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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, May 7, 2003

Two Nickles worth a lot to Mililani track team

By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hurdling is just one of the events Mei Li, left, and Chun Mei Nickles compete in for Mililani. Mei Li, a junior, also excels in the long jump and triple jump while Chun Mei, a senior, is the state's top pole vaulter.

Advertiser library photo

If you plan to follow the action provided by Mililani High School's Nickles sisters at this week's Island Movers State Track and Field Championships, you better stay seated and alert.

Chun Mei, a senior, and Mei Li, a junior, not only score points in big bunches for the O'ahu Interscholastic Association champion Trojans, they do it in an unusually wide variety of events. The sisters themselves sometimes struggle to stay on top of what race/jump/vault they have next.

"It's hard because you hear 'Last call!' for one event, and you just finished another one," said Mei Li, who runs sprints and hurdles and does the long, triple and high jump. "We're always running around to check in and check out. And during the week, it's a long practice."

That's if they're able to get everything in. Chun Mei competes in sprints and hurdles and also the pole vault.

"I had always wanted to do it since middle school," Chun Mei said of the pole vault.

But Mililani's pole vault pit sometimes gets set up only twice a week, and Chun Mei has to squeeze in vault practice between training for sprints and hurdles.

"Most pole vaulters just concentrate on that," Trojans coach Dane Matsunaga said. "But Chun Mei has her running workout, too. We're lucky she is drawn to it."

Chun Mei set an OIA record with a vault of 10 feet, 7 inches at last weekend's OIA championships, and she set what is believed to be an all-time state best mark of 11-1 at the Punahou Relays two weeks ago.

But that's only part of what she does. Chun Mei also won the 100-meter hurdles at the OIA meet with a personal-best time of 15.66 seconds and ran the third leg of Mililani's winning 4x100 relay team. That represents 22 points contributed to the team total.

Island Movers Boys and Girls State Track and Field Championships

• Where: Kunuiakea Stadium, Kamehameha Schools

• When: Trials tomorrow (field events at noon, running events 3:15 p.m.), finals Saturday (field events 3:30 p.m., running events 5:40 p.m.)

• Admission: $7 adults, $5 students

Mei Li won the long jump with a personal-best leap of 17 feet, 7 1/2 inches and the triple jump with a mark of 35-8, took second in the 100 hurdles (15.72), fourth in the 100 (13.14) and ran the anchor leg on the winning 4x100 relay team. That's 28 points.

Together, the sisters helped score 40 of the Trojans' 88 points to help them run away with the team title.

"We're lucky because they can do various events," Matsunaga said. "They both used to play other sports — Mei Li was a basketball player — but a couple years ago they decided to just stick with track, and they're really committed. It's benefitted them; you can see it's paid off."

The sisters, who are half Taiwanese and half black, began their track careers four years ago in Washington state, a year before moving to Hawai'i. Chun Mei won the OIA pole vault championship last year but also missed seven weeks of the season with arthritis in her hips.

She has stayed healthy this year, though she had ice packs wrapped around both shins and her lower back after her events last Saturday.

Mei Li said she had triple jumped in the past but did not do it last year. This season longtime jump coach Art Katahara, who has had stints at Iolani, Waipahu and Kaiser, joined the Mililani staff.

"That's really helped us, to have a specialty jump coach," Matsunaga said.

Katahara calls the Nickles sisters — both straight-A students — "gifted and talented."

The same could be said of many Mililani teammates, a few of whom are multi-sport standouts. Senior Jen Loo, who won the 300 hurdles at the OIA meet with a time of 47.97 and anchored the Trojans' winning 4x400 relay team (4:18.74), is a two-time Advertiser first-team All-State midfielder in soccer and also plays volleyball.

Fellow senior Liane Tom, a second-team All-State soccer forward, took second in the 300 hurdles (49.77), fifth in the 100 hurdles (16.92) and was a member of the winning 4x100 relay team. And junior Charity Senas, a first-team All-State shortstop in softball, took second in the shot put (34 feet, 10 inches) and was a member of the winning 4x100 relay team.

"And this is Charity's first year in track," Matsunaga said. "This year we're fortunate to have more athletes, and it's improved our depth because we're not spreading ourselves too thin. We don't have a lot of girls running in five or six events."

Just two girls — two very good ones who just happen to be sisters.