[ HIGH SCHOOL TRACK & FIELD ]
Star-struck Kahuku
ready to make mark
KAHULUI » The Kahuku boys track and field team and "American Idol" castoff Camile Velasco exchanged pleasantries at the door of Velasco's parents' restaurant yesterday.
"I was like, 'Wow, that's Camile!' I was excited," said "AI" fan and Red Raiders sprinter Frank Bracewell, here for tonight's finals of the HHSAA/Island Movers Track and Field Championships at War Memorial Stadium.
The boys aren't exactly North Shore Idols -- not yet, anyway. Kahuku is football country, long ago leaving the spikes and singlets to the Radfords, the Punahous and the Kamehamehas of the world.
"By far, this is not our sport," second-year head coach Sean Makaiau said. "It probably rates at Kahuku only above checkers."
Unlike Camile, though, the Red Raiders are still part of the show -- and a very big part of it.
On paper after Thursday's trials, Kahuku is a strong contender to win the boys championship, a shade ahead of defending champion Kamehameha. Pearl City and Maui are still in the hunt, too.
When told of this, Makaiau reacted with equal parts of confidence and bemusement. He knows his boys did very well in the trials, but he also knows history is against them; although Kahuku won the Oahu Interscholastic Association championship last year and was the runner-up last week, no Oahu public-school boys team has won at states since Radford in 1985, and Kahuku never has.
"For us, it would be like winning the lottery. But our kids are not going to back down, no matter what the sport. The experience factor doesn't matter to us. A lot of injuries have opened the door. But we're not well-rounded, we lack distance runners. It's like playing basketball with four people," Makaiau said. "I feel real unfamiliar to be in this position. But there's no pressure on us. We just want to be competitive and not look at the points."
Bracewell and jumper Spencer Hafoka are the workhorses for Kahuku, and weightman Quentin Beaver is a key performer. He has the early lead in the shot, posting a 52-1034 effort Thursday.
"We kind of know we have a chance, but we didn't think we would do this well in the trials," Beaver said.
If you go strictly by the trials, Kamehameha would finish a distant fourth. But Sam Moku's Warriors tend to peak at the right time, and times and marks in trials are not reliable indicators of finals performance for many reasons. A better number to look at is how many scoring opportunities teams have in the finals; all four of the contenders -- plus Mililani -- have 10 or 11 possible point-contributors tonight.
For the girls, a more traditional battle between Interscholastic League of Honolulu teams seems to be brewing, as ILH champ Punahou and two-time defending state victor Iolani will likely decide it in the jumping pits if everything else goes as expected.
Should the Buffanblu and Raiders falter, Kamehameha or Baldwin could sneak in for the title. All four teams have more than 10 scoring chances.
There is also individual drama. Here are some of the best story lines:
» Seabury distance runner Tia Ferguson is going for triple gold in the 800- , 1,500- and 3,000-meter runs. The Duke-bound senior ran 4:39.87 in the 1,500 in 85-degree heat Thursday, just missing Victoria Chang's (Punahou) record by .74 of a second.
» Kapaa sprinter Joe Locey will try for an encore of his record-setting 21.90 in the 200 trials. It broke the automated-timing record of 22.09 by Jason Rivers (Saint Louis) in 2002. Now Locey can aim at the wind-aided mark of 21.41 by Bryan Clay (Castle) in 1998 and the hand-held-timing standard of 21.2 by Casey Flores (Konawaena) in 1996.
» Lahainaluna high jumper Akima Mokiao has the state's best mark at 6-6, but his sprinting skills might come into play, as he also has a baseball game today at Iron Maehara Stadium about 100 meters from War Memorial. The Lunas play Punahou at 2 p.m, with the winner advancing to next week's state tournament. The plan is for Mokiao, the team's starting center fielder, to leave the game in time for last call for the boys high jump at 4:30.