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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