Wednesday, May 13, 1998

Talent pool
runs deep in state
track and field

The race for the boys'
team championship could go down
to the wire; Punahou girls
are heavily favored

By Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

The Hawaii High School Athletic Association track and field championships will feature a tight boys' team race and some of the best individual talent ever assembled in the state meet.

The trials begin tomorrow at Kaiser High, with the finals Saturday.

Coaches say the boys' team competition will be so close that the winner might score fewer points than Punahou (57 points) did in capturing its second straight state title last year.

The Buffanblu are the two-time defending team champions in the boys' and girls' meets.

There's no suspense in the girls' competition, where Punahou has a bus-load of potential individual winners, including the nation's second-best 800-meter runner.

Junior Eri Macdonald comes into the meet with a personal best of 2 minutes, 10.4 seconds, a time she ran while finishing second to Lindsay Hyatt of Placer High (Auburn, Calif.) in a California meet earlier this spring.

Hyatt has been ranked No. 1 in the 800 the past two seasons. She has the two fastest times in the U.S. this year and Macdonald the third fastest.

Macdonald's closest competitor -- Kamehameha freshman Coby Ackerman -- is seeded 16 seconds back in the 800.

But the 200 and 400 are where Macdonald will find her toughest tests as she meets Kaiser's Endia Abrante, a University of Oregon recruit.

Abrante set the state meet record of 56.11 in the 400 last year, and she has bested that with a 56.10 in 1998. Macdonald's best time is 57.94.

Abrante is also the top seed in the 200, with a best time of 24.58 this season. That's .02 better than former Iolani star Erin Stovall's 1997 state meet record.

Macdonald is also within range in the 200 with a 25.80 best.

Punahou has a dominant distance runner in sophomore Victoria Chang, whose top-seeded 3,200 time is 53 seconds better than Ackerman's and whose top-seeded 1,600 time is 21 seconds better than Roosevelt's Pacita Stark.

The top hurdlers are Sara Yap -- winner of the outstanding female athlete trophy at the Punahou Relays -- and Erin Fujii.

Fujii is top-seeded in the 100 high hurdles (15.37), with Yap second (15.49). Yap is top-seeded in the triple jump (36-11.25) and second in the 300 low hurdles.

Unlike the girls' division, the boys' is wide open.

"There are four schools in the mix -- Punahou, Kamehameha, Radford and St. Anthony -- and virtually every event is stacked very strong," said fifth-year Punahou coach Dacre Bowen, who has led Punahou to three state team championships since 1993.

Steve Jenness, distance coach for Kamehameha, which finished two points behind Punahou in last weekend's Interscholastic League of Honolulu championships, said the abundance of outstanding talent from noncontending schools will probably take points away from the contenders.

Cases in point:

Castle's multiple threat Bryan Clay. He won the 100, 200 and 110 hurdles last year. He is top-seeded in those three events and the long jump.

His time of 21.16 in the 200 is better than Casey Flores' (Konawaena) 1996 hand-timed state meet record (21.2). His electronic time of 13.79 in the 110 high hurdles is better than the hand-timed record of 14.4 by Jason Bennernan of Pearl City in 1981 and David Aguiar of Punahou in 1982.

Hand times are about .24 second slower when converted to electronic times.

Clay's hand-timed best in the 100 is 10.35, much faster than the hand-timed state meet record of 10.6 by Clayton Mahuka of Nanakuli in 1985. It also eclipses Flores' 1996 wind-aided hand-time of 10.4.

Seabury Hall's Grant Guise, a transfer from New Zealand who won the Maui Interscholastic League cross-country title, is top-seeded in the 800. With a 1:57.80 best, he is the only runner in the seedings under two minutes.

Top-seeded triple jumper Ricky Marshall-Greene of Moanalua has leaped 47-6, more than a foot farther than the nearest seed -- Solofua Moananu of McKinley.

St. Louis' Joe Siofele, an all-state football player, and Iolani's Cord Anderson, an all-state basketball player, dominate the shot put.

Damien's Chris Brown, a University of Hawaii football recruit, dominates the discus.

St. Anthony pole vaulter Mike Pico's 14-9 is nine inches better than anyone else this year.

If the boys' meet comes down to the 4x400 relay, Punahou will have the advantage as Bennett Valencia, the state meet record holder in the 400 (48.66), is the Buffanblu anchor. He is poised to break his own record in the 400 (his top-seeded time is 48.64).

Bowen said the 400 and 200 will be the most intense boys' battles.

Besides Valencia, top competitors in the 400 are Mililani's Dyron Kelly (50.49), who won the Oahu Interscholastic Association title last weekend, Kamehameha's Hoku Kim (51.12), Radford's Selwyn Samuels (51.46) and Leilehua freshman Thomas Lewis Jr. (51.69).

The 200 will feature Valencia, Clay, second-seeded Shane Victorino of St. Anthony (22.04), Stephen Seta of Punahou (22.31) and Shaun Reyes of Kaiser (22.44).

Worth watching

Top individuals in this week's state track and field meet:
Eri Macdonald, Punahou Nation's second-fastest individual in the the girls' 800 meters.
Bryan Clay, Castle Top seed in four boys' events. Record holder in the 400.
Endia Abrante, Kaiser Top seed in the girls' 200 and 400. Record holder in the 400.
Bennett Valencia, Punahou Top seed and record holder in the boys' 400.
Victoria Chang, Punahou Top seed in 1,600 and 3,200.