WAILUKU — The Maui Interscholastic League track and field season started Friday night with some impressive marks, especially considering the date was March 1 and the wind was swirling at Yamamoto Track & Field Facility inside War Memorial Stadium.

With the Island Movers/HHSAA state meet more than two months away, Kamehameha Schools Maui pole vaulters Nohi Casco and Keegan Gantala started what is bound to be a season-long, friendly duel as both cleared 13 feet.

Last May, the state-winning height in the event was 13-8 in a final that Casco finished second and Gantala eighth. They know they will be pushing each other to be better every day.

“Like Keegan said before, that’s obviously not where we wanted to be, but the great thing about 13 feet is kind of like where me and his, our rock bottom is,” Casco said. “And the great thing about rock bottom is there’s nowhere to go but up.”

Casco, a junior, started his event at 12 feet and Gantala, a senior, came in at 12-6. Both had solid attempts at 13-6 on their third and final tries at the height. Each said they will start at higher bars as the season goes on.

“Oh, definitely, because I know that my skills throughout the year will definitely become better just because Keegan is always pushing me to be my best and, you know, I’m doing the same with him,” Casco said.

Casco said that the silver medal from state last year is driving him to seek gold this year.

“You have no idea how much, not only am I going for that state title, but I’m also trying to go for a record just like Keegan is,” Casco said. “He’s pushing me to try to hit the record — and he’s trying to do the same thing — but we’re about to see who comes in first.”

Gantala had his feet over the bar on his final attempt at 13-6.

“Both of us were, we were kind of just thinking about what we did at practice, visualize everything in our head and we did as best as we could, but at the end of the day a meet is just a meet,” Gantala said. “We’ve got to move on, there’s a whole season left.”

Micah Brighton, a Seabury Hall junior who is the reigning two-time MIL cross country champion, started his night with a 100-meter heat and then ran the 1,500 less than 30 minutes later. He finished the 100 in 12.94 seconds before a 4:32.45 finish in the 1,500.

“My coach decides to put me in the 100 in the first meet of every year, so it’s kind of like a rite of passage for every season just to get into it,” Brighton said. “I’m not the best at it, but I mean it’s always fun to try different races and race against different guys.”

Brighton added that the 1,500 is much more up his alley.

“It felt good, I’ve been excited the past few months for the first meet — I’m so happy today,” Brighton said. “I was just waiting all day to come to this meet and be able to race the 15(00) and the 3(000) because I haven’t done it in a while. It just feels good to be back out.”

Isabella Grossman, a Seabury Hall freshman and the younger sister of multi-state champions Dakota and Hailey Grossman, won her high school debut in the 1,500 in 5:18.32. Earlier, her father and Seabury Hall coach Bobby Grossman entered her in the 100, which she finished in 13.49.

She won a meet in the 2023 MIL cross country season before knee issues limited her effectiveness.

“I feel really good and I guess working my way up from cross country season because I’ve kind of been offseason this whole time since then and my knees have definitely, I don’t know, healed probably,” Isabella Grossman said, fighting back tears as she spoke after the first track win over her career. “Yeah, it’s great to be out here and I’m happy.”

Ja’lyn Deichert, a King Kekaulike junior who won the 100 and 200 state titles on the same track in May, said that being back inside War Memorial Stadium was special.

She won the 100 in 12.43 on Friday, just 0.3 seconds slower than what she ran to claim the state title 10 months ago. Her winning time in the 200 was 25.44, just 0.2 seconds off her state-winning time in May.

“It feels amazing, I got to go to an amazing track club over the summer, I got to train with them, went off-island and ran in the Nike Outdoor Nationals and Junior Olympics, most recent I ran was in Spokane (indoors) … and I absolutely loved it,” Deichert said of her summer and recent running adventures that have taken her to Eugene, Ore,. and Washington while representing Spartan Track Club from Oahu.

The most recent trip to Washington was her first chance to compete indoors.

“It was so fun, it was amazing to go out and just be able to go out and see a different level and just, like, experience different things. Learning how to run the indoor 60, learn how to run on the indoor 200, how to just run on a college campus,” Deichert said. “All of it was different and it felt amazing. My only break in theory was in August.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com