HALL PASS: Kaiser’s Kristen O’Handley

Over the next 24 hours, Hawaii Prep World and the Star-Advertiser will release 12 small features on the 2017 inductees into the Hall of Honor ahead of Sunday’s ceremony.

The orders keep coming, and business is cranking at Sophie’s Gourmet Hawaiian Pizzeria. Kristen O’Handley, scholar-athlete and part-time employee, doesn’t consider herself an expert on business or pizza, but she understands the underpinnings of success.

Long before pulling off a rare feat — winning gold in the high jump, 100-, 200- and 400-meter sprints at the 2017 Island Movers/HHSAA State Track and Field Championships — O’Handley was part of a small, but powerful quintet at Kaiser that had already won the state crown in 2015. The Lady Cougars knocked on the title door in ’16, coming up just short to Hawaii Prep.

There was no slacking in the offseason. The hours of weight training and running added up, and O’Handley’s lanky frame became more and more muscular. Explosive. Dominant.

This spring, the opportunity was there again. The Cougars came within a few points of taking the title, but fell just short as Seabury Hall’s distance runners pulled out a narrow victory. O’Handley was gracious in defeat, but equally proud of her team.

In an era of specialization and power in numbers, she and her teammates trained year-round to gain the power and endurance necessary to challenge the best foes on humid, soggy nights like the ones in Keaau during states.

Her time in the 100 would have eclipsed the existing state mark easily, but the wind gauge was measured at 2.2 — just above the cutoff point of 2.0. Her senior-year peak performance came off of a junior season with gold in the 100, silver in the 200 and 400, and sixth place in the high jump. As a sophomore, she was part of the 4×400 relay team that took first place, and also placed second in the 4×100 relay.

O’Handley matched seven other girls by winning the 100, 200 and 400, the last one being Hall of Honor member Alyssa Bettendorf of Seabury Hall in 2014. O’Handley also won the high jump, no girl has ever won those four events in the same meet before. The last four girls to sweep the sprint events are all in the Hall of Honor.

O’Handley is Kaiser’s first member of the Hall of Honor since Ashley Swart in 2002 and fifth overall.

O’Handley, who graduated with a 4.0 grade-point average, will remain busy as a shift supervisor at Sophie’s before leaving to run at Portland State next season.

Hall of Honor Members