Even after 15 events, it came down to the final race of the evening to determine the Interscholastic League of Honolulu boys track and field champion.

Punahou led Kamehameha by seven points heading into track and field's most exciting event — the 4x400-meter relay. The Buffanblu went on to win the race and their second straight team title with 151.50 points. Kamehameha finished second with 138.5 points and Saint Louis was third with 52.

Punahou had 141.5 points to Kamehameha's 134.5 entering the final race, and the Buffanblu clinched the title by winning the 4X400 in 3 minutes, 29.11 seconds. The Warriors finished fourth in 3:33.80.

"I heard it came down to this event, but I could only center and focus and think of nothing," said Punahou senior Tobie Reeuwijk, who anchored the winning relay. "It feels really good. I'm glad I got to represent Punahou and give it my all."

Chris Chang, Ben Strand and Jeff Pedrina joined Reeuwijk on the 4X400 team.

The girls meet wasn't as up-in-the-air. Punahou won its sixth straight girls title with 186 points, followed by Kamehameha with 141 and Pac-Five with 66.

"I was worried because Kamehameha is a strong team," Punahou coach Duncan Macdonald said. "We had a whole slew of injuries and bad luck.

"We had a lot of people in the late-stage running events who came through. At this level you need to have more than one person and we have depth."

On the boys' side it was a close meet all night long, with a few points separating the top two teams up until the final event.

Punahou senior Abe Markowitz doubled up, winning the discus (158 feet, 3 inches) and the shot put (55-2€).

Punahou's Lucas Lam legged out an exciting finish in the 1,500-meter run to repeat as champ, winning in 4:18.75, after a battle with Pac-Five's Matt Nakamoto.

Another repeat champion was Punahou's Zach Coronas in the 400-meter dash in 49.98. It was Coronas' first time competing in a couple of weeks after "tweaking" his right foot during practice.

"I could still jog, but I'm just getting back to running," Coronas said. "I lost some cardio, but I'm in pretty good shape."

Pac-Five senior Javen Correia was a first-time champion in both the 110- (15.26) and 300-meter (39.78) hurdles.

"Last year I was just running, and this year it was more mental," Correia said. "I worked on journals on things to improve, like my steps. I worked on my form every day for practices, and my coaches told me when that was good everything else would come together."

On the girls' side, with every point counting, the Buffanblu strategized, scratching freshman sprinter Lahaina Zoller from the 100 so she could anchor the 4x100 relay, which Punahou won in 50.76 seconds after Zoller held off 100-meter dash champion Hailey Kauhane of Kamehameha.

"I was upset when I found out (I wasn't running the 100) but after the 4x100 I'm pretty sure it helped," said Zoller, who strained her groin in an earlier meet and tweaked it again in Wednesday's trials.

Zoller also won the 200-meter dash in 26.72.

"I think it helped a lot (to sit out the 100), because as far as field events, Kamehameha dominated and we needed as much points as we could get," Zoller said.

Buffanblu junior Joy Piotrowski won both the long (16-8€) and triple (35-6€) jumps.

"We had a lot of girls who did (personal records) in the long jump and triple jumps," said Piotrowski, who set a personal record in the long jump.

It was her first ILH titles, coming after the graduation of ILH record holder Samantha Cabreros, whom Piotrowski called "my mentor."

"I've always been in Sammy's shadow," Piotrowski said. "But it feels really good to win my first titles."

Kamehameha's Kauhane repeated as the 100-meter dash champion, winning in 12.81 seconds, and teammates Alana Meditz (300-meter hurdles, 47.37) and Charmaine Mokiao (shot put, 40-3) also won their second straight titles.