Competitors take off at the beginning of the girls 1,500 meter race at the Okinawa Activities Council Track Meet held at Koza Stadium on Friday afternoon. Teauna Baker from Zion Christian Academy won the race with a time of 5 minutes and 34 seconds. (Matt Orr/Stars and Stripes)
Competitors take off at the beginning of the girls 1,500 meter race at the Okinawa Activities Council Track Meet held at Koza Stadium on Friday afternoon. Teauna Baker from Zion Christian Academy won the race with a time of 5 minutes and 34 seconds. (Matt Orr/Stars and Stripes)
Competitors in the boys 110 meter hurdles leap over the hurdles and race towards the finish line Friday in Chatan, Okinawa. Jalah Patten from Kubasaki High School won the race in 16.02 seconds. (Matt Orr/Stars and Stripes)
Lotty Smith from Kadena High School, clears the bar in the boys high jump. He would go on to win the event clearing the bar at 1.95 meters; just 3 centimeters shy of the record. (Matt Orr/Stars and Stripes)
Kubasaki's Dominique Lopez passed the baton to Tyeler Cyr in the 4X800 Meter relay. Zion Christian Academy won the race in a time of 11 minutes and 3 seconds. (Matt Orr/Stars and Stripes)
Jack MacMannis from Kubasaki High School flies through the air in the Boys Long Jump at the Okinawa Activities Council Track Meet held at Koza Stadium Friday afternoon. Thomas McDonald from Kadena High School won the event with a distance of 6.34 meters. (Matt Orr/Stars and Stripes)
CHATAN, Okinawa – At least two records were broken Friday and there was the possibility that more would fall once results from the Okinawa Activities Council Track Meet held at Koza Stadium were reviewed.
Both records came in the 4x100 meter relay races. The boys team from Kubasaki High School crossed the line in 43.05 seconds - bettering the mark of 43.8 set by Kubasaki in 2010 - and the girls team from Kadena High School finished in 51.02 - topping the 51.42 mark Kubasaki set in 2010. Both new times were not adjusted to meet fully-automated timing (FAT) standards.
“I am so proud of the girls 4x100 team,” said Kadena’s Lotty Smith, who took first place in the boys high jump by clearing 1.95 meters (6 feet, 4 inches). “They worked so hard in practice for this.”
Approximately 120 high school athletes from Kubasaki, Kadena, Zion Christian Academy, and Okinawa Christian School International High School competed at the meet, the final regular season event in Okinawa. Kubasaki is set to host the season-ending Far East championships May 23-25.
Other notable athletes included: Milyka Dees from Kubasaki, who won the 100 hurdles (17.71), 300 hurdles (49.49), and long jump (4.47 meters) and A.J. Watson of Kubasaki, who dominated in winning the 100 (11.20), 200 (22.08)and 400 (51.39).
“The big one is the Far East and this track event tonight is a great way for kids who hadn’t qualified yet for the Far East to qualify,” said Kubasaki coach Charles Burns. “This is a launching pad for it.”
At the end of the long day of competition, Kubasaki’s girls team took the Okinawa title for the seventh year running and the boys from Kadena took honors for the fourth year in a row.
