Haley Faringer wasn’t at her best Thursday, and she didn’t need to be.

The Kaiser junior coasted at Thursday’s Oahu Interscholastic Association Eastern Division championships, logging a 400-meter time of 1 minute, 4.28 seconds. That’s nearly 3 seconds slower than her personal mark for 2012, but Faringer was under the weather with a cold and has already qualified for the state championships.

The busy junior is already occupied with her role as narrator in the school’s production of "Pippin."

"I like to sing and dance, so I go to our rehearsal, then to (track) practice," Faringer said.

Kanoelani Yadao of Hawaii Baptist, a teammate of Faringer in the offseason with the Renegades Track Club, has the top statewide time in the 400 (59.9). Faringer’s best time this year is 1:01.44. Last year, she cracked the 1-minute mark.

"I’m not in a rush quite yet," she said. "It’ll work itself out if you just keep coming to practice."

Faringer has three weeks to regain her strength for the OIA championships, which will be held at Kaiser.

"The wind here is so hardcore. You try to keep your steps shorter, use your arms into the wind," Faringer said. "Then you stride after the turn."

While Faringer gave her best under duress in the 400 and 4×400 (relay), Moanalua’s Thomas Cheong was at full strength. The junior topped his best distance in the triple jump with a leap of 44 feet, 6 inches — well past his previous best of the spring, 42-3.5. That puts the two-sport athlete just 1 inch behind Alika Kaopua of Ka‘u, who has the best triple jump in the state this year at 44-7. It came on his third and final try.

"I kept on fouling all three times," Cheong said of previous meets. "I’ve been trying to get my mark down."

Cheong, who plays safety on Moanalua’s football team, sees a correlation between the triple jump and his other beloved activity.

"Because of lion dancing, I’ve always done lots of jumping. I go up on the posts. I have to reach for the distance from pole to pole, and it’s like a triple (jump)," said Cheong, who participates with Gee Yung International Martial Arts Dragon and Lion Dance Association.

Meanwhile, there’s room for surges from less-heralded underclassmen at this point of the season. Kahuku junior Jayven Mohetau placed first in the 110 high hurdles with a time of 16.15.

The top time in the 110 hurdles this year belongs to Baldwin’s Vetekina Malafu (15.04). Mohetau hopes to cut at least a half-second off his current time.

Mohetau, a defensive back on last season’s state championship football squad, doesn’t stop working out when track practice ends. There’s football conditioning, and he does plyometric ladder drills, then runs sprints on the pavement.

"If we work hard enough, winning states is a possibility," Mohetau said.

Kahuku won the boys state title in 2006.