By Timothy Leoncio
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Runners from the girls track team have gone beyond expectations by breaking MHS’ 14-year standing school record for the 4×4 relay with a time of 4 minutes and 27 seconds. Freshman Leah Keller, Juniors Zyriana Davies and Mazi Lucas and Senior Gabrielle Reznik set the new record time in a preseason intersquad meet on Feb. 14.
“I think the greatest thing is intrinsic reward, you know, they were proud of themselves,” said track coach Nathan Aragaki, “We were happy.”
Not only did the new record beat the previous school record by 0.3 seconds, but it also took second place in the history of the best times for Hawaii High School Athletic Association (HHSAA) runners. “We had really good runners,” said Keller, “I was surprised because I’m only a freshman and it was kind of cool to break a record.”
The runners were reliant on each other’s abilities as the teams were chosen at random. Lucas said, “Because it’s a 4×4, you’re a team. We never ran together ever before. It was like a random team so we’re all really proud of each other and just super excited.”
Lucas also set a new record in the girls 400-meter dash on the same day. “I honestly didn’t think I was able to do it because I was really tired from the other (event),” said Lucas. “So I guess my motivation was kind of like, ‘You kind of already broke one record. Why not try and make it two? I mean what’s the worst that could happen if you go all out?’”
There was a great deal of effort put into practice for the girls and much training was needed for such production. “They were working hard in the off-season,” said Aragaki, “(They did) a lot of four-hundreds up the hill.”
The impressive performance given by the runners had also raised the bar for
expectations in the regular season’s track meets. “I think we can go a lot faster in the next (meet),” affirmed Lucas, “I think our team is going to be really good this year.” Aragaki said, “The potential is there so we’re hopeful. We don’t want to pressure them out; we’ll just have them work hard. They find out along the way, but it’s not something we want them to think about too much now.”
The girls continue to strive to do their very best in track and field with the help of their coaches, hoping still to set new standards for themselves and their school.
