Punahou senior Isaac Savaiinaea doesn’t have to look very far to see a force of nature at work.

When he steps into the shot-putters’ circle, there’s old friend Charles Sataraka, a behemoth senior from Farrington, ready to do battle. Savaiinaea was coming off a battle of his own, still healing up from strep throat and a fever, entering the inaugural Ruby Tuesday Invitational at Punahou on Saturday.

He entered the discus event first, ripping his best-ever throw at 157 feet, 5 inches off the bat. He then struggled — by his own high standards — the rest of the morning and scratched his remaining three tosses. The 157-5 length bested his previous best of 151-11.

Then came the shot put, where Savaiinaea peaked out at 46 feet, 7 inches; his personal mark is 49-3. Sataraka cut through a fierce cross wind with increasing puts, going from 49-9 to 49-10 and then, in his final try, a robust 51-7.

"My coach said I needed to drop my right knee. It’s just technique," Sataraka said.

He missed a couple of practices during the week due to performance rehearsals for Samoan class.

"I had my (previous) best last week when we had a meet at Farrington," he said.

That made it a post-event get-together of smiles for the former teammates. The first-team all-state football selections — Savaiinaea as a linebacker, Sataraka as an offensive lineman — played together for the Kalihi Gladiators in the Big Boys League as eighth-graders.

"It’s Isaac I like competing against, always Isaac," said Sataraka, recalling the task of practicing against Savaiinaea, who was a defensive end. "It was my first year playing football and he was so big."

Savaiinaea, now 6-3 and 235 pounds, hasn’t had to play against his old friend a whole lot in recent years.

"Charles is a monster. He’s a good guy, he’s been improving a lot. He’s my competition," Savaiinaea said.

The scratching strategy is normal for track enthusiasts, but can be odd in the eyes of a non-track fan.

"If I get my best on my first throws, I just scratch if I know the other throws aren’t better," said Savaiinaea, who signed with UCLA in February. "I don’t know what’s going on with my shot put. Each week, it goes down, but my discus has been going higher."

He dealt with an off-and-on cross wind that hit 20-25 mph at times.

"If you get it high enough, it’ll hang a fraction of a second more, and that’s a couple of feet," he said.

Savaiinaea wore casual shoes — Vans — for his field events.

"There’s not a lot of grip, so they let you spin faster," he said. "It’s all technique. It’s 10 percent strength, the rest is technique."

It was probably a tougher 12-hour span for Kamehameha junior Kahili Novikoff, though it certainly didn’t show. After her class lost in the annual Kamehameha Schools Songfest at Blaisdell Arena on Friday night, she got home at 1 a.m., got to bed an hour later, then woke up at 7 a.m. for the meet.

Novikoff delivered her best-ever push on the shot put at 39-1, well beyond her previous best of 37-6.5. She also went 117-0 on the discus, another PR.

"I just stay low, in the middle and explode," she said, still a bit sad about her junior class’ loss at the songfest. "I’m surprised. I thought I was gonna be tired, but I ended up doing my best."

She’ll have time to rest now. Kamehameha’s spring break begins today.

"I’m gonna sleep," Novikoff promised. "I’m tired."