Sunday, May 6, 2001
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Kahuku High's Natasha Kai broke three records, including the state long jump record, and won all her events at yesterday's OIA East championship meet, helping Kahuku claim the crown. Kai leads Red Raiders
to OIA East track titleBy Grace Wen
Star-BulletinKai began the day by winning the high jump with a mark of 5 feet, 4 inches and tying her own OIA East championship meet record. She then claimed the state long-jump record with a mark of 19 feet, 8 inches, surpassing Kelly Figueira's leap of 19 feet, 3-1/4 inches set last week. Kai was also a member of the 4x100 relay team that set a new meet record.
Kai also won the triple jump -- an event she tried for the first time last year -- and the 100 and 300 hurdles.
"She's amazing in the running events," Kahuku sprints coach Kristin Cox said. "I can put her in anything and she'll just excel. She's one in a million athletes that you'll get coming through the school system."
Moving quickly is nothing new for Kai, who practices two hours in track before rushing off to two hours of basketball practice. She also competes in volleyball and soccer. Kai dominated the meet with seemingly effortless performances.
But Kai wasn't the Red Raiders' only strong performer.
"The girls have done really well the whole year," Kahuku girls' coach Jeff Boyle said.
The Red Raiders boast a squad mixed in age and talent.
On the boys' side, Roosevelt claimed the East title, beating Moanalua. Kalani and Kahuku tied for third.
"We thought we had a pretty good chance of doing well today," Roosevelt coach Gordon Ota said. "It's more of a team effort all around. I thought it would be close between us and Kahuku and Moanalua, but because of the strike, we didn't know what to expect."
Despite three first-place finishes by Warren Pitts, Kalaheo didn't seriously challenge.
Pitts won the long jump at 20 feet, 3-1/2 inches. He was the only athlete to post two jumps over 20 feet. Pitts took the triple jump with a record of 42 feet, 7-1/2 inches and won the 100 meters with a time of 10.9 seconds.
The boys and girls track teams from Mililani High School swept the varsity relay races on their way to a pair of OIA West titles. OIA West
Mililani's William Broadus Jr. leapt 6 feet, 6 inches to eclipse the previous high-jump record of 6 feet, 5 inches, set by Bruce Taylor of Radford in 1995. Broadus also won the triple jump with a leap of 41 feet, 3 inches.
The Trojans' Kali French notched wins in the 100 meter, 200 meter, and 400 meter to dominate the sprints. Rosemary Workman of Mililani finished first in the 100 and 300 hurdles.
Waianae jumper Christina Johnson picked up wins in the long jump and triple jump while teammate Cassandra Taualo took the shot-put and discus.
Punahou captured both the boys' and girls' ILH varsity track championships, but the victories were by no means identical. ILH
The Punahou boys' squad tallied 107.5 points to defeat Kamehameha by more than 50 points.
Punahou's distance corps dominated, with Todd Iacovelli winning the 1,500 and 3,000 meter runs.
St. Louis' Daniel Inferrera took the 100- and 200-meter races.
The Buffanblu girls were in a much closer race with Iolani. Punahou posted 98 points, Iolani 83 and Sacred Hearts 39.
Sacred Heart's Kelly Figueira won the 100- and 200-meter titles and won the long jump.
Complete results were not available at press time. Look for them in tomorrow's Star-Bulletin.
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