honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, December 21, 2002

Macdonald to guide Punahou girls' team

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

Former American record holder and Olympic Games distance runner Duncan Macdonald has been appointed head girls track and field coach at Punahou School.

Macdonald, who has been head cross country coach at Punahou for four years and boys middle-distance track coach longer, replaces Dan Tuttle III, who retired. He took over yesterday, associate athletic director Jeff Meister said.

Macdonald's daughter, Pippa, will be one of the stars of his first team. She has won the state 800-meter championship the past three years.

His older daughter, Eri, won the 800 title the previous four years and still holds the state meet record. Eri now runs middle distances and cross country for the University of Oregon.

In 1976, Duncan Macdonald broke Steve Prefontaine's American 5,000-meter record. He ran for the United States in the Olympic Games in Montreal the same year.

Though the 5K was his best event, Macdonald won the first Honolulu Marathon in 1973 and won it again in 1976 and 1980.

"There were a ton of applicants," Meister said. "We narrowed it to five or six real good coaches from all around the state, and then made our final decision. We are happy and fortunate to have a guy of Duncan's caliber. He will continue the strong tradition of Punahou track and field."

Punahou has won 26 of the 36 state high school girls' track and field championships. But Iolani ended a six-year Punahou string last May.

Macdonald was state cross country champion for Kailua High in 1965 and '66 and an All-American at Stanford University. He resides in Kailua and is an anesthesiologist in Honolulu.