Kaiser girls celebrate after winning the OIA title. Steve Erler | Special to SL

Purchase image 1 of 1

MILILANI — For the second consecutive year, the Campbell boys and Kaiser girls claimed the team titles at the Oahu Interscholastic Association track and field championships.

The Sabers and Cougars successfully defended their league crowns Saturday night on a calm, cool night at John Kauinana Stadium.

Campbell overcame several miscues and accumulated 67 points to hold off runner-up Radford, which had 54 points. Kapolei placed third with 49 points, Aiea fourth with 48 and Leilehua scored 34 points to round out the top five.

"Going into (Saturday), I felt real good about our team, but we had some injuries and some guys pulling out," Sabers' coach Wyatt Tau said. "Some of our alternates got in and they placed, too, and that helped us out plenty. It's a good team effort. I'm just so happy for these kids."

Corey Cooper led the way for Campbell by winning the 200-meter dash in a time of 22.36 seconds. He also finished third in the 100-meter dash and ran in both the second-place 4x400-meter and third-place 4x100-meter relay teams.

"He qualified for six events, but I told him to just pick the four that he wanted and could win in," Tau said. "He did good and he's only a junior, too. Their work ethic — not just with him, but all of them — is just awesome. That's why I coach, these guys make my job easier. I love coaching these guys."

Several teams remained in the mix for the boys' team title going into the night's final event, the 4x400-meter relay, but the Sabers' second-place finish in the race essentially secured the championship.

Earlier in the day, Campbell scratched Keola Himan, who ran the sixth-best time in Thursday's trials, from the 100-meter dash finals, and Jonah Jessup was disqualified for a false start in the 110-meter hurdle finals.

"We had to overcome all those obstacles and do it for the team," Cooper said. "Everybody played a part, it was a team effort. We had some minor fall downs, but we came back."

With their football field and track undergoing construction, the Sabers have been relegated to finding any suitable place to run on campus. Twice a week the team holds practice at Leilehua's Hugh Yoshida Stadium.

"It's just tough with where we practice at with the cement and I just thank Leilehua for allowing us to go there on Tuesdays and Thursdays," Tau said. "It's just unbelievable, so many of these kids are injured with shin splints, because we've been running on cement all year and I can't imagine if Leilehua didn't let us come over there and share their track with us. I think it would be even worse, so I just thank God and thank the Leilehua AD and coaches for allowing us to work out at there. They didn't give us any problem, they just welcomed us with open arms.

Cooper said the hardships the team has had to overcome this year only makes the title that much sweeter.

"It's just a mental toughness that we have," Cooper said. "We don't have the equipment that everybody else has. It's an accomplishment and that's what makes winning feel even better."

Castle's Chad Figueroa won the 100-meter dash in a time of 11.02 seconds and ran the anchor leg of the winning 4x100-meter relay team.

Also, Mililani's Aukahi Nolan set a new meet record in the pole vault with a mark of 14 feet, 7 inches.

Meanwhile, the Kaiser girls blew away the field with 147.33 points. Campbell was the nearest challenger with 115 points, Leilehua was third with 113.33, Radford fourth with 95 and Mililani rounded out the top five with 73 points.

"We talk about (repeating) a lot," Cougars' coach Kevin Kruszona said. "We knew last year we kind of snuck up on everybody, they didn't really see us and we did sneak up and fortunately we won it last year. This year I knew we were a little more stronger this year, but the other teams were all strong. It's just close, but we were really surprised by how much we won it this year."

A pair of seniors led the way for Kaiser in Teuila Gardner and Celine Lum. Gardner won the 800-meter run in a time of 2:26.70 and the high jump with a height of 5-feet. She also placed second in the 400-meter dash. Lum set a new meet record in the pole vault (during Thursday's trials) with a mark of 12-feet, 1-inch, and placed second to Gardner in the 800. Both were members of the winning 4x400- and 4x100-meter relays teams, along with Tommi Hintnaus and Kristen O'Handley. They broke the meet record in the 4x400 with a time of 4:00.43.

"It's really just the belief in each other. Every time we're about to run a race, we just come up to each other and like, ‘I love you, I love you, I love you. Let's do this.' " Gardner said. "Because we're a small team and we have to do a lot of individual events and that, of course, takes a lot of energy out of us, but I think once we just saw our talent we just continued, believed in each other, maintained training — I think that was probably the most important thing — and the endless support from our coaches, our parents and each other was really the primary driving force in all this."

O'Handley won the 400-meter dash and placed third in the 100 and fourth in the high jump, while Hintnaus also turned in a runner-up finish in the pole vault.

"We knew we had a lot of solid girls and they're really well-balanced," Kruszona said. "I treat them almost as decathletes because they do multiple events — they're all high jumpers, pole vaulters, they do long jump, hurdles, plus they run the 4x100, which is a short sprint, they run the 4x400, and a couple of them run the 800 — so they're really almost like heptathletes to girls, decathletes to guys and that's why look forward to it. It's such a two-day event, it's almost like a heptathlon or decathlon meet, so they've been training hard with that in mind."

Kruszona said the girls feed off of each other's energy and have collectively elevated their performance level.

"In the past we used to have maybe a couple really solid girls and we'd just have to run them with the boys," Kruszona said. :Now we have four, five solid girls and they can really compete during practice, so it does help. They push each other."

Moanalua's Kathleen Funcheon won double gold in the 100- and 200-meter dash, with times of 12.09 and 25.49 seconds, respectively. Leilehua's Jerry Maluyo swept the long jump and triple jump events, with marks of 16 feet, 11 inches and 31 feet, 4 1/2 inches, respectively.

In addition to the 4x400-meter relay and pole vault records that fell, Mililani's Vanessa Roybal set a new meet record in the 3,000-meter run with her mark of 10:45.47.

The Island Movers/Hawaii High School Athletic Association State Championships will be held Friday and Saturday at War Memorial Stadium in Wailuku, Maui.

Oahu Interscholastic Association Track & Field Championships
At John Kauinana Stadium
Boys
Team scores
1, Campbell 67 points. 2, Radford 54. 3, Kapolei 49. 4, Aiea 48. 5, Leilehua 34. 6, Castle 32. 7, Roosevelt 31. 8, Kahuku 28.5. 9, Kaiser 26. 10, Mililani 23. 11, Waipahu 20. 12, Kalaheo 18.5. 13t, Kalani 12. 13t, McKinley 12. 15, Kailua 11. 16t, Anuenue 10. 16t, Farrington 10. 18, Moanalua 9. 19, Waianae 1. 

Girls
Team scores
1, Kaiser 147.33 points. 2, Campbell 115. 3, Leilehua 113.33. 4, Radford 95. 5, Mililani 73. 6, Kapolei 54. 7, Aiea 50. 8, Roosevelt 46. 9, Kahuku 44.5. 10, Moanalua 40. 11, Waipahu 38. 12, Castle 34.33. 13, Kailua 29. 14, Kalaheo 28.5. 15, Farrington 20. 16, McKinley 16. 17t, Kalani 12. 17t, Kalani 12. 19, Anuenue 10. 20, Kaimuki 6. 21t, Pearl City 4. 21t, Waianae 4.