau and Kealakehe squads.

Of note is Kona freshman Ua Ruedy who clocked in at 47.49 seconds in the 300 hurdles and is only a step behind Nakoa in that event.

The Hilo boys and Kamehameha girls are the defending BIIF team champions. Going into the finals the HPA girls and Kamehameha boys come in as favorites.

“Kam boys are really strong and have solid sprinters, but don’t count out Hilo,” HPA coach Pat Lau said. “We have a good team, but anything can happen. We’re keeping Ipo (Nakoa) out of the relays and she’ll concentrate on six 10 point events.”

The BIIF finals will begin with field events at 3 pm and running events at 4pm on Saturday at Yates Field in Konawaena.

May 8, 2010 Posted by waynejoseph | High School Track & Field | BIIF Track & Field Championships, Ericka Cushnie, Jacob Edwards, Mindy Campbell, Randi Estrada | 1 Comment