As the story goes, Tyler Dace Tavares was part of the three-member Punahou high-jump team that was hoping to break a School record at the ILH Relays one year, when she suffered a stress fracture in her takeoff leg. Rather than sit out the event, she gutted it out and jumped off her other leg, clearing the bar.
Coach Doug Kilpatrick ’57 doesn’t recall if his crew won that event, but he certainly remembers her heroism: “That’s the epitome of taking one for the team.”
Tavares was an all-around athlete, earning four varsity letters in track and field, two each in tennis, volleyball and gymnastics and one in diving. She was state meet champion in the high jump all four years and her mark of 5-feet 6-1/2 inches set in an ILH meet is the best jump ever by a local high-school jumper.
Though she attended UCLA on a track scholarship, she ultimately transferred to San Diego State, where she played volleyball and was part of an Aztecs squad that reached No. 5 ranking in the country.