HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Leilehua's Paul Williams had the best trials times in the 1,500 (4:15.29) and the 3,000 (9:25.47) during yesterday's state track and field trials at Mililani High School.
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Volleyball, softball, track teams head into season’s homestretch
It must have been something in the air.
Even in perfect weather, lots of things can happen at track and field trials, and some of them are bad. Yesterday's vog added to a somewhat gloomy atmosphere at the state prelims, where only the fast -- and the fortunate -- survived.
The vog didn't bother the Division I and II softball finalists. Mililani faces Kamehameha for the D-I championship, while the two Division II teams are Kauai and Pac-Five.
The ILH also dominated in the Division I volleyball semifinals with Punahou and Iolani facing off tonight on Maui. The Division II final in boys volleyball features Hawaii Baptist and Hilo, which are happy to be playing indoors.
That will not be the case today at the state track and field finals, where some of the contending teams in what figures to be a down-to-the-finish boys final tonight took some body blows in trials yesterday at Mililani.
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Tiffany Ikeda-Simao of Kauai High School ran 12.69 to qualify in the 100 meters. She also anchored the fastest 4x100 relay team in the girls meet.
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Disqualifications and injuries nearly overshadowed the breaking of a meet record older than the runners, and some bright lights from the neighbor islands in the girls meet.
The defending champion Punahou boys may have gotten the worst of it, with a DQ in the 4x100 and the loss of probable points from 800-meter runner Lucas Lam. Depending on whom you talk to, Lam either fell on his own or was pushed to the infield; either way, he won't be in the final -- and with an Achilles' strain, he might not be able to run in the 1,500 final.
Another contender, Radford, took some hits when Donniqtay Campbell false-started (along with Saint Louis' Billy Rae Stutzmann) in the 200 and hurdler Nathan Blue was injured during his heat of the 300.
"But don't count me out, I'm coming back with a vengeance in the 110 final," Blue, who was on crutches, said afterward. "I'm not going to let my team down."
Radford's boys 4x100 (Ikaika Kamaka, Donniqtay Campbell, John Atangan, and C.J. Rainey) ran to a meet record of 42.53.