Kaiser’s O’Handley breaks record, wins all her events

Kristen O’Handley didn’t let a groin strain stop her.

The Kaiser senior entered five events and won them all Saturday in the Oahu Interscholastic Association track and field championship meet at Pearl City.

In her first event, O’Handley set the meet record of 5 feet, 51⁄4 inches in the high jump.

“I saw the record my freshman year and saw (former Kahuku star) Natasha Kai’s name and I was like, ‘I wanna get that, I wanna get that,’ ” O’Handley said. “It’s the same record for states, so maybe I can get it twice.”

O’Handley also won the 100-meter dash (12.39 seconds), the 200 (25.78) and the 400 (58.05) and was a part of the 4×100 winning relay team.

The Cougars’ Tommi Hintnaus was also a part of that relay team and she won the pole vault with a personal best 11-7. Hannah Hollenbeck and Juliette Lum were the other two Kaiser girls in the relay.

“The seniors are very proud to have won the OIAs four years in a row,” Kaiser girls coach Kevin Kruszona said. “They talked about it this week. It was one of their goals and they accomplished that. We’re in a good position and are looking forward to the state meet.”

O’Handley and Hintnaus were part of the Cougars’ state championship team two years ago and the runners-up last year.

“They were not happy campers last year and they worked hard in the offseason,” Kruszona said.

O’Handley opted out of a chance to win a sixth event when she decided not to compete in the 4×400 relay.

Kaiser topped the girls team standings with 100 points, followed by Campbell in second with 68.5 points and Radford in third with 54.

Mililani won an intensely close boys meet with 75 points. The Trojans battled second-place Leilehua (56 points) and Campbell (45.75) all night.

In the second-to-last event — the 3,000 — Mililani sealed it when Tyler Stiles scored six points by placing third and Timothy Schiller picked up four points by placing fourth.

“The coaches (Dane Matsunaga and Nate Aragaki) giving us one-on-one time really helped us succeed today,” said Mililani’s Kaleo Pogue, who was part of the winning 4×100 relay team (43.75) with Jaymen Yadao, Ryan Chang and Jaratt Kaopuiki-Ota. “We got the boys championship.”

Pogue finished fourth in the 100 and second in the 200 and was part of a fourth-place finish in the 4×400.

“Coach Nate really works with the distance guys. Having them run miles and miles every day really gets them prepared for the 3,000,” Pogue said. “This was a great team accomplishment.”

Kalaheo’s Avery Torres captured the 3,000 in 9:02.26, with teammate Colby Otero taking second. The two also went 1-2 in the 1,500, with Torres getting it done in 4:16.58.

Torres was jammed in the middle of the pack with 800 meters to go in the 1,500 and did not know exactly what to do, but he figured it out.

“I fell out (to the back), then went to the front and started pushing a little more,” said Torres, who was neck and neck with Otero the last 400 meters. “It got to the 150 or 100 mark to see who was going to do it.”

Jacob Schmidt was instrumental in the Mules’ second-place finish with victories in the 100 (11.00) and 200 (22.49), and he placed third in the 400.

“I knew they were going to be hard races,” said Schmidt, whose best race is the 400, but who felt his hamstring give near the end of that race. “The 200 until recently was my worst race.”

Campbell’s Leilani Leopard in the 300 hurdles (47.22) and 100 hurdles (15.74), and Leilehua’s Aosha Beckwith in the long jump (17-11⁄4) and triple jump (36-81⁄4) were among the girls winning multiple individual events.