IT is more than a little amazing that at a time when most Hawaii public high schools can't afford starting blocks, two public high school sprinters set national-caliber marks. Leaving their mark
in prep track circlesBryan Clay of Castle and Endia Abrante of Kaiser saved their best for the last dance of their prep careers.
Both had already committed to track scholarships. But it would have been very interesting to see how many more programs would have been pursuing them had they set their latest records as juniors.
Clay, who has committed to Azusa Pacific in California and will train to become Hawaii's first Olympic decathlete, was belatedly offered a University of Oregon ride yesterday. Of course, it was too late.
"That's the kind of boy we want in our program," said retiring Oregon men's coach Bill Dellinger on Sunday. Dellinger called Clay's performance "amazing."
His four wind-aided state meet records in the long jump, the 110-meter high hurdles, the 100 and 200 meters were an incredible one-day accomplishment by any standard. The jump and hurdles marks rank among the top 15 or 20 in the nation this year.
Abrante has already signed a letter of intent with the Oregon women's program but the Ducks didn't count on her running the fourth fastest prep time in the nation this season.
Her 54.41 is the kind of credential that could have opened the floodgates on scholarship offers if Abrante had another prep year.
This young woman has been beating up on 400-meter records for the past two seasons. Since the 1997 OIA championship trials, where she set a new league meet record of 57.4, Abrante has broken the OIA meet record four times and the state meet mark three times.
Abrante's Oregon coach, Mark Stream, said he wishes she were on his 4x400 team right now. She'd be his second best 400 runner.
Punahou junior Eri Macdonald, whose early season 2:10.4 at 800 meters still makes her the nation's second best prep female in that event, is due to get a ton of recruiting attention before next season.
Punahou's explosive state 400-meter record holder (1997) Bennett Valencia didn't set any records Saturday. But his come-from-behind efforts in two relays to give Punahou the state team title showed he's destined to be heard from when he gets to Boston College.
ON the horizon is exciting freshman Natasha Kai of Kahuku, who set a new state meet mark of 45.37 in the 300-meter low hurdles. That wasn't too far off the slowest national time posted by Track and Field News this month: 44.24.
The common denominator with all five of these runners is that they have received help or advice from either Dacre Bowen or Duncan Macdonald (Eri's dad).
Bowen, an Oregon alumnus who's an architect, and Macdonald, a Stanford alumnus who's an anesthesiologist, competed on NCAA and Olympic tracks in the 1970s. Macdonald became a sub-4-minute miler.
They've spent almost every moment of their free time imparting their rich understanding of the track.
They've taken local youngsters to elite prep meets on the mainland in the off-season and helped them to realize what it takes to achieve nationally recognized times.
Bowen has coached four state championship teams at Punahou and is considered by some to be collegiate coaching timber.
Something about Macdonald people don't realize is that he has worked to establish electronic timing as the standard for the last two state meets.
How important is that?
Without it, the most outstanding accomplishments of Hawaii track athletes can not gain national recognition.
Pat Bigold has covered sports for daily newspapers
in Hawaii and Massachusetts since 1978.