Sunday, April 29, 2001
[ HIGH SCHOOL TRACK ]
Kelly Figueira of Sacred Hearts Academy and Gino Gosiaco of St. Louis and traded their track spikes for dancing shoes last night at their senior prom, but not before putting on quite a show at the 56th Punahou Relays. Figueira dances to
a new recordBy Jason Kaneshiro
Star-BulletinFigueira broke the 22-year-old record state girls long jump record with a leap measuring 19 feet, 3.25 inches during yesterday's meet at Alexander Field. She was also a member of the Lancers' winning 4x200-meter relay team and was named the meet's outstanding female performer.
The previous state long jump record of 19 feet, 2-1/2 inches was set in 1979 by Leilehua's Shari Fox, the meet record of 17 feet, 11-1/2 inches was set in 1981. Figueira cleared 18 feet on each of her six jumps.
Gosiaco may not have had a lot left in his legs for dancing after a full day on the track. He won the boys long jump and led off the Crusaders' winning 4x100-meter relay team. He also helped lead St. Louis to a third-place finish in the 4x180-yard hurdles relay and came in third in the triple jump.
His run in the 4x100 came between attempts in the triple jump competition, which came right after the hurdle relay.
"I could have done a lot better in the triple, but I ran events back-to-back," Gosiaco said. "My legs were all tight already after five events."
While the Punahou Relays remains a highlight of the prep track and field season, the absence of the public schools sapped some of the intensity from this year's event.
While St. Anthony of Maui and Hawaii Preparatory Academy of the Big island participated in the meet, the lack of Oahu Interscholastic Association competitors, who just returned to school Thursday after the settlement of the teachers' strike, left the private school runners without an opportunity to scout the best the public schools have to offer in preparation for the state championships.
"Usually we get to see how fast the guys are," said St. Louis' Daniel Inferrera, who anchored the Crusaders' 4x100 team.
"But the public schools are missing and they have guys like Kali French from Mililani and Mulivai Pula from Kahuku. So a lot of the really fast guys aren't here so we can't push each other to get a better time.
"It's pretty fun, but it would have been a little bit better if we had the OIA schools. We could have had a big party."
Still, the meet gave the private schools a chance to gear up for next week's Interscholastic League of Honolulu varsity championships at Punahou, and the state championships May 18-19 at Maui War Memorial Stadium.
"Normally, when this is a bigger meet, when more of the OIA schools come, we put more pressure on them and it allows them to get ready for states," said Punahou boys coach Louis Johnson.
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