A half-hour drive separated Alyssa Mae Antolin and Gwen Loud-Johnson on the afternoon of April 15.

A span of just over 23 seconds would link them in University of Hawaii track and field history.

Loud-Johnson, still a prominent name in the Rainbow Wahine record book some 39 years after her final collegiate competition, happened to be in Southern California on business that weekend and worked in a visit to the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif.

While she staked out a spot near the long jump pit at Hilmer Lodge Stadium, Antolin was 12 miles north competing in the Bryan Clay Invitational at Azusa Pacific University’s Cougar Athletic Stadium.

As Antolin stepped into the starting blocks for the women’s 200-meter dash, the conditions caught her attention as she readied for another pursuit of the school record Loud-Johnson held for nearly four decades.

“I just knew the weather was the most perfect weather ever,” Antolin recalled. “It was 70 degrees, the sun was out, so the conditions were as perfect as it could be. I was just telling myself, ‘This is your shot, this is your chance to give it everything you have.’ ”

Antolin sensed she’d run a “way faster race” than usual when she crossed the finish line, yet was still caught off guard when her time read 23.38, well below the previous program standard of 23.60 set by Loud-Johnson on April 5, 1984.

“It was a surreal moment,” Antolin said. “I think the hard work is paying off and the journey is not over. It’s good to know where I’m at right now and see what the future has.”

Having taken a place among the top sprinters in program history, Antolin enters the Big West Championships, set for Friday and Saturday in Fullerton, Calif., as the defending champion in the 200 and with the conference’s top time in the event this season.

All of this from a former two-sport standout at Maui High School who missed her senior season of track due to a torn ACL suffered during soccer season in 2019.

“It honestly gives me a lot of motivation knowing that I had to start all over again, not knowing that I would be where I am right now,” said Antolin, a UH junior from Kihei.

“My first goal was to start running again and feel it out. And once I was cleared to run my goal was to be back to where I was in high school.”

She’s surpassed those marks in repeatedly lowering her times to program- record levels while drawing the admiration of the previous holder.

Blast from the past

Upon hearing that her school record had fallen, Loud-Johnson’s delight in the feat rang clear through the phone connection.

“Wow, that’s flying,” she exclaimed when told of Antolin’s time.

Still heavily involved in track and field with her own fitness training business based in Atlanta, Loud-Johnson remains one of the most recognizable names in program lore.

While Antolin supplanted her 200 meter record, Loud-Johnson still holds two of UH’s longest standing records, topping the lists in the 100 meters (11.24 seconds set on April 28, 1983) and long jump (21 feet, 9.50 inches, May 15, 1983).

She holds the distinction as UH’s first track All-American as the 1984 NCAA long-jump champion and was inducted into the UH Circle of Honor in 1999. Although she hasn’t been back to Hawaii in years, her connection to the school endures.

“I ran into somebody (at the Mt. SAC Relays) and they said, ‘Gwen Loud, when I think of you I think of Hawaii,’ ” Loud-Johnson said. “That is super cool.”

In discussing Antolin’s run, Loud-Johnson recalled the impact her time in the islands played in shaping the path her life has followed since.

“Coach (Joe) Hilbe, I have to give him all the honor,” she said. “He was the factor that shifted my entire life, not only as an athlete but as a person. … I came (to Hawaii) a girl and left there a woman, a real Wahine.”

Loud-Johnson went on to compete for the U.S. national team in the World University Games, Pan-Am Games and World Championships and credited Hilbe’s influence in pushing her academically as well as athletically — and the connection between the disciplines.

“Sometimes you have to concentrate on you, and not in a selfish way but in a building way. You have to build yourself,” she said. “So, this young lady (Antolin), I wish her much success in track and field. If she’s running that fast, she can run faster.”

Forward focused

While Loud-Johnson remains active in the sport by training athletes in all sports to maximize their potential, Antolin credited UH’s strength program for helping set the foundation for her continued progression through her junior season.

“We’ve been putting on more weight than I would normally do,” she said of the lifting regimen. “So getting more explosive and stronger in the weight room helps a lot.”

The added boost powered her to the 200 title at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship in February to cap the indoor season. An illness and issues with her knee slowed her progress at the start of the outdoor season in March, but she picked up the pace by the time the Bryan Clay Invitational rolled around.

Since setting the UH record , Antolin won the 200 at the Oregon State High Performance meet on April 28 in Corvallis, Ore., with a time of 23.72 and helped UH’s 4×100 relay team post the third fastest time in school history at 46.25.

Along with holding the Big West’s top time in the 200 this season, Antolin ranks fourth in the 100 meters at 11.62 seconds, also set at the Bryan Clay Invitational, and is targeting Loud-Johnson’s school record in that event as well.

Antolin was named the Big West Co-Track Athlete of the Year last season after helping the Rainbow Wahine place second as a team and draws motivation from the team’s collective goal as well as representing the state in the sport.

So perhaps it was apropos that she turned in her record-breaking run at a meet named for a Castle High alum turned Olympic gold medalist.

“One of the main goals is to showcase (Hawaii),” she said. ”And that we can produce top athletes and we’re not just underdogs.”