Baldwin High School’s Joseph Randolph takes a handoff from teammate Isaac Kaalakea in the boys 4x100 relay during an MIL meet in March. The addition of the 4x800 relay was approved last week at the annual meeting of the Hawaii Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
The biggest change to come out of last week’s Hawaii Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association annual meetings was the addition of a 4×800-meter relay to the track and field schedule.
The new event will be the first on the docket at track and field meets for the 2024 season.
The motion passed on the HIADA floor 48-46, with the Maui Interscholastic League and Oahu Interscholastic Association both voting as block votes against the proposal, which was passed into rule by the HHSAA executive council on Thursday afternoon.
MIL track and field coordinator Mike Ban, the athletic director at Maui High School, said the league will roll with the National Federation of High Schools rule.
“It is an NFHS event that is in the current rule book,” Ban said Tuesday. “It was brought to our attention by the Big Island and the (Interscholastic League of Honolulu) by a narrow margin. There were some concerns with having enough officials for the event, the timing of the event and if it would have the most participants to encourage, to make it worthwhile for the meet to happen.”
Ban added that details of the new event will be worked out at the MIL scheduling meetings currently going on.
“We will hold the event, we just need to discuss through our scheduling meeting a lot of the details that might go into it,” Ban said. “It’s the first event before the 100 and 110 hurdles.”
Ban added that any additional events currently on the NFHS schedule could be considered next year.
“I know there are some events that the NFHS has approved, but we don’t do it here in Hawaii, so it would be a matter of which league would like do a proposal and present it at the next HIADA,” Ban said.
Ban said the MIL would make the event work for meets on Maui.
“It’s another chance for the kids to run and another opportunity, you know, we would like to see more competitors participate in these events,” Ban said. “And we just have to work out the details as far as how we are going implement the 4×800 for the upcoming season.”
Ban also said that the MIL plans to resume named meets next season, including the Victorino Invitational, Yamamoto Invitational, Kamakea Meet and Kamehameha Maui Relays after not having those meets this season as War Memorial Stadium was closed for renovations.
The Maui County Parks and Recreation Department scrambled to get War Memorial Stadium ready for use in time for the MIL championships in late April and the Island Movers/HHSAA state championships May 5-6, and Ban was grateful.
While some of the bleachers were closed for safety for both championship meets, county officials got the WMS facility opened after four final walk-throughs were needed for final approval the week prior to the MIL championships.
“Yeah, we want to thank the County of Maui Parks Director Pat McCall and (deputy parks director) Shane Dudoit, Lisa Almeida, the list goes on, they helped us out, they helped us prepare the meet — it was a great meet for the MIL as well as the state meet,” Ban said. “A lot of positive comments and we couldn’t have done it without the help from the County of Maui.”
Other developments from HIADA were the defeat of a proposal to require all state track and field entries to be submitted eight days prior to the state meet, which failed by a 55-33 vote with six abstentions; a proposal to eliminate qualifying standards and simply take the top 24 competitors and four alternates per event at state track was approved unanimously 94-0; state calendars for the next two academic years were approved; weight classes for boys wrestling were changed to align with NFHS weight classes, a motion that passed 61-0 with 33 abstentions; and the shot clock for girls water polo was changed from 35 seconds to 30 seconds, to align with the rule in college, a motion that was passed 75-13 with six abstentions.
* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com
Baldwin High School’s Joseph Randolph takes a handoff from teammate Isaac Kaalakea in the boys 4×100 relay during an MIL meet in March. The addition of the 4×800 relay was approved last week at the annual meeting of the Hawaii Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photoToday's breaking news and more in your inbox
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