Kristen O’Handley has trained practically nonstop since she fell in love with track and field.

But breaking Natasha Kai’s OIA East record in the high jump? The Kaiser senior never envisioned it, especially since she never gets to practice the event this season with their home track and field under renovation.

“I practice at the meets,” O’Handley said. “Since we only practice there, that’s the only time we have a pit.”

With their home track and field under renovation, the Kaiser Cougars work out daily at the expansive terrain of Koko Head District Park. They stick to the grassy fields and small hills, refraining from climbing the mountainous trail to the peak.

But O’Handley has a theory about that popular, edgy trail that is laid with wooden strips to the top.

“Those are railroad tracks. I’m pretty sure they are. I definitely could be wrong,” she said. “But there are bunkers up there.”

The Kaiser senior, who moved here from Canada at age 2, is a scholar with a 4.0 grade-point average, one of the valedictorians who will march with unique honors on graduation day. The rest of the time, seemingly, O’Handley is in flight, in stride, in motion on the grass fields of Koko Head and the rubberized tracks and jumping pits around the rest of the Oahu Interscholastic Association.

For four seasons, she has left her mark on OIA track and field, competing in as many as six events at meets. She’ll do just that this weekend at the Island Movers/HHSAA State Track and Field Championships at Keaau High School, where the wind often blows hard on straightaways, creating a mind game for runners and jumpers, particularly for those running the 400, which is the least favorite of O’Handley’s six events.

“I’ve never competed on the Big Island. I do know it’s going to be windy. Mind over matter,” she said. “(The 400) is a really hard event and it comes right in the middle of a meet, so it’s quite the inconvenience. At OIAs, when I came around that corner and I felt like I was in quicksand, my mind tries to encourage me to push harder, and when I do, it always surprises me what my body can do.”

Since going full bore into track and field, O’Handley has added muscle to her long, 5-foot-10 frame to become a major point collector for the Lady Cougars.

She took it one step beyond recently, breaking the record in the high jump at the OIA East divisionals held by Kai of Kahuku (5 feet, 5 inches). O’Handley’s record jump was 5 feet, 5.25 inches, and the state meet mark is 5-5.5.

The event is her favorite, one in which her father, Brad, specialized (she said he jumped 7-2). “He definitely did lead me into the sport,” she said.

“Depending on how it plays out (in the state event), if she has the timing and energy, she really wants to break the record,” longtime head coach Kevin Kruszona said. “But she’s a team player who gets her points and goes on to the next event.”

In all, O’Handley, who will compete for Portland State next season, will line up for the high jump, 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes, along with the 4×100 and 4×400 relays.

She tinkered with the shot put and long jump at a meet earlier in the season, qualifying in the latter for states. Six events, though, is the maximum allowed by HHSAA rules.

“Her best to me is the 200. She’s so easy with it,” Kruszona said. “She could become the state 100 record holder with that style and good fast-twitch muscles.”

O’Handley’s personal record in the 100 is 10.31, roughly two-tenths of a second from the state mark. If she were to specialize in one or two events, the dream of breaking records would be simpler. But the bigger dream is for Kaiser, which won the girls state title in 2015, to rack up enough points by its small but high-octane group, to contend for another crown.

With its stadium unavailable, preseason began with running at Koko Head District Park’s hills and baseball fields.

“It’s a lot different than training on a track,” O’Handley said. “There’s no set distances. The running we do is on the road, on cement, dodging cars, running up the hill. At the beginning I was bummed we couldn’t practice and have meets at our own field, but it’s an edge up to run on fields and hills. And it helps us and the road takes away from it, but overall it’s been pretty good this year.”

“It was a blessing in disguise,” Kruszona said. “That helped them with (reduced) shin splints. We just have to mark where the holes for the sprinklers are.”

O’Handley and classmate Tommi Hintnaus were once the freshman babies of the Cougars crew. Now they’re the seasoned seniors, passing on the torch to the next leaders of the program.

“I appreciate all the encouragement my teammates Tommi, Juliette (Lum), Hannah (Hollenbeck) and Cassidy (Hollenbeck) give me. They’re always there. They compete in so many events and give their hearts to the championships,” she said. “They are truly amazing athletes that never give up and put their all into the sport.”

That “all” includes preparation by the Lady Cougars. The new weight room on campus was a huge bonus, but they also benefit from pumping iron off campus.

“The girls got into it. They’re very close and tight, and they know it’s a year-round thing now,” Kruszona said.

“It’s a huge deal,” O’Handley said. “Because all of your competition is going to be running, but that extra thing, it’s a huge factor.”

O’Handley will compete at Portland State next season. Hintnaus will be at Arizona State on an academic scholarship. Former pole vault champion Celine Lum is at Point Loma.

“They’re going to get better at college. They have a good base now,” Kruszona said.

Health might be the biggest obstacle for the Cougars. A bug is hampering some of them, including O’Handley, who went to the hospital on Sunday night as a precautionary measure. On Saturday, she had already cut her prom night short.

“I think we’ll be fine. It’s minor. My doctor thought I was crazy for going to him with a sore throat,” O’Handley said. “I just didn’t want to take a chance with everything going on this week.”

Her fuel and comfort food isn’t something from a restaurant. Fighting off her illness, she made a batch of “cheesy country-style potatoes, a gooey, buttery mess of goodness. It’s the one thing in her life that is not measured by fractions.

“You just cut up potatoes, season it with garlic salt, butter and onion, and stick in on the frying pan. When it’s done, just put Kraft singles on it,” she said. “It’s the best thing ever. I don’t really count calories or fat. If it tastes good, I’ll eat it, but I’m really picky, so I make a lot of my own food.”

Maybe she shares it with her mother, Colleen, and dad, who are polar opposites when it comes to competitive personalities.

“My mom says, ‘It doesn’t matter as long as you have fun.’ My dad says, ‘Pain is temporary, so just push harder.’ My dad and I go back and forth trying to win everything,” O’Handley said. “Board games, cards, anything. My mom is happy if we’re having fun and not complaining.”  

Their ohana moved from Canada — O’Handley is a huge fan of the NHL’s Calgary Flames — when she was 2. Since then, she has traveled to Texas (Junior Olympics) and the University of Oregon (track camp), and last year, she competed in the Canadian junior nationals. She has grown comfortable in the overachieving underdog mind-set that prevails just fine at Kaiser.

It could be likened to her advice about ordering at Sophie’s Gourmet Hawaiian Pizzeria, where she works part time.

“Less is more, in my opinion. I definitely think less ingredients is more,” she said. “Then again, I’m very picky.”