KEAAU HIGH — School record. Check
KEAAU HIGH — School record. Check
BIIF championship. Check
Stadium record. Check
In Devin Albrecht’s mind, that leaves just run goal remaining on the checklist for Hilo’s top-ranked 400-meter relay team.
“Oh, we’re definitely going faster tomorrow,” Albrecht said Friday after Day 1 of the HHSAA track and field championships at Keaau High. “We’re going for the state record.”
Four boys, three from Oahu and one from Maui, put on a show in the 100-meter dash preliminaries, but it was the Vikings’ foursome – Riley Patterson, Kahele Huddleston and Lukas Kuipers joined Albrecht – that continued to set the pace in their preliminary, racing to a time of 42.66 seconds to qualify ahead of a well-respected squad from Damien.
Last week at Cougars’ Stadium, the Vikings claimed BIIFs with a 2017 state-best 42.60. The state record of 42.20 was set by Punahou in 2010.
“I feel like we’re more used to this field because we’ve ran it a lot more,” Albrecht said. “We’re just blasting it out and we really feed off of each other’s energy.”
If the 100 preliminaries were any indication, Saturday’s final will be a spectacle.
Damien Christian Padron (10.78), Saint Louis’s Roman Wilson (10.86), Leilehua’s Jacob Schmidt (10.87) and Seabury Hall’s Isaiah Payne (10.90) each ran under the previous stadium record of 10.97, which Kuipers reached in April.
The senior qualified sixth at 11.05 with Patterson eighth. Huddleston missed the final in 13th.
“Those boys are way faster,” Huddleston said of the competition in the 100, “but you just have to get through it in the relay.”
As the sky opened up toward the end of the program, Huddleston took his first turn in the 1,600 relay as Hilo finished third behind Konawaena and Radford. Albrecht, Christian Ellis and Kovee Rivera also ran a lap, but Kuipers will likely take part in the final and could run four times Saturday.
“A lot tougher in the rain,” Huddleston said. “You have to focus more, be more patient and push yourself.”
The Wildcats’ Josiah Vallez, Kala’i Santiago, Hauoli Akau and Lawrence Barrett teamed up to set the pace in the 1,600 at 3:28.63 as Konawaena made up for an earlier disqualification in the 400 relay.
In the 800, Vallez and Barrett qualified third and fifth, respectively, and Waiakea’s Rylie Cabalse reached the final in sixth.
“That was a heart-breaker,” coach Patrick Bradley said, “but we’re still looking good.”
The same could be said of Kamehameha junior Saydee Aganus, who qualified first in the 100 hurdles, third in the 100 dash and fourth in the 300 hurdles. Kaiser senior Kristen O’Handley was the fastest in the 100 dash, equaling the stadium record of 12.29 that Aganus set last year.
O’Handley also led the way in the 200 and 400. Kamehameha sophomore Chenoa Frederick qualified a close second in the 200, and she was fourth in the 100.
Neither Aganus nor Frederick participated in the 200, and the Warriors didn’t enter the 1,600 relay, likely leaving them out of title contention.
No BIIF medal on Day 1
No BIIF athlete medaled in one of the six field event finals held Friday, but four earned points with top-six finishes.
Kealakehe’s Nicole Cristobal took fourth in the long jump two spots ahead of Gemma Paleschi, while HPA’s Rowan Kotner was fifth in the pole vault.
Konawaena’s Reyson Ching was the second seed in the high jump, but the senior wound up eighth.
Kamehameha’s Taylor Sullivan was sixth in the shot put, with BIIF champion Mele Vaka of Hilo seventh.
Other BIIF qualifiers for Saturday’s finals were:
• Konawaena’s Hauoli Akau, 400, fourth
• Waiakea’s Shon Sare, 400, sixth
• Honokaa’s Sophia Cash, 1,500, sixth
• Konawaena’s Reyson Ching, 200, fourth
• Konawaena’s Austin Ewing, 200, seventh
• Kealakehe Ziggy Bartholomy, 1,500, seventh
• Hilo’s Lukas Kuipers, 200, eighth
• Kamehameha girls 400 relay, fifth