High schools
Sacred Hearts junior makes historic leap

Kelly Figueira, a junior at Sacred Hearts Academy, long-jumped 19 feet, 3 1/4 inches at last Saturday's Punahou Relays. It is believed to be the best girls high school long jump ever in Hawai'i. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

Junior Kelly Figueira of Sacred Hearts Academy finally hit the takeoff board and then she hit the record books, apparently recording the best high school girls long jump ever in Hawai'i during last Saturday's Punahou Relays.

"It was like a miracle or something," Figueira said of her long jump. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

It would be 10th best in the United States this year on the current Track and Field News high school list.

It bettered her previous best of 18-2 3/4 last month and was almost 16 inches farther than the Punahou Relays' record of 17-11 1/2 set by Diane Kawahara of St. Andrew's Priory 20 years earlier. The best athletes in the state usually come to the Punahou Relays to size up their competition for the state championships.

It was three-fourths of an inch farther than the state high school meet record set by Shari Fox of Leilehua in 1979. That was a memorable state meet, with Kawahara breaking the record with a leap of 18-7 3/4 in the trials and Fox topping that mark in the finals with her 19-2 1/2.

There are no recognized state records for Hawai'i high schools in non-state championship meets, as incorrectly reported by another publication. Records must be made in the state championship meet to be recognized.

Records that are available indicate that perhaps only Gwen Loud, the phenomenal University of Hawai'i jumper of the early '80s, may have gone farther in Hawai'i. Loud set the UH record of 21-9 1/2 in 1983.

The record for the Aloha State Games is 18-3 1/4 by Joy Margerum, a former NCAA champion, in 1995, games director Mark E. Zeug said. Figueira won last summer's event with 17-4 1/2.

Figueira's troubles of adjusting her steps on approach to the takeoff board have been well known around the Interscholastic League of Honolulu.

"I just wasn't able to hit it," Figueira said. "It was starting to be a mental thing."

On April 14, when she had her previous best of 18-2 3/4, she left the ground from at least three inches behind the board, which reduced her jump by more than a foot. Long jumps are measured from the leading edge of the 11 1/2-inch-wide takeoff board and any distance you take off from behind that doesn't count.

Conversely, if you leave the ground in front of the board, it is a foul and your jump doesn't count. Sometimes fear of fouling leads jumpers to overcompensate and jump from well behind the board.

Figueira took off two feet behind the board on one jump April 14.

But Saturday, the takeoff board and Figueira were in harmony. She hit it every time, and was at least 4 inches onto the board for her record jump, according to her coach, Cyril Pires.

"I don't know why," Figueira said. "It was like a miracle or something. Our team got to the track a little late and I only had time for one warmup run-through. Maybe that's why. I hope I've got it now."

Pires was awestruck. "I've never seen anything like that before," he said "Her performance is unmatched. She had three jumps over 18 feet and one at 19-1, before she set the record on her last jump. . . . She's got springs like I've never seen."

"I was working with her a good two hours Thursday, until 7:30," Pires said. "We had her vault off the boys board, which is 6 feet farther back, to get her to extend and reach and get over the fear of missing the board.

"Generally, if you hit the boys board, you hit the girls board automatically," Pires said.

Pires also thinks Figueira had "extra legs" Saturday. She also is a starter on the Sacred Hearts' basketball team, but she played only a few minutes the night before the meet.

Figueira, a 12.4 sprinter, also was a second-team all-league soccer player this year. "I think my speed helps," she said. A summer of hard work in the weight room and other conditioning have helped her improve, too, Pires said.

Another favorable factor may have been that she jumped Saturday where she has been practicing recently. Sacred Hearts does not have a track on campus and usually practices at Kaimuki High or Cooke Field at UH. Those venues weren't available during the teachers' strikes last month, and Punahou let the Lancers practice there.

Doug Kilpatrick, who has been coaching jumpers in Hawai'i since 1963, praised the Sacred Hearts coaching staff for doing, "an absolutely terrific job of not pushing her in too many events."

"She's terrific, very, very fluid," Kilpatrick said. "If they limit her events ... she will go 20 feet before she graduates next year."

EXTRA JUMPS: Girls long jumping seemed to be in a lull in Hawai'i between Diane Kawahara and Shari Fox in 1979 and last year, when Kelly Figueira, Kahuku's Natasha Kai and Mililani's Vera Simms all jumped 18 feet or better. In the '90s, the winning state jump only surpassed 17-6 one time, when transfer Erin Stovall jumped 19 feet for Iolani in 1997. . . . Figueira is the younger sister of Danny Figueira, a record-setting quarterback for Punahou who excelled at Whitworth College in Washington and played in the Hula Bowl. . . . So dedicated is coach Doug Kilpatrick that he cut short a business trip to Nigeria and returned to help officiate at the Punahou Relays. He's been helping kids for nearly 40 years.