Punahou boys, Seabury Hall girls win Hawaii team titles

O'Handley collects four wins and runs fastest girls 100 in state history

By Ian Tsang for DyeStat

HAWAII -- Keaau High School on the east side of the island of Hawaii played host to this year’s track and field state championships. The average “Hilo Weather” was hot and humid in the afternoon but quickly changed to downpour in a matter of seconds. Because of this, some events were severly affected by the weather. 

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On the girls side, two standout athletes provided gold medals in seven of the events. Kaiser High sprinter Kristen O’Handley won four events, including the high jump, an event she only practices at meets.

“Our school has renovations going on now, so we don’t have a high jump pit, or even a track to practice at. So the only time I get to do it is when I compete at the meets," she said.

O’Handley was able to clinch gold with a jump of 5-2, lower than her PR of 5-5.25. Jumping is not new to the O’Handley family; in his younger days, O’Handley’s father was an accomplished athlete in his own right who held a personal best of 7-2 and competed nationally for Canada.

In addition, O'Handley ran the fastest 100 meters in state history with a wind-aided 12.01 (+2.2). She also won the 400 in 57.61 seconds (the fastest time in Hawaii in three years) and the 200 in 25.69. She also anchored Kaiser's third-place 4x100 relay.

In the girls distance races, Ava Shipman of Seabury Hall swept her events, running big PRs in two of them. The girls 1,500 was taken out fast by teammate Veronica Winham, who led through 1,000 before Shipman took the lead. Shipman finished fast and clocked 4:39.45 for a nine-second PR and a new state meet record. Later she came back to win the 800 in 2:16.88 (also a PR) and the 3,000 in 10:49.83. She also helped her 4x400 relay team take third and Seabury Hall won the overall state title. 

Saydee Aganus of Kamehameha Hawaii crushed the state record in the 100 hurdles with 14.11 seconds and was also fifth in the 100 meters with 12.55.

Two-time 400-meter champion Maya Reynolds of Kihei Charter moved up in distance this year to the 800 and she ran a PR of 2:20.16 behind Shipman for second place. 

Teagan Keep of Kauai won the girls discus with a throw of 135-7, while Alama Uluave of Punahou won the event for the boys in 154-5. Leslie Mamai-Lagafuaina of Aiea won the girls shot put with a throw of 43-3 and Uluave earned his second gold medal of the weekend with a throw of 54-9.25.

Juliette Lum of Kaiser cleared 11-0 for the pole vault victory with her teammate and early favorite, Tommi Hintnaus, fourth with 10-6. On the boys side, Logan Rubasch of Iolani won the event with a vault of 15-0.

In the girls jumps, Kayla Afoa of Kamehameha Kapalama won the long jump in 17-10.25 and Kamehameha Hawaii’s Chenoa Frederick won the triple jump in 39-08 -- less than an inch from the all-time state best.

Kamehameha Kapalama’s Jacob Wright went 23-1 to win the long jump and Isaiah Harris of Waipahu won the triple jump with 45-3.50. Waianae’s Douglas Mitchell was the high jump winner with 6-2. 

Christian Padron of Damien ran his best times two days in a row to sweep the sprints, running 10.63 (1.9) in the 100 and 21.97 in the 200.  

Freshman phenom Trenton Wailehua of Saint Louis won the boys 400 in a time of 49.22. Until the trials, Wailehua was the only boy to break 50 seconds in years before Leilehua’s Jacob Schmidt followed suit with 49.91 in the prelims.

“My time isn’t that special. It’s around what I’ve been running all season. I was trying to go for the record (48.66 by Bennett Valencia in 1997) but the rain made the track slippery so I couldn’t run as fast. Sometimes I like the rain but today it didn’t really help much,” Wailehua said.

Punahou distance standout Connor Lehl continued to show his dominance in Hawaii. Although Lehl initially intended to try a distance triple, he decided to forgo the 800 to save energy for strong pushes in the 1,500 and 3,000.  With an early grueling pace in the mid-day Hilo heat, Lehl's attempt to go for the record in the 1,500 came up short. He finished in 4:03.35 and won by six seconds. Within the next few hours the weather quickly changed to a downpour, which prevented the 3,000 barrier from being broken. Initially Avery Torres of Kalaheo was planning on pushing the pace from the gun to go sub-9, but the rain made this nearly impossible.

"I wanted to try and go for the records today but it was really intense after the first lap of the 1500," Lehl said. "I usually take the race out in 66, so the plan was to drop that to a 64. Well, I ended up passing through 400 in 60, which I definitely felt towards the end when I couldn't close as fast."

Iolani's Jason Wang managed to stay with Lehl for most of the 1,500, finishing second in 4:09.64 and his strong kick in the 3K also earned him second in 9:14.73 behind Connor's 9:13.45.

In the boys 800, sophomore Nicholas Georgia of Kaiser, who ran Hawaii's fastest half mile in the past decade in 1:55 earlier this season, made up a 20-meter gap in the last 200 to win the final in 2:01.20. Last year Georgia was unable to make it to the state final as he placed 22nd in the prelims.

Baldwin sophomore Rey Cadiz won the 110-meter hurdles in a personal best time of 14.58 seconds. 

The finish of the boys 300 hurdles had a thrilling conclusion. Carver Locke of Lahainaluna was running stride for stride with Matthew April of Roosevelt until the final barrier. April hit the hurdles and fell and Locke took the win in 39.89. 

"When we were going over the second to last hurdle I saw that he almost hit it, so I was predicting that it would be harder for him to get over the last one. But if that hadn't happened, I'm not sure if I would have been able to win," Locke said.

Madison Moku of Hawaii Baptist Academy won the 300 hurdles in 44.19. 

In the relay finals, the 4x100 golds were taken by Campbell the Campbell girls (49,58), the Punahou boys (42.60), and Hilo (55.15) for the unified sports division. In the 4x400 relay, the Mililani girls ran 4:03.91 for the win and Konawaena took the boys race in 3:23.21, with Hilo again winning the unified division in 4:43.78. Unified Sports is a subsidiary of Special Olympics where the goal is to promote physicial fitness and healthy living for special needs children in Hawaii.