Baldwin grad spreading a little aloha around Idaho
By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer
Alohalani Santiago is a 6-foot, husky Hawaiian woman with brown skin who attends 82 percent-white University of Idaho.
Shauna Greenfield • U. of Idaho Argonaut
"People look at me weird," Santiago says, "so I introduce myself to everyone I see:
Alohalani Santiago's engaging personality has helped her adjust to life away from home.
'Hi, I'm Alohalani, but you can call me 'Aloha.'
"Then they can't look at you weird anymore because they know who you are."
Santiago, a fifth-year senior (1998 Baldwin grad from Kihei), attends Idaho on a track and field scholarship. On April 11, she qualified for the NCAA's new West Regional Championship in the shot put and discus.
"If I make it to nationals and compete," Santiago says, "it would be all right if I died the next day.
"Then I'd know that everything I strived for in college, especially in track, has come true. And I could go out on top of the world."
Santiago still needs some extra ummph to get to dreamland. The top five placers at regionals go to the NCAA Division I nationals in California in June and Santiago is currently ranked 15th in the shot put and 30th in the discus in the West Region.
She holds Idaho's school records in the hammer throw outdoors (180 feet, 9 inches) and the weight throw (57-6 1/2) and shot put (47-5 1/2) indoors.
"I'm not where I want to be yet," Santiago says. "I want to break the school outdoor record in the shot put and have four school records." She needs to improve another 28 inches to erase the record of 51-2fl.
"She can break that," says Idaho throwing coach Julie Taylor. "She is strong, explosive and fast for her size, and she's come through when you need her to, every year."
Like the 2000 Big West Conference championships, when Santiago scored 15 points with a personal record in every event she entered.
Alohalani, named "Gift from Heaven" by a grandmother, "was a fighter from the beginning," says her mom, Lien, who works at Longs in Kihei.
"She was premature, born at 6 months," Lien says. "She weighed under 6 pounds and was in the hospital 21 days."
Lien says Aloha's strength comes from growing up "in the boondocks — in Kanaio, beyond Ulupalakua. She built stone walls when she was very young."
University of Idaho
Aloha's mom took a hands-on attitude toward her athletics early on. "Every time, she was like, 'You're not sitting on your butt watching TV. Get another sport,' " Aloha said.
Alohalani Santiago holds Idaho’s school records in the hammer throw outdoors, and weight throw and shot put indoors.
Her mom, a UCLA grad, guided Aloha's college choice, too, and was with her when Aloha went to enroll at Idaho — her first trip to the Mainland since she was 10.
"We were riding the bus past all these rolling brown hills," Aloha said, "and I said, 'Mom, where are you taking me?' "
Santiago said she was a little sad in land-locked Moscow, Idaho, when her mother — whom Aloha calls "my center" — left after a week. Until her classmate told her about Lake Hayden, just an hour's drive away.
"But then I found out it was the headquarters for the Aryan Nation," Santiago said. "I panicked and phoned my mom and she said, 'Don't leave campus.' "
Idaho "has kind of grown on me," Santiago says, but she will return to Maui after she gets her degree in criminal justice in December. She wants to join the police department.
"They say I look mean, but I'm big softee," she says.
Coach Taylor says, "She's always been the kind of kid you can ask to do anything and she'll do it. She'll be missed next year, by me and everybody.
"I don't know that I will ever have another kid like her. Aloha is one of a kind."
FOR THE RECORD: Aloha Santiago's regional qualifying marks on April 11 were 48-3 1/2 in the shot put and 150-1 in the discus. ... Her PRs are 48-11 and 155-7. ... Santiago redshirted in track in 2001-02 and played basketball because the team was short-handed. Coach Mike Divilbiss recalls, "One day in a practice scrimmage, there was a loose ball. Nobody had a chance to get it, but Aloha went horizontal and tried to save it with a super effort. The six seniors all looked around, and went, 'Oh. Maybe that's the kind of effort coach is talking about.' Her spirit and compassion and competitiveness helped provide a role model for us." ... Tim Marsh, who officiates the hammer throw at some Idaho meets, said, "Some throwers tend toward the dramatic. Not Aloha Santiago ... she has a job to do and goes into the ring and does it."
MORE TRACK & FIELD
• Penn Relays
Michigan junior Vera Simms (Mililani '00) won a photo-finish for fourth place in the 400-meter hurdles in 59.10. Simms is ranked second in the MidEast region and 10th nationally with her 58.33 on March 22.
• Oregon Invitational
Marks of athletes from Hawai'i:
400: 6th, Lauran Dignam, Washington, 57.66. 800: 7, Eri Macdonald, Oregon, 2:11.46. Steeplechase: 10, Alicia Snyder-Carlson, Oregon, 10:57.72.
4x400 : 1, Oregon (including Macdonald) 3:45.46. 5, Washington (including Dignam) 3:54.66. 10,000: 13, Anne Kawasaki, Portland State, 38:11.02.
