WAILUKU — It took some time to find cohesion, but the Maui High School boys 400-meter relay squad finally put every handoff together smoothly on Friday night to qualify for the Island Movers/HHSAA State Track and Field Championship finals today.

The Sabers team of two baseball players, one freshman and one senior sprinter won their heat of three with a time of 44.13 seconds Friday at Yamamoto Track & Field Facility inside War Memorial Stadium, and are fourth overall heading into finals today behind Saint Louis, Mililani and Moanalua.

“It feels great, it’s been a long road this season, it’s been questionable on how’d we get here,” the Sabers’ Trey Shimabukuro said. “But today felt really good to come out and compete today and super stoked about that.”

Maui High senior Sevy Sconfienza, who flew down the final 100-meter stretch to cap their trials victory in front of a home crowd, said they’ve been practicing all week on making their handoffs fluid and “finding team cohesion.”

“The wind did us good, too,” Sconfienza said. “Yeah, it was great.”

Sabers freshman Jonah Cariaga, who ran the team’s third leg, said he was happy to qualify for finals with his team, saying that “this feeling feels great.”

“We tried not to think about it too much today, we just came out here and competed,” added Christopher Mata. “So hopefully we have that same mindset tomorrow, just to go out there and have fun.”

The King Kekaulike girls 400 relay will be competing today, too, after claiming the third championship spot with a time of 50.11. Mililani has the top seed with a 49.08 and Punahou (50.02) is second.

“It feels great to just get qualified, we’re just very happy as a team, we’re just very close,” said Kalena Akinaka, who’s joined by Ja’lyn Deichert, Ruby Kessler and Lola Richardson. “I love finishing with them and knowing that we’re going to states together, we’re all really excited.”

Akinaka said she was bummed about finishing ninth in the girls 100 hurdles earlier in the meet, just one spot from qualifying for finals, but it gave her some fire to “be able to push more in my leg and help us push through to get second” in their heat.

To kickstart the championship weekend, Maui High’s Aizek Lakalaka finished third in the boys discus throw with a mark of 143 feet, 9 inches on Friday morning, claiming the Maui Interscholastic League’s first medal. Kamehameha Kapalama’s Kealiikupono Dikilato won gold with a toss of 161-2, and Tobey Lau of Kamehameha Hawaii was second at 148-9.

“It feels good, it feels like all the hard work I put in paid off,” Lakalaka said while also thanking all his coaches and teammates “for pushing me to get this far.”

The senior only joined the Sabers program last year and was surprised to finish as high as he did and win a bronze medal.

“They took me in pretty easily, they took care of me, so it’s nice giving them something back in return,” he said. “I’m happy to be a part of it.”

Lakalaka will be competing in the shot put today alongside his brother Aizley Lakalaka, like they’ve done all season long before becoming the MIL discus and shot put champions, respectively.

Later Friday afternoon, the MIL’s runners competed for spots in today’s finals. Seabury’s Micah Brighton, the MIL runner-up in the boys 1,500, was ranked 11th heading into trials — in the 1,500, only the top 12 out of the 24 runners make it to finals.

After a hard bout in his heat, Brighton’s time of 4:25.14 placed him eighth overall. In a separate heat, MIL champion James “Bear” Jarman of King Kekaulike won with a time of 4:23.52 after kicking on the homestretch.

Na Alii’s Deichert and Baldwin’s Joseph Randolph both ran the fastest times in the 100 meters — Deichert clocked in at 12.28 in the girls heats, while Randolph looked every bit the defending champion while running 10.74 in the boys heats. King Kekaulike’s Jake Yoro took the eighth spot in the boys 100 with a 11.02.

Randolph also ran the fastest 200 Friday (21.67) while Deichert was the second-fastest among the girls (25.40).

Spartans freshman Freya Carlsen is the only 400-meter runner from MIL in finals today after snagging the last qualifying spot with a time of 1:01.69 during trials.

Baldwin’s Isaac Kaalakea said the wind was brutal throughout the night, especially during the 300 hurdles. He said it helped having the push at his back, though, as he qualified for the 110-high hurdles with a personal-record time of 15.29 seconds.

The top two in each heat of the hurdles qualified runners automatically, so Kaalakea knew he had to run fast.

“I’m just happy I PR’d,” he said.

It was also nice knowing that his teammate, MIL champion Antone Sanches, also qualified with the sixth-fastest time of 15.92 seconds, he said.

In addition to the wind gusts, there were definitely nerves in air Friday as multiple heats throughout the night had runners jumping the gun or losing their balance. There were about eight restarts between the hurdle events and 100-meter dashes, and more double-shots followed by gasps from the crowd were heard in the relays and the 400s later in the meet.

Several racers received warnings, while others weren’t so lucky after false-starting and were disqualified.

Disqualifications led to Kihei Charter’s Aidan Javier competing in a five-runner heat in the 800 — the race was restarted twice, but Javier remained calm.

“I wasn’t nervous at all,” he said.

Javier finally took off and tucked in behind the front-runners.

“In the past two weeks, I’ve been watching the Oahu track meets on video and I just noticed it’s not windy at all, since we have the homefield advantage, so my strategy was just to stay behind them so they can break the wind for me,” he said. “I’m not as tall as them, so I tried to use that to my advantage.”

It wasn’t until all three heats were completed and times were compiled that he saw he qualified for finals with the seventh-fastest time with a 2:05.33, becoming the first Tiger Shark in about 6 years to qualify for finals.

“I feel better now knowing that I made it,” he said with a smile as teammates and coaches cheered from the sideline. “I’m very excited, I’m not worried at all and you know, I think I’ve made my final goal, which was to qualify and now that I’m in, it’s just to have fun.”

During the second heat of the girls 1,500, the runners made it nearly 100 meters before the starting official fired the gun again to have them return to the line.

Seabury’s Priana Dugied took a deep breath, got her composure and restart.

Her goal was to — without wearing out her legs for the 3,000 today — finish in the top four in her heat, which is an automatic qualification. Dugied hung on for fourth place as she raced to the finished line in a pack of girls fighting for the same spot.

She had the eighth-fastest trials time with a personal record of 5:14.19.

“Obviously it feels good,” said Dugied, who is the MIL champion in the 1,500 and 3,000. “We’ve definitely been working hard and training for it, so it feels like the hard work has paid off, so it’s good to see the fruits of your labor.”

With this being her last state championship ever, the senior said “it’s very sentimental.”

“I didn’t think I would be this sad about it. … I’m happy to be here but I’m definitely sad it’s my last one,” Dugied said.

* Dakota Grossman is at dgrossman@mauinews.com