#Spartans track

Track and field athletes from the Maui Interscholastic League thought they were prepared for the state championships on Oahu, and some were, but collectively participants in both divisions came home disappointed last Sunday.

It’s been more than eight miles since Ava Shipman laced up her spikes to defend her 1,500-meter state championship.

Coaches like to think they know everything. Sometimes it’s the athletes who know better. Either way, predicting the outcome of a high school track meet is hardly scientific and highly difficult. Welcome to the girls division of the Maui Interscholastic League.

In the last four years the Baldwin High School boys and the Seabury Hall girls have combined for three state championships and four runner-up finishes.

And now for a word about Ava Shipman, Seabury Hall’s answer for the departure of the state’s most formidable running duo in the history of Hawaii track and field.

The Seabury Hall girls track team — and arguably the state’s best 1-2 tandem in the history of track and field in Hawaii — capped the 2014 Maui Interscholastic League season with a bang Saturday at the Yamamoto Track & Field Facility.

Seabury Hall athletes won eight individual events at Friday’s Maui Interscholastic League track and field meet #4 held at the Yamamoto Track & Field Facility.

Four members of the Seabury Hall girls track team — Dakota Grossman, Alyssa Bettendorf, Christy Fell and Kiana Smith — spent part of their spring break in San Diego, Calif., at the Mt. Carmel Invitational Track & Field Championships.