‘Iolani’s Rubasch wins pole vault battle at Punahou Relays

At least five times Saturday afternoon the public-address announcer at the Punahou Relays called attention to the pole vault area.

Over there at Punahou’s Atherton Track, they were literally trying to raise the bar, with ‘Iolani junior Logan Rubasch trying to break the meet record of 15 feet, 4 inches set just last year by Baldwin’s Kainoa Tom.

Rubasch couldn’t unseat Tom, but he wound up outdueling two Punahou vaulters, topping out at 14-6. The Buffanblu’s Nick Kapule and J. Kai Yamafuji cleared 14-0.

Rubasch, who did 14-9 three weeks ago, and Kapule, who soared over the 15-0 mark at a meet in California this spring, have their eyes on the top prize at the upcoming state meet and trying to surpass that event’s record of 15-3.

“I was trying to do my best and see where it went,” said Rubasch, who missed on two 15-0 attempts and one at 15-6. “It’s a lot of technique and a lot of workouts to get a little bit stronger so that you can do more with your body. There’s a lot of pull-up bar kind of things to work on swinging up and back strengthening and different strengthening things. I will be preparing by doing more of that than actual pole vaulting.”

Only a freshman, Yamafuji has the highest pole vault mark by a ninth-grader in the nation this spring so far at 14-6, according to Punahou pole vault coach and Olympian Tom Hintnaus. More than a handful of others in Hawaii who have vaulted between 13-6 and 14-0 are expected at the state meet May 12-13 at Keaau High School on the Big Island.

No records were set Saturday, but Damien’s winning boys 4×100 relay team took a nice stab at one. Nainoa Kimura, Shane Soga, J. Kapilio Livingston-Lopez and Christian Padrone finished in 42.94 seconds. The hand-held record from 1976, set by Leilehua, stands at 42.50 (which is 42.74 after adding the .24 conversion factor to automatic timing).

Punahou long jump coach Matthew Schull captured the 25th annual running of the Hawaii’s Fastest Human race in his first try, crossing the line in 11.30 seconds.

Hank Warrington’s record of 10.67 from 1999 stands. Kelsey Nakanelua ran the race for the 24th time, having missed it last year due to injury.

“Peer pressure from my athletes,” said Schull, the 2009 Punahou graduate who also ran for Colorado College, when asked why he entered. “All the coaches got on me, too. I didn’t know what to expect. It’s always a crap shoot on who’s going to run. Sometimes there are quick guys, so I was a little nervous. I don’t know about being Hawaii’s Fastest Human, but I’ll take the title. There’s a couple of kids who would blow me away, like Damien’s Padrone and Kamehameha’s (Justin Desaki, who placed second in the long jump). Honestly, I came out real slow and started getting worried, but I kept my head down, kept my form and luckily I’m usually a second-half-of-the-race guy and I was able to make up some distance.”

In a tight high jump competition, Bailey Wilson, a Punahou senior, won out over teammate Aaron Hirahara, a sophomore, and Kailua senior Kamui Peeples. Wilson just missed making his personal-best 6-2 and settled for the winning 6-0 — 2 inches better than Hirahara.

“At the beginning of every year, you forget how to jump, but then in the big events like this, you remember how,” Wilson said. “I was looking at (a coach’s) video at the past jumps today and noticed I was kind of rushing it. On the winning jump, I held it more and was able to glide and arch over the bar.”

In the 6×66.5 power relay, football players and field-event participants from the Buffanblu — Miki Suguturaga, Alama Uluave, Paulo Soa, Kennedy Freeman, Legend Matautia and Antonio Cortez Feria — beat second-place Kamehameha, 47.50 seconds to 51.15, with four other teams competing.

“We get to show off our big man speed,” said Uluave, an offensive lineman in football. “It is really more for fun and not really competitive, but Kamehameha wasn’t as close as they were last year.”

72nd Annual Punahou Relays

Boys 4×110 Meter Shuttle Hurdle

1, Kamehameha 1:03.4. 2, Leilehua 1:07.9. 3, Punahou 1:08.5. 4, Radford 1:08.9.

Girls 4×100 Meter Shuttle Hurdle

1, Punahou 1:07.3. 2, ‘Iolani 1:08.8. 3, Kalani 1:11.80. 4, Kaiser 1:13.4.

Boys 4×200 Meter Relay

1, Punahou 1:30.23. 2, Kamehameha 1:30.92. 3, Damien 1:31.30. 4, Mililani 1:32.06. 5, Radford 1:34.52.

Girls 4×200 Meter Relay

1, Mililani 1:45.15. 2, Punahou 1:45.59. 3, Leilehua 1:47.45. 4, Radford 1:49.04. 5, Kamehameha 1:49.54

Boys Distance Medley

1, Kalaheo 10:56.47. 2, Punahou 11:07.37. 3, Mililani 11:15.96. 4, Punahou 11:17.40. 5, McKinley 11:42.46.

Girls Distance Medley

1, Punahou 13:18.99. 2, ‘Iolani 13:32.39. 3, Radford 14:02.56. 4, Punahou 14:04.39. 5, Hawaii Baptist 14:15.45.

Mixed 6×66.5 Meter Relay

1, Punahou 47.50. 2, Kamehameha 51.15. 3, Leilehua 52.56. 4, Aiea 55.13. 5, Damien 55.22.

Boys 1600 Sprint Medley

1, Kalaheo 3:48.55. 2, Punahou 3:51.94. 3, ‘Iolani 4:01.41. 4, Kalaheo 4:08.12. 5, Kalani 4:09.22.

