Hawaii Prep’s Emma Taylor may have cemented her status as the most decorated BIIF track and field athlete of all-time Saturday night. Even so, that would be the least of Taylor’s accomplishments.
Winning two more state hurdling golds Saturday at Kamehameha-Kapalama in Honolulu, Taylor carried Ka Makani to a tall task: HPA’s first HHSAA girls track and field title in more than 20 years.
Taylor, a senior, already had put in a good days work by the final event of the meet, where she helped push HPA to a fourth-place finish in the 1,600 relay, which was good enough to hold off defending champion Kaiser 57-55.
Ka Makani last won a girls crown in 1995.
There were signs it was going to be BIIF-friendly meet when Taylor, of course, won the 100-meter hurdles, the first race, with Kamehameha-Hawaii’s Saydee Aganus and Hilo’s Leilani Thompson finishing second and third.
The trio duplicated that finish in the 300 hurdles, giving Taylor the seventh state title of her career.
She also added silver in the 200 sprint and ran the anchor leg as HPA finished fourth in the 400 relay.
Every point counted for HPA on this night, and Savannah Cochran delivered silver in the 800, while Kaui Taylor was sixth in the long jump after winning the high jump on Friday.
The other BIIF gold medalists were Waiakea’s Kadara Marshall, Kamehameha-Hawaii’s Tre Evans-Dumaran and Waiakea’s Louie Ondo.
Marshall’s gold in the triple jump helped the BIIF keep a stranglehold on the event. Hilo’s Mehana Sabado-Halpern won last year and Kamehameha’s Casey Poe won in 2014. Marshall grabbed bronze in long jump.
Ondo added 800 gold to the 1,500 state title he won last year. On Saturday, Ondo was third in the 1,500 and he earned another bronze in the 3,000.
One week after falling in the 300 hurdles at BIIFs, Evans-Dumaran easily captured the 110 hurdles.
Aganus went home with three silvers, also finishing second in the 100 sprint.
Kealakehe’s Nicole Cristobal won silver in the long jump and bronze in the triple, Waveriders’ teammate Nika Paogofie-Buyten was second in the discus, and finishing third were Hilo’s Lukas Kuipers (200) and Konawaena’s Lawrence Barrett (800.)