Two records fell on the first day of the Island Movers/HHSAA State Track and Field Championships at Kamehameha on Friday.
Kamehameha-Hawaii sophomore Chenoa Frederick broke her own record and took the gold medal in the triple jump. Her 39-foot, 10-inch jump eclipsed the 39-8 state mark she set last season.
Baldwin junior Rey Cadiz broke a 19-year old state-meet record in the 110-meter hurdles. He covered the distance in 14.20 seconds. The previous mark of 14.44 was by Maui High’s Dana Navarro-Aries in 1999.
Frederick, who won six golds at the BIIF championship meet recently, will compete in five event finals Saturday – the long jump, the 4×100, and the 100-, 200-, and 400-meter dashes.
“When we got to the stadium, she had that look that she wanted to win,” said Warriors coach Manly Kanoa, who is a former Kamehameha and University of Hawaii football player. “She was really focusing on that triple jump, but she wasn’t feeling so hot after hurting her knee in the 4×100. But she has the heart of a champion.”
Frederick has already shown an ability to go farther. She recorded a 41-0 triple jump at the BIIF meet.
“That was more than impressive, and that was the day of the big earthquake,” Kanoa said.
Hopefully, for Frederick, her coaches have the promise of food for her today.
“I’m so thankful for my team,” she said. “They’re so motivating. They’re just the best and our coaches are so motivating. They bribe me with food. They say if you do this, you’ll get get food. So I say OK I’ll go do it.”
Kanoa said the coaches are trying to find out what her specialty in track and field is going to be.
Or, as Kanoa suggested, maybe she’ll become a heptathlete.
“Honestly, if she wants to be a heptathlete, I think she’ll be really good at that. There really isn’t much she is not comfortable with on the track, except the throws because she hasn’t tried them yet. But I think if she tries them, she might really like that, too.”
The connections for Cadiz run deep on Maui. The grandfather of Navarro-Aries, the previous 110 hurdles record-holder, is current Bears girls hurdles coach Ruben Navarro, according to Baldwin head coach Tracy Enos.
“Leading up to the state meet, Rey had a lot of good practices and he felt good coming in,” Enos said.
They weren’t thinking about a record, though.
“Especially when they announced it on the PA, a lot of people were shocked about it,” Enos said.
Cadiz will run in the 300 hurdles and in the 4×100 on Saturday. At the MIL championship meet recently, he was part of both the winning 4×100 and 4×400 relays and he captured titles in the 110 and 300 hurdles.
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