Kahuku catches Mililani to share girls track and field title

Q: How did Kahuku and Mililani end up sharing the OIA girls track and field title?

Kahuku and Mililani both finished with 92 points, leading to a shared championship after Kahuku won the 4x400 meter relay.

Q: Who were the standout athletes in the OIA girls track and field championship?

Zen Kaopua from Kahuku was a standout, winning the 100 meters, long jump, and 200 meters, and contributing to the winning 4x100 relay.

Q: What were the final times for the 4x400 meter relay in the OIA championship?

Kahuku finished the 4x400 meter relay in 4 minutes, 2.66 seconds, while Mililani finished second with a time of 4:06.47.

The Mililani girls track and field team successfully defended its Oahu Interscholastic Association championship Saturday — sort of.

The Trojans have to share this year’s title with Kahuku, as the Red Raiders ran a blistering 4 minutes, 2.66 seconds to take the 10 points for first in the meet- closing 4×400 meter relay. Mililani went into the finale with a two-point lead, but finished tied with Kahuku with 92 points as the Trojans got eight points for finishing second in 4:06.47.

Zen Kaopua led off for Kahuku on that relay. She was here, there and everywhere throughout the meet at Mililani’s John D. Kauinana Stadium.

Early on, about five minutes after Kaopua won the 100 meters in 12.51 she was back at the long jump pit, where she won with a leap of 18 feet, 1⁄2 inch.

The sophomore also won the 200 meters in 25.40, and led off for the winning 4×100 relay.

During spring break Kaopua was away from the islands.

“I was on the mainland snowboarding with my mom and dad,” she said.

Did that bother her coaches?

“They told me I should have made up a better lie,” she said with a laugh.

Kaopua got plenty of help, including Faith Mataele sweeping the hurdles.

Mililani’s girls picked up points here and there but won just one event. It was the first of the day on the track. Jenna Hasegawa, Hailey Taira, Riana Steward and Sophia Timoshchik held off Kalaheo in the 4×800 relay by .87 of a second, running 9:53.08. Timoshchik brought in eight points for being second to Moanalua’s Sadie Krueger in the 800. Krueger, the state cross country champion, also won the 1,500.

As expected, Moanalua’s state champion boys eased to their second consecutive OIA title, as James Millare continues to put together one of the greatest distance running careers in Hawaii high school history in just two years.

Millare won the 800 in 1:57.01 and the 3,000 in 9:00.08, but it was not a one-man show.

Jaydon Grevious and Tristen Cole got Na Menehune off to a good start, first and third in the long jump on Thursday for 16 points, and Grevious got 20 more for winning the 100 and 200 on Saturday. Cole also won the triple jump, and Hayden Ramiscal the pole vault as Moanalua piled up 125 points. Mililani was second with 117.

Millare — a triple winner in the track distance events at OIA and states last year — looked like he’s ready to do it again.

Millare ran a slow pace for the first 31⁄2 laps of the 1,500, but no one dared try to pass him. Then, on the last turn he accelerated, pulling away from Radford’s Stephen Kozuma to win in 4:02.53.

“He’s very focused on the 800, but he’s even more focused on the 1,500 (for states),” said Moanalua boys distance coach Pono Gandeza, who is also the cross country coach for Na Menehune, where Millare is two-time state champion.

The HHSAA state track and field championships are Friday and Saturday at Kamehameha.