Kubasaki’s Ryan Hater, right, outdistances Jeremiah Tucker of Okinawa Christian during Friday’s boys 200-meter dash. Hater ran the event in 21.98 seconds, with Tucker next in 22.16. Hater completed a rare feat in which he has run the 100 in under 11 seconds, the 200 in under 22 and the 800 in less than 2 minutes. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa – Rare is the track and field athlete who can run the 100 under 11 seconds, the 200 in under 22 seconds and the 800 – a middle-distance event – in less than 2 minutes.
Ryan Hater completed that feat Friday in an Okinawa regular-season meet at Ryukyu Middle School’s Habu Field, becoming only the third Pacific athlete to run the 800 in under 1:56.
The Kubasaki junior had already run the 100 in 10.69 seconds on March 21. Then on Friday, he clocked 1 minute, 55.88 seconds in the 800 and about a half-hour later ran the 200 in 21.98.
“That’s amazing,” said Hater, almost refusing to believe he had done all that in a span of less than a month.
Only Danny Galvin of Yokota and Britt Sease of American School In Japan have run faster in the 800. Sease holds the Pacific mark of 1:51.89, set in the 2016 Far East meet, and Galvin – who now coaches Yokota – clocked 1:55.54 in the 2014 Far East meet.
Hater ran mostly distance events in his sophomore season at Kubasaki, but opted for sprints in the current campaign. But he ran the 800 in 2:00.58 in last month’s Tiger Classic in Taipei, Taiwan, and felt he could do better in Friday’s meet.
“Today, I expected to get 1:58, 1:57, but I pushed through and I got it,” Hater said.
It was a difficult evening for Hater, who skipped the 100 and ran the 400, 800 and 200 almost back-to-back. He ran the 400 in 57.49 seconds, winning easily, but clearly his mind was on his next two events.
“I told him to win the 400 but to focus on the 800,” Dragons coach Josh McCall said. “He put in all the work during the offseason, the sprints, the hills … I’m really proud of him.”
Weather shortens Yokota meet
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan – About 40 athletes from Kadena, including the Pacific’s fastest sprinter Neil Kentish, competed in a Friday meet at Yokota’s Bonk Field, which was shortened due to rain and lightning in the area. All events except the 3,200 and 1,600 relay were competed.
Kentish, who ran a wind-aided 10.52 in the 100 in the 16th Mike Petty Memorial Meet on March 28, clocked the event Friday in 11.05 seconds, good enough to win by .19 seconds over Nile C. Kinnick’s KaVaughn Woodson and .24 over Kadena teammate Carmelo Ward.
No-hitters continue to pile up
Make that seven no-hitters thrown on the baseball and softball diamonds in the Pacific this season.
The latest came on Friday at Iwakuni, where Kinnick’s Dale McNamara, Jaden DeCastro and Noah Berhow combined to no-hit E.J. King in a 5-3 win for the Red Devils.
It wasn’t the prettiest of pitching performances; the three combined to allow nine walks and four wild pitches, and the Red Devils had to come back from a 3-0 deficit with five runs in the top of the fifth.