Girls 1600 Sprint Medley

1, Punahou 4:21.08. 2, Nanakuli 4:27.85. 3, Radford 4:40.47. 4, ‘Iolani 4:47.66. 5, Mililani 4:49.43.

Boys 4×180 Yard Shuttle Hurdle

1, Kamehameha 1:31.1. 2, Leilehua 1:34.3. 3, Punahou 1:37.5. 4, Mililani 1:40.7.

Girls 4×180 Yard Shuttle Hurdle

1, Punahou 1:48.2. 2, ‘Iolani 1:48.4. 3, Radford 1:50.2. 4, Leilehua 1:52.0.

Boys 4×800 Meter Relay

1, Punahou 8:39.70. 2, McKinley 8:49.87. 3, Mililani 8:55.20. 4, Radford 8:58.41. 5, Punahou 8:59.45.

Girls 4×800 Meter Relay

1, Punahou A 10:21.42. 2, Punahou B 10:34.06. 3, ‘Iolani 10:39.13. 4, Leilehua 10:52.87. 5, Radford 11:21.71.

Boys 4×100 Meter Relay

1, Damien 42.94. 2, Punahou 43.14. 3, Kamehameha 44.03. 4, Mililani 44.37. 5, Radford 44.43.

Girls 4×100 Meter Relay

1, Punahou 49.70. 2, Kaiser 50.38. 3, Kalani 50.89. 4, Leilehua 51.01. 5, Kamehameha-Maui 51.97.

Boys 4×400 Meter Relay

1, Punahou 3:24.50. 2, Kaiser 3:25.89. 3, Punahou 3:27.74. 4, Radford 3:28.14. 5, Radford 3:36.60.

Girls 4×400 Meter Relay

1, Mililani 4:05.88. 2, Punahou 4:10.13. 3, Kaiser 4:11.08. 4, Leilehua 4:11.48. 5, Radford 4:13.86.

Boys High Jump

1, Bailey Wilson, Punahou, 6-00. 2, Aaron Hirahara, Punahou, 5-10. 3, Kamui Peeples, Kailua, 5-08. 4, Jonah Apo, Kamehameha, 5-06. 5, J’Drien Jones, Radford, J5-06.

Girls High Jump

1, Kristen O’Handley, Kaiser, 5-04. 2, Kayla Afoa, Kamehameha, 5-00. 3, Ginon Jones, Kaiser, J5-00. 4, Kiki Megorden, Punahou, J5-00. 5, Kellie Okamura, ‘Iolani, 4-10.

Boys Pole Vault

1, Logan Rubasch, ‘Iolani, 14-06. 2, Nick Kapule, Punahou, 14-00. 3, J. Kai Yamafuji, Punahou, J14-00. 4, Micah Hee, Kamehameha, 13-06. 5, Jarod Okamura, ‘Iolani, 12-06.

Girls Pole Vault

1, Tommi Hintnaus, Kaiser, 11-00. 2, Juliette Lum, Kaiser, J11-00. 3, Kira Watanabe, Punahou, 10-06. 4, Jaelyn Domingo, Kamehameha, 10-00. 5, Elena Yuen, Punahou, 9-06.

Boys Long Jump

1, Andrei Iosivas, Punahou, 22-09.75. 2, Justin Desaki, Kamehameha, 21-10. 3, Keala Martinson, Punahou, 21-01.25. 4, Jaymen Yadao, Mililani, 20-08. 5, Carl Justin Hermosura, Pearl City H, 20-06.

Girls Long Jump

1, Kayla Afoa, Kamehameha, 17-00.25. 2, Stevie Marvin, Punahou, 16-01.50. 3, Emily Leong, Kalani, 15-09. 4, Diami Dukes, Kapolei, 15-02.50. 5, Taylor Venenciano, ‘Iolani, 15-02.25.

Boys Triple Jump

1, Isaiah Harris, Waipahu, 43-09. 2, Carl Justin Hermosura, Pearl City, 43-00.25. 3, Mitchell Quinn, Saint Louis, 41-01.25. 4, Micah Akiu, Kamehameha, 40-02.25. 5, Macky Coleman, Kamehameha, 39-07.75.

Girls Triple Jump

1, Nikki Shimao, ‘Iolani, 36-01. 2, Aosha Beckwith, Leilehua, 35-02.50. 3, Kayla Afoa, Kamehameha, 34-06. 4, Stevie Marvin, Punahou, 34-04.75. 5, Emily Leong, Kalani, 34-03.

Boys Discus Throw

1, Miki Suguturaga, Punahou, 150-07. 2, Kalawaia Pescaia, Kamehameha, 141-10. 3, Jonah Welch, Kamehameha, 139-04. 4, Ahofitu Maka, Farrington, 137-07. 5, Braxton Victor, Leilehua, 135-00.

Girls Discus Throw

1, Brittany Kamau, Farrington, 121-01. 2, Bradina Anae, Kahuku, 110-07. 3, Nata Suguturaga, Punahou, 100-11. 4, Shaddai Tapasa, Radford, 100-04. 5, Angel Kahoiwai, Leilehua, 94-01.

Boys Shot Put

1, Andrew Aleki, Kamehameha, 51-03.75. 2, Ferenisi Lualemaga, Aiea, 49-08.25. 3, Monty Payne, Damien, 47-11. 4, Ahofitu Maka, Farrington, 47-01.75. 5, Kalai Ortiz, Kamehameha, 46-07.75.

Girls Shot Put

1, Bradina Anae, Kahuku, 38-05.25. 2, Olivia Vaeatangitau, St Francis, 37-07.50. 3, Fale Taua, Leilehua, 34-03. 4, Nora Suguturaga, Punahou, 33-06.25. 5, Tioleaoauli Posiulai, Pac-Five, 33-00.25.