StarBulletin.com

Kahuku's Santiago steals show at OIAs


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POSTED: Sunday, May 02, 2010

Zhane Santiago of Kahuku performed marvelously at the Oahu Interscholastic Association track and field championships yesterday, winning five girls events in addition to setting a meet record in the girls 100-meter hurdles race in front of a boisterous crowd at Kaiser.

Mililani won the boys team title and Radford won the girls crown.

Santiago's victory in the 100-meter hurdles race was her third straight.

In that race, Santiago blew away the field by a wide margin and in the process broke her own record of 14.77 which she set in Thursday's qualifying race. Her winning time was 14.61.

Prior to the Thursday race, the 100-meter hurdles record was 15.02, set in 2000 by Mililani's Vera Simms.

Santiago's desire to win helped her to victory in the girls 100-meter dash in 12.53.

Minutes after winning the 100-meter hurdles in addition to competing earlier in the long jump and high jump events, Santiago edged Radford's Kaeli Patton by .02 of a second.

“;I knew I was racing against good competitors,”; Santiago said. “;Even though I had to compete in a lot of events today I gave it my all. I do get tired, but all I could think about was finishing.

“;At the end I just leaned forward as far as I could toward the finish line and won.”;

Santiago had no problems winning the 300-meter hurdles in 47.89.

Afterward she said, “;This win took a great amount of weight off of my shoulders. I put a lot of pressure on myself to win every race.”;

The junior also won the girls long jump with a leap of 17 feet, 1 1/4 inches and the girls triple jump in 35-7 1/4 .

“;Overall this was a great day for me,”; Santiago said. “;I really stayed focused and that was my key to winning today.”;

The only event that Santiago didn't win was the girls high jump. She tied for fifth.

“;This is my second time competing in the high jump,”; Santiago said. “;The coaches wanted me to try to see how well I would do.”;

Kahuku coach Garth Spurrier said, “;We just want to see how she does in other events. It seems like whatever she seriously decides to do; given enough time she will do well.”;

Kahuku had another winner in Kayla Thompson, who captured the 400-meter dash in 59.61.

The Radford girls team of Sade Myers, Tyler Whitener, Andrea Hinkle and Patton won the 4x100 relay in 48.94. The time bettered the mark of 49.57 set in 2009 by Radford.

“;We worked together as a team and had confidences in each other,”; said Patton who captured the high jump title at 5-2.

Radford also won events in the girls 800-meter by Braina Dingle in 2:25.70, boys 800-meter run by Aaron Beavers in 2:03.77, girls 1,500-meter event by Jessica Kafer in 5:00.57 and the boys 110-meter hurdles by Matthew Kitiona in 15.41.