Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 1, Number 7, 1 Kepakemapa 1984 — Kauai Kapsules [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Kauai Kapsules

By C'armen (Boots) Panui Community Resource Specialist

Waimea Girls Earn Five Medals in Mainland Meets

Four young girls lrom Waimea High School's track team, two of them first time out of thc state and all of whom are Hawaiians, recently traveled to the mainland with Coach Dave Walker to compete in two national events- the Nahonal Age (iroup Track Meet at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, and the National Junior 01ympics at Baton Rouge, La. The girls Carmen Amulaeion, Mahealani Tangalin, Melissa Paeheeo and Marlo Louis— earned the right to compete in the national events by stunning the opposition at the State High School Track and Field championships earlier this year. They won both the 400 and 800-meter relays, events normally dominated by such big Oahu schools as Punahou and Radford. The two stateside competitions are generally regarded as the spawning grounds for future 01ympic contenders. At BYU, Marlo took third plaee with a triple jump of 33 ft. 8 in., just short of the second plaee jump. The following day.

the relay team captured a bronze medal when they went against teams that had posted faster times. The National Junior Olympics is reported to be the toughest track meet in the nation for !5-l8-year-olds. In their first meet at Baton Rouge, the girls failed to make the finals; however, Melissa jumped a personal best of 16 ft. 10 in. placing her 21st. The winingjump was 19 ft. 8 in. In the 200, Marlo failed to make the finals with her best time being 26.4 seconds and winning time 23.9. Her triple jump kept her a contender for awhile but her best ieap of 34 ft. 10'/: in. was outdistanced by the winning jump ol' over 40 ft. smashing the nalional record. In the 4 x 100 relay. the girls did not reach the finals but did rank I7th in the nation. Since this was their lirst nationaI competition, the girls ga\e an outstanding performance and brought home five national medals.