Andrei Iosivas punctuated his extraordinary season with five gold medals in the Island Movers/HHSAA Track and Field State Championships that concluded Saturday night at Kamehameha.
A Punahou senior who will play football and run track for Princeton, Iosivas did not settle for second place in any of the five events he entered, broke one record and was part of two other state-meet bests.
Thanks to an intense duel with Leilehua’s Jacob Schmidt, Iosivas set the 200-meter dash record in 21.67 seconds. Schmidt was right behind in 21.78, and both of them eclipsed the mark of 21.89 by Radford’s Christopher Rainey in 2008.
“He (Schmidt) made me run hard,” Iosivas said. “He was beating me off the turn. I didn’t expect that, so he really made me run that last 70 meters. He made me run all out.’’
Aside from winning the 100 (10.85) and long jump (23 feet, 3 inches on Friday), Iosivas was the anchor of two record-setting relay teams. Along with seniors Tanner Ono and Justin Puu-Robinson and sophomore Vincent Terrell, the Buffanblu 4×100 relay team broke the state-meet record in 42.18. The previous mark was 42.20 by a Punahou foursome in 2010.
Also, Punahou’s 4×400 relay squad with Iosivas, David Tamura, Puu-Robinson and Micah Williams finished in 3 minutes, 19.74 to surpass Radford’s mark of 3:20.2 from 1985.
“I was really tired after the 4×4,” said Iosivas, who sprawled out on the ground for a minute to catch his breath. “In the relays, our stick passing wasn’t that good all season. We knew we had the guys to do it and we got it done today. Coach G (Gary Satterwhite) is the best coach and best mentor. I owe it all to him. He and coach Tom Hintnaus started me from when I was a little kid.”
In the ILH Championships recently, Iosivas broke records in the 100, 200 and long jump.
Terrell agreed that the stick passing wasn’t up to par during the season.
“This (4×100 win) means a lot,” Terrell said. “As the youngest on the team, I was helping out the older guys. Coach G made us understand that stick passing will help us break that record.”
No surprise, Punahou captured the overall team championship with 92 points. Seabury Hall was second with 61, followed by Kamehameha with 46 and ‘Iolani with 42.
Baldwin junior Rey Cadiz was a double event winner, capturing gold in the 110 hurdles (14.53) and 300 hurdles (38.90). In the trials on Friday, he did the 110 hurdles in a state-meet record 14.20.
“The record was totally unexpected,” Cadiz said. “I was just trying to qualify and run a clean race and the outcome was a record. The wind was a lot stronger (Saturday). I felt strong in the blocks, got over the first hurdle smooth, tried to repeat it and came out with the win.”
‘Iolani senior Jason Wong (4:08.04) nipped Castle senior Hudson Lockette by 0.26 at the finish line of the 1,500.
Other boys event winners Saturday were Kaiser senior Aaron Rivas in the 400 (49.09), Konawaena senior Josiah Vallez in the 800 (1:58.42), Kalaheo senior Colby Otero in the 3,000 (8:57.38), Baldwin senior Shawn Silva in the high jump (6-2), Waipahu senior Isaiah Harris in the triple jump (42-4), and Punahou senior Alama Uluave in the discus (166-11).
Friday’s other boys finals winners were Kamehameha-Maui senior Micah Au-Haupu in the shot put (51-3.25) and Punahou’s J. Kai Yamafuji in the pole vault (14-4).
