Kaiser girls chase down elusive championship

WAILUKU » Kaiser got its elusive and eternal reward.

The Cougars won their first girls team title at Saturday’s Island Movers/HHSAA State Track and Field Championships at War Memorial Stadium. Kaiser finished with 68 points and became the first public school to win the girls championship since 1994.

"It’s pretty surreal," said Kaiser senior Teuila Gardner. "This was our goal from last year when Seabury won. Throughout the course of the year, this was our eternal goal. It wasn’t unachievable, just something we knew we had to work at."

Hawaii Prep was second with 38 and Kamehameha was third with 34.50.

"It’s very humbling to get to this position, knowing some of these schools do it year in and year out," said Kaiser coach Kevin Kruszona.

Kalaheo and Moanalua tied for the state crown in 1994, before any of the Kaiser girls were born. Kruszona was still living in California and started coaching at Kaiser in 1998.

Kaiser’s team of Celine Lum, Tommi Hintnaus, Kristen O’Handley and Gardner won the 4×400, the meet’s final event, to wrap up the title. The Cougars pulled triple and quadruple duty to score points for the team, not a problem since they’re trained to handle multiple events.

"We train these girls as decathletes, and that’s what we did for the last two years to get to this point," said Kruszona. "We knew they had to do a lot because of the type of athletes we had and the number of athletes we had. We did the weight training, swimming, hiking, running."

The Cougars entered Saturday’s finals already leading in the team standings with 16 points after Lum won the pole vault and Hintnaus finishing right behind in third. The Cougars quickly extended their lead in the high jump as their girls shouldered a big load throughout the meet.

Gardner cleared 5-4 to finish second as all three of Kaiser’s entrants placed in the high jump. O’Handley and Ginon Jones cleared 5-2 to place third and fifth as the Cougars scored 16 points.

O’Handley and Gardner were both on the runner-up 4×100 relay team. Right after the 4×100, O’Handley finished second in the 400 and Gardner placed fourth, giving Kaiser 12 points. By then, Kaiser accumulated 56 points. Gardner, the top qualifier in the 800, scratched from the event.

"We do track because it’s hard, not because it’s easy, and I think personally we all enjoyed the challenge at hand," Gardner said. "That was the utmost challenge of all, taking on that challenge and getting the reward at the end."

Waipahu’s Sabrina Hollins won the state shot put title one week after winning a state judo title in the 220-pound division. Hollins is the first girl to win a state title in both sports and felt confident she would complete the double-weekend sweep.

"I knew I was going to take it," Hollins said. "It’s a habit of me saying that I’m a winner. I knew I was going to win."

Hawaii Prep junior Emma Taylor won her third straight 100 hurdles title with a time of 14.63 and repeated as the 300 champion. She also got to enjoy a second state championship with her cousin, Kau‘i Taylor, who won the high jump. Both were members of Hawaii Prep’s Division II state championship soccer team.

"I was watching her the whole time," Emma said of her cousin in the high jump. "We have a really close relationship, we’re like sisters. It was amazing for her to go through this with me and finally win her event. She’s come so close the past few years."

Campbell won the 4×100 relay for the third consecutive year. Kathleen Funcheon of Moanalua set two wind-aided records by winning the 100 in 12.11 and 200 in 24.51.

4X100 RELAY

Dulay: "Throughout the season we weren’t really coming in first all of the time, so it’s a really good feeling to win the one that counts at states for the seniors. We wanted to defend our title for them."

4X400 RELAY

O’Handley: "Before the race we just told each other it’s the last race of the season, the last race for our seniors and we are going to give it our all. That was our only goal, to finish up with a bang after last year, when one of our girls was injured."