HIGH SCHOOL TRACK
Kahuku and Kaiser come through in OIA East meet
Two familiar teams dominated the Oahu Interscholastic Association East Track and Field championships yesterday at Mililani High School.
For the second year in a row, Kahuku dominated the boys varsity events and Kaiser easily won the girls varsity title.
Kahuku head coach Sean Makaiau was pleased with the way his team performed, and was proud of no one more than Redmond Tutor, who took individual championships in the 110-meter hurdles, 300-meter hurdles, triple jump and long jump. Tutor also participated in the Red Raiders' victorious 4x100 and 4x400 relays.
"It starts with his attitude," Makaiau said of the senior. "Redmond is a very coachable young man. He's willing to do pretty much whatever it takes. His jump coach is Vernon Hashimoto and he's been working a lot with him in the offseason, a lot of technical strength and conditioning. That's been a key for him. That's how he gets to be so strong at the events."
Makaiau was thankful his team had the time to put in to work hard and stay disciplined.
"There's so much activities here (in Kahuku) near the end of the (school) year: May day, the Winter Samoan Festival, dancing competitions," he said. "There's just so much that it's easy to get caught up and not even be interested in track. We've been fortunate that the kids have remained interested and have been so competitive towards the end of the year."
The Kahuku boys had 145 team points, while Roosevelt was second with 99 points and Moanalua came in third with 79.
Kaiser junior Leialoha Bratton won the 1,500-meter run, 800-meter run and 400-meter dash, and the Cougars girls varsity team took the 4x100 and 4x400 relays. Freshman Chelsea Okuma won the 3,000-meter run, junior Rochele Lee won the triple jump and junior Michele Ip was victorious in the pole vault for Kaiser.
Kaiser finished with 162 points, 90 more than runners-up Kalaheo and Moanalua, who had 72 apiece.
Now, the Red Raiders and Cougars have the OIA Championships to look forward to May 4-6, against an OIA West that is widely regarded as deeper and stronger.
"They have larger squads with a wider variety of events," Makaiau said. "I think Mililani has a strong team, (and) I think Radford has a strong team."
The Red Raiders have a bright future, though -- they claimed the boys and girls junior varsity titles.
The East championship was originally planned to be at Kaiser, but rainy conditions over the past two months forced its relocation to Mililani.
The OIA West Championships are today at about 9 a.m. at Mililani.