Sacred Hearts Academy’s track team celebrated several wins and a record breaker at the annual Punahou Relays track meet on Mar. 17.
Members of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu and Walnut Grove High School from Canada participated in the meet and competed to beat records set from as far back as the 1970s.
The track team’s sprint medley relay team won first place and broke the record set by a Punahou team in the 1980s. The relay team consisted of sophomore Tiffany Atud, junior Kaisha Laconsay and seniors Alexis Damo and Kayla Kirk.
The sprint medley is a relay in which the first and second runners run 100 meters, the third runner 200 meters and the fourth 400 meters. The order of the relay team was Laconsay, Atud, Damo and Kirk, the anchor.
“Before the race, I felt very nervous, but I was excited and hopeful that we would do good in this relay. When we came in first, I was happy and and excited for our team,” said Damo.
“I was very nervous with each hand-off as I knew that we were in contention to break the record. As soon as the last leg (Kayla) got the baton successfully, I pretty much held my breath as she raced to finish,” said coach Mari Kuroyama.
The record for the sprint medley set by Punahou was 1:55:74. The Academy’s relay team broke that record with 1:53:67. The team beat the record by two seconds which is considered long in track.
Damo said, “After it was announced that we broke the record, I was really surprised and happy. I felt that anything is possible and we can do anything we set our minds to.”
After its victory in the sprint medley relay, the team went on to win the 4×200 and the 4×100 meter relays.
“I am very proud of everyone who participated. Everyone worked hard and accomplished their goals in doing well in all the relays that we entered that day. It was nice to see that no matter what event we participated in whether it was shot put, discus, long jump, triple jump, sprint relays, or distance relays, mostly everyone had their personal best or finished feeling good about their performances,” said Kuroyama.
