Roosevelt boys, Kaiser girls win OIA titles
By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
MILILANI — It was a first time for one and a long time for another at the O'ahu Interscholastic Association track and field championships yesterday.
Roosevelt's boys won five events to capture their first league title ever, dominating the field with 69¡ points to runner-up Radford's 38.
"We're all happy to win it," Roosevelt senior George Seymour said. "Everyone had to pull through to win it."
Meanwhile, Kaiser's girls also claimed five events, including the crucial 4x400-meter relay, to tally 57 1/2 points to Mililani's 52 to win their first OIA crown since 1990.
In the relay, the Cougars trailed the Trojans down the stretch. But anchor Marissa Gordon caught Mililani's Michelle Lee in the final 50 meters.
"I knew I had to close the gap," Gordon said. "I just had to push it."
Alice Or, Tara Luke and Jessica Rohr ran the first three legs of Kaiser's relay.
In the process, the two schools ended Mililani's reign of three boys and four girls crowns.
But the Trojans did not leave empty-handed at their own stadium. Despite running with a pulled abdomen, senior Jeff Lim rewrote his own meet record in the 3,000 meters with a time of 9 minutes, 27.88 seconds.
The previous mark of 9:32.26 was set two years ago.
"Actually, I was hoping to set it faster than that," Lim said. "I was out of shape today. If was in shape, I think I would've done 9.0-something."
His injury occurred three weeks ago at the OIA Western Division meet while running the 3,000. What aggravated it was having to run anchor in the 4x400 relay, which follows the distance run.
Seymour had an exciting race. He caught Mililani's Clint Imholte in the last 10 meters to win the 800 by .62 of a second (2:01.23 to 2:01.85), denying the Trojan from winning his second event. (Imholte won the 1,500.)
"I just got my second wind and it pulled me through," Seymour said.
Jerry Perreira led the Rough Riders with wins in the 100 (11.26) and 200 (22.58).
Shown Francis won the 300 hurdles easily at 39.92.
"I didn't think I could run 39s (seconds)," he said. "At the beginning (of the season), I was running 44s. I dropped five seconds."
Roosevelt closed the meet by winning the 4x400 relay in 3:30.30 with Jonathan Nakasone, Jason Parel, Seymour and Francis.
Meanwhile, Kaiser held off Mililani by cleaning up the thirds, fourths and fifths. But Rohr won the 110 (15.86) and 300 (46.79) hurdles. The 100 was somewhat of a surprise because Kahuku's Krisha Kai had posted the best preliminary time. But Rohr, a senior, downplayed that win.
"I just focused on my race instead of anybody else's," she said. "And Krisha was hurt (knee)."
The Trojans kept the meet close. Senior sprinter Sophia Tunstall won the 200 by edging Leilehua's April Wallace, 27.15 to 27.16.
"I didn't think I could get it," Tunstall said. "(Wallace) is a good runner."
Tunstall had only the sixth-best trials time and six weeks ago suffered stress fractures in her toes and had water in her knee.
Meanwhile, Kahuku's Kai was still strong enough to win the high (5 feet 1) and triple (35-10) jumps.
Another Red Raider double was turned in by Ashlee Fely, who won the discus (126-5) and shot put (35-5). Her coach is her father, former Kahuku star athlete Dwayne Fely.
Another Red Raider also swept the weights. Talavou Avegalio won the discus (160-6) and shot (51-9) for the boys.
