Different island, same result.
After claiming its first state track and field championship in last year’s meet on Hawaii island, Baldwin’s boys team pieced together another title-worthy performance on Oahu on Saturday.
The Bears built a commanding lead in the sprint events, then held off Punahou by a quarter of a point to retain the title at the Island Movers/HHSAA Track and Field State Championship at Mililani.
A day after being disqualified in the long jump, Baldwin senior Keelan Ewaliko won all three finals he entered to help the Bears build enough of a cushion to take the trophy back to Maui.
"It’s an awesome feeling," Ewaliko said. "The first year people think it’s just a fluke, but to do it twice that really solidifies that it’s the real deal."
As the point total added up, Baldwin coach Ardis Anguay began receiving texts congratulating her on the championship. But "we need to officially hear it," she said.
That announcement came after Punahou won the 4×400-meter relay to raise its total to 66 points with Baldwin sitting at 661⁄4.
"Last year, we thought, was overwhelming," Anguay said. "Coming into it with the challenges we had yesterday, with not qualifying in certain events and a disqualification, we pulled it off. We knew it was going to be a close one and it was going to come down to the wire."
Ewaliko’s ability to pull away at the wire contributed 30 points to the Bears’ total. He won the 100-meter dash in a time of 11.05 seconds and ran the anchor leg on Baldwin’s victorious 4×100 relay. With his hamstrings starting to tighten up, he won the 200 meters in 22.16 seconds.
"Keelan’s a great athlete, and he definitely showed up tonight," Anguay said.
Before helping push Baldwin to the title, Ewaliko had to shove Friday’s disqualification out of his memory.
"It affected my mind," said Ewaliko, who signed to play football at the University of Hawaii. "I couldn’t focus all I was thinking about was what I should have done. My coach said, ‘Let it go, it’s OK, move on.’ I came into today fresh mind, fresh start."
Senior Abraham Reinhardt helped set the pace for the Bears by winning the 110-meter hurdles in the first running event of the afternoon.
"We had a meeting this morning … that’s what we had to do, set the tone for the night," said Reinhardt, who sat out last year’s meet due to a hip injury. "Coach wanted us to start it off for everybody else."
Ewaliko followed with his victories in the 100 and 200, and Tyler Feiteira contributed a win in the 300-meter hurdles.
"It started off with (Reinhardt) and I came in real determined that I’m going to do this for the team and I ran my race hard," Ewaliko said.
Anguay also noted junior Dusty Flores’ fourth-place showing in the pole vault as a key performance.
"He wasn’t even ranked and he pulled out fourth — that’s points," Anguay said. "Everybody stepped up."
Punahou closed the gap with Jacq Hebert’s victory in the 3,000-meter run and by holding off ‘Iolani in the 4×400. King Kekaulike’s 58.5 points gave Valley Isle schools two of the top three spots in the team standings.
"These boys are like my second family we take care of each other," Feiteira said. "We support not only our school, we support all of Maui."