Seabury Girls, Baldwin Boys Dominate Victorino Meet
Seabury Hall’s Alyssa Bettendorf races to the 100 finish en route to the girls Most Outstanding Track Athlete award for winning the 100, 200 and 400 meter dashes. Photo by Rodney S. Yap.
By Rodney S. Yap
The Seabury Hall girls and the Baldwin High boys flexed their track-and-field muscle Saturday, producing dominate team victories at the Victorino Ohana Invitational.
The small school in Olinda scored 184 points with nine girls and swept medals in three events. The Spartans outscored their bigger public-school opponents Baldwin by 58 points and Maui High by 106. Sprinter Alyssa Bettendorf, hurdler Christy Fell and distance ace Dakota Grossman were all triple winners in their respective specialities, worth 90 points.
The defending state champion Baldwin boys were even more dominating, surpassing the 200-point total for the first time in recent memory. The Bears’ 201 points was just 28 points fewer than the total of King Kekaulike (77), Kamehameha Maui (77) and Maui High (75) combined.
In the end, Baldwin sprint sensation Keelan Ewaliko was awarded the boys Most Outstanding Track Athlete trophy for his victories in the 100 meter (11.06 seconds), 200 (22.04) and anchoring the winning 4×100 relay (43.33). Teammate Tyler Feiteira won the Most Outstanding Field Athlete trophy for his wins in the boys long jump (22 feet, 3 inches) and pole vault (14 feet, 1 inch). Both marks are ranked No. 1 in the state.
Baldwin’s Tyler Feiteira cleared 14 feet, 1 inch, the state’s best jump, in the boys pole vault at the Victorino Ohana Invitational Saturday. Photo by Rodney S. Yap.
The busy Feiteira was the meet’s only four-event winner, also locking up wins in the 110 high hurdles (15.29 seconds) and the 300 intermediates (41.20 seconds).
“I came really early to the track and warmed up for the pole vault, so my legs were stretched and I was ready to go, and I just ran faster than usual,” said Feiteira of his winning long jump that surpassed King Kekaulike’s Jansen Agapay (22-0.25). “It didn’t feel long. . . but when I heard it, I thanked God.”
Baldwin won 12 of 16 events. Strongman Miki Fangatua was a double winner in the ring events, topping the discus with a season best 154 fet, 3 inches and the shot put with a toss of 49 feet, 0.50 inch.
Seabury’s Bettendorf extended her unbeaten streak in the sprints, 100 (12.69), 200 (25.69) and 400 (58.53), this season and was rewarded with the girls Most Outstanding Track Athlete trophy. Her 400 time broke the meet record of 58.56 held by Seabury’s Kailea Tracy-Visintainer and set in 2011.
Seabury Hall’s Dakota Grossman makes her move in the girls 4×400 relay against Baldwin in Saturday’s finals of the Victorino Ohana Invitational. Photo by Rodney S. Yap.
Bettendorf, who scored 39.5 points, was also second in the long jump (16-6.50), behind Baldwin’s Amber Kozaki’s 17-7.
Kozaki won the girls Most Outstanding Field Athlete trophy for her meet records in the long jump and pole vault (12-7).
“Our goal was to come out and improve on our times. We wanted to win the meet, but it wasn’t our No. 1 thing to do out here tonight,” said Seabury girls coach Bobby Grossman. “Alyssa breaking Kailea’s record in the 400 was really impressive.”
Dakota Grossman put a stamp on the Spartans’ victory with a sizzling anchor leg of the 4×400 relay, 15 minutes after winning the 3,000 meter. Baldwin built a 25-meter advantage when Grossman received the baton. But the junior was not to be denied and ran up on Baldwin’s anchor runner at about the 350-meter mark. Then, buoyed by the cheers of the crowd and her teammates who lined the fence down the home stretch, Grossman crossed the finish line in 4:21.68 to Baldwin’s 4:23.98.
Grossman makes her final kick down the stretch of the girls 4×400 relay. Photo by Rodney S. Yap.
Seabury, and a few Baldwin boys, plan to attend the Honolulu Marathon Invite meet Friday, April 12, at Mililani High School.
“That will help us to see where we are at and the kind of competition they have on the other islands,” said Coach Grossman, who has his sights set on the state championships in five weeks. “We’re lucky to have this opportunity right now, but we’re going to need other people to step up. It is very difficult to go over there and try and win with three or four people. We could do it if we had six girls scoring points at the state level. So it’s going to be up to a couple of other people, new individuals, to perform at their best and make some big improvements.”
Other highlights from the Victorino Ohana Invitational included:
Seabury Hall’s Ryan Kross overtakes Maui High’s Cody McCorriston on the final turn of the boys 1,500 Saturday at the Victorino Ohana Invitational. Photo by Rodney S. Yap.
* King Kekaulike got stellar performances from Jake Jacobs in the 400 Saturday, winning the event with a season best of 50.70. Jacobs’ fast pace helped runner-up Baldwin’s Ricky Casco (52.42), Seabury’s Daniel Pietsch (52.62) and Kamehameha Maui’s Billy Ayakawa (53.22) to also clock season-low times.
Other Na Alii highlights came from Jansen Agapay’s 24 points. The field specialist won the triple jump (40-8.5), was second in the long jump (22-00.25) and third in the high jump (5-11); sprinter Jay Braun, continues to work his way back from a football injury, running a very respectable 11.22 in his season debut of the 100 at Friday’s trials; and, Teianna Collins-Shirota finished second in the girls discus (112-10).
* Seabury Hall’s Ryan Koss was a half-step shy of being a double winner Saturday. After shaving almost six seconds off his previous best effort in the 1,500 (4:25.93) early in the evening, Koss set a blistering pace in the 3,000 and was en route to his second gold medal before Baldwin’s James Pearson snuck up on the Spartan at the finish line, 9:56.13 to 9:56.19. Koss lowered his 3,000 best 24 seconds.
* Host St. Anthony produced two individual winners in discus thrower Kaitlin Kim (120-1) and high jumper Jill Capistran (4-7). Pole vaulter Christopher Rickard finished third with a personal best of 12-9.
* Maui High’s Christina Lotulelei broke her own record in the girls shot put with a winning throw of 39 feet, bettering the mark of 38-6 she set last year.
* Lahainaluna celebrated junior prom Saturday and managed a combined total of 14 points. The girls scored 12 points, half coming from Sharmaine Gutierrez’ third-place in the high jump (4-3), while prom queen Breea Yamat finished fourth in the triple jump (30-11) from Friday’s trials.
Sponsored Content
