Kubasaki senior Carlos Cadet clocked 14.61 in the 110 hurdles, breaking the old Pacific record by .46 seconds. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa – Carlos Cadet gave up basketball this winter to train and focus on breaking Pacific hurdles records in the spring.
That decision is looking pretty good right now.
The Kubasaki senior shattered the 13-year-old region 110-meter hurdles record Friday by nearly a half-second during Okinawa regular-season opening meet.
Cadet was timed in 14.61 seconds on a clear early evening with very little wind. That broke the record set in the 2012 Far East meet by Yokota’s Fred Gustafsson.
And Cadet said he’s just getting started.
“I want to go sub-14 (seconds),” he said after his record-breaking run. “I believe I can do it.”
Cadet quarterbacked the Dragons to the first unbeaten Division I football season since 2011 and led Kubasaki to its first D-I football title since 2013.
Instead of transitioning to basketball as he had the past couple of year, Cadet spent time “doing hurdle drills, conditioning, weightlifting,” readying himself for a record run on the track.
A week earlier in the Tiger Classic at Taipei American School, Cadet became the first DODEA-Pacific runner to post a time below 15 seconds this season in the event, clocking 14.8 seconds on a chilly, rainy day.
Kadena senior Neil Kentish, center, ran Friday's 100 in 10.64 seconds. Kubasaki's Ryan Hater, left, clocked 10.69 and Carmelo Ward of Kadena, right, in 10.93. (Hajime Reed/Special to Stripes)
His feat seemed to inspire more attempts at record setting during Friday’s meet at Kadena Middle School’s Habu Field.
Kadena senior Neil Kentish and Kubasaki junior Ryan Hater ran pretty much side-by-side in their 100-meter heat, with Kentish edging Hater by .05 seconds, 10.64 to 10.69.
Kentish’s time was just .11 seconds shy of the region record set on March 16, 2024, by Humphreys junior D’Jhontae Douglas in the Korea season’s third meet – one of last season’s most talked-about results.
Like Cadet, Kentish and Hater insist they’re just getting warmed up, with two months to go before the Far East meet May 21-23 at Yokota.
“I anticipated coming in at 10.7,” Kentish said, adding that he plans to “shoot for 10.4.”
Kadena sprint coach J.B. Baker said he’s optimistic that Kentish can run below 10.6. “Every year, my sprinters are killing it,” Baker said.
Hater said he believes that he and Kentish could become league rivals as the season progresses.
“We have the whole season ahead of us,” said Hater, who ran 10.95 in the Tiger Classic preliminaries last week.
