Punahou twosome
having field day

Crabb, Souza and Iolani's Taamu
make Track and Field News top 25

By Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

Seldom does a Hawaii prep athlete show up in Track and Field News' national list.

But, as of this week, three of the nation's top 25 high school discus throwers live in Honolulu.

"To have three from Hawaii -- that's just tremendous," said Jack Shepard, who compiles men's track statistics for T&FN.

"And it's also very unusual to have two athletes from the same school on the list," he said.

At last weekend's Punahou Relays, Kaione Crabb and Mike Souza both threw the discus more than 180 feet to catapult into the nation's top 25 with Iolani's Ed Taamu.

Crabb's 183-foot, 1-inch throw, and Mike Souza's 181-3, shattered the Punahou Relays meet record of 173-0 set by Tim McAndrews in 1967.

Crabb's effort puts him at No. 21 nationally. Souza is at No. 24 and Taamu, who threw 181-2 at the start of the season, is No. 25. Crabb's previous best discus throw was 172 and Souza's was 165.

In the Punahou Relays shot put, Crabb did something no other Hawaii athlete has ever done.

He broke 60 feet.

Crabb's stunning toss of 61-8.25 gives him the 15th rung on the national list this year, according Shepard.

Not only did that break the Punahou Relays record but it shattered the state best (not to be confused with the state meet record) of 58-91/2 recorded by Iolani's Bern Brostek in 1985.

Souza's toss of 58-4.25 also broke the Punahou Relay's record.

For the 6-foot-5, 275-pound Crabb and the 6-6, 290-pound Souza, it was the first time they beat Taamu in the discus this season. Having competed in the Football Power Relay earlier in the day, the 6-1, 310-pound Taamu was not at his peak for the discus and finished a distant third with 167-2.

But former Punahou track and field coach Al Rowan, who still works at prep meets, said he would not be surprised to see all three break 180 in the next couple of weeks.

The Interscholastic League of Honolulu field trials are today at 3 p.m. at Kaiser High's track.

"Me and my coach (McAndrews) were both stunned Saturday," said Crabb, who has a partial first-year track and field scholarship to UCLA.

"It just felt like a different day because I knew it was my last meet at Punahou and that gave me some emotion."

Crabb said much of that emotion was inspired by McAndrews, who now battles Parkinson's disease. He has been coaching the weight men at Punahou for the past two and a half seasons.

During the shot put, he said McAndrews stood by the cage, urging him over and over again to "Stay low and explode."

"He's a great coach," said Crabb, whose voice crackled with conviction.

"He gave everything to us and then some. He gave more than me in that throw. For a guy with Parkinson's disease to work in construction every day, and then come down to coach us, you can't ask more than that."

Punahou head coach Dacre Bowen said he asked McAndrews to coach at Punahou for one important reason.

"I wanted the kids to be exposed to somebody like Tim," said Bowen.

Souza, who has a football scholarship to Northwestern University, said the shot and discus are secondary to his preparation for the NCAA gridiron.

But Souza said he reduced the four-times-a-week weight room regimen Northwestern had given him to one session last week so that he'd be ready for the Punahou Relays.

"So my body wasn't as stiff and tired as it usually is for meets," said Souza. "I'll keep it to one week right through the state meet now."

But Souza said he doesn't think he has as much technique as Crabb.

"Most of my throws are just power, not technique. I just throw the dang thing as hard as I can."