Hawaii saw what was possible last weekend in its first appearance at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Indoor Track and Field Championships — from several perspectives.
Senior Samantha Balentine came within 2 inches of qualifying for the NCAA Championships in high jump. She tied for fourth at 5 feet, 7.25 inches, then cleared 5-8.75 while taking fifth in the pentathlon.
Freshman (indoors) Zhane Santiago scored five points. She placed seventh in the 60-meter hurdles. Ranked 18th coming into the long jump, she beat her personal best by nearly 8 inches to take sixth.
"I was shocked when Coach told me," said Santiago, who came to UH from Kahuku to play soccer, then traded sports last spring.
Santiago, like all the other track and field athletes, is already a week into outdoor training. Naturally, her next challenge is multi-events. Coach Carmyn James characterizes the four-time state track champ as intense and a quick learner, just beginning to master the finesse to complement her natural talent. Santiago’s father, Louis, and uncles Walter and Lane, played football for UH.
"She is very competitive," James said. "I had a meeting with her and pointed out the things (former All-American) Annett Wichmann did in the pentathlon. She was writing down the times and distances on her hand, a smile on her face, thinking ‘Yeah, I can do that.’"
The Wahine had 17 personal bests and scored 18 points last weekend in Seattle, where they competed against 10 Pac-12 teams and a few others, like themselves, who have no conference indoor championship. Oregon, Arizona State and Arizona finished 1-2-3; nationally, those teams are ranked 1-12-13.
Hawaii came up 12th out of 14, notably beating out the only other Big West teams — Cal State Northridge and Long Beach State.
That bodes well for their first Big West Outdoor Championship, May 3-4 (multi-events) and 10-11 at Northridge. So does the ironman performance of Amanda Alvarez. The senior from Washington soared to Hawaii’s only medal finish with a 40-foot triple jump that earned her bronze Saturday, after she set UH records in the pentathlon 60-meter hurdles and long jump. She also competed in both those open events, finishing 16th and ninth.
Alvarez was at the track nine hours Friday and competed almost every half hour. The only exception was when she fell out of the high jump early, wiping out after a searing approach.
"The cool thing was in the next event she went out and got a personal best in the shot put by more than a meter," James said. "She was so determined to make up for high jump. For a while, even though she was missing that one event, she was still beating other competitors."
Alvarez’s track day from heaven/hell also included a scratch from the 800 meters, when a scheduling glitch would have made her miss her individual events.
When it was over, in front of family, an emotional Alvarez was "really disappointed because I set very high goals and was working to meet those goals," she said. "Looking back objectively, I don’t have much to be disappointed about. I did pretty well."
Her many results "reinforced my drive" for what is probably the end of her track career. She graduates in psychology and sociology in May and knows nearing the end will have a huge impact on her outdoor season.
"That’s really scary for me," says Alvarez, who participated in gymnastics, soccer and track with her twin sister for years before transferring to UH. "It makes my resolve that much more steadfast. I just really want to do well."
Hawaii’s outdoor season begins with a home Sunrise Meet March 16. It travels to invitationals at USC, Stanford and Sacramento before going to Southern California for the Mt. SAC Relays, Bryan Clay and Long Beach invitationals. The Rainbow Relays are here April 5-6.
