Innes (23), who has won the New Zealand senior men's 400m for the last three years, ventured into unknown territory when he agreed to run the first lap of the 4x800m relay.
It was a decade since he had raced an 800m and he did not know what to expect.
"I didn't know what to do so I followed the other runners," Innes said.
"I didn't want to lead because the wind was strong in the back straight."
Chris Weddell (Ariki), an experienced middle distance runner, led the field through the first lap in 60sec and was still in front up the back straight.
Innes picked up the pace with 210m left and and was in familiar sprint territory when he took off around the final bend to take Taieri into the lead after the first of the four legs.
His time was 1min 57sec and this was 16 seconds faster than he had run 10 years ago at the age of 13.
"I have been doing over-distance training for 400m and it felt OK in the last lap," he said.
He left experienced middle distance runners in his wake to finish six seconds in front of Weddell to take fastest time in the race.
The Taieri lead was short-lived as Bryce Morgan (Ariki) took his team into a one-second lead at the end of the second leg.
Nathan Baxter and James List kept Ariki in the lead and it won in 8min 24.62sec with Alex Gorrie keeping Hill City in second place in 8min 25.22sec.
Scott Sidon ran powerfully on the final leg to bring Caversham into third spot.
Taieri dominated both the men's and women's event and retained the Hurring Memorial Trophy with 189 points from Ariki 129 and Hill City 125.
It won the men's events with 91 points from Ariki 69 and Hill City 60 and the women's with 98 points from Hill City 65 and Ariki 60.
Innes teamed with his training partner Todd Mansfield to dominate the sprint relays.
The other members of the teams were Jerram Huston, Paul Wyber and Leslie Taylor.
Taieri won the 4x100m in 44.93sec and the 4x200m in 1min 34.13sec.
Taieri also dominated the men's and women's field events through the efforts of Kieran Fowler in the shot put (14.39m) and discus (42.56m).
He also had the best long jump with 5.79m.
Raylene Bates, the manager of the New Zealand athletics team at the Beijing Olympics, also added to Taieri's points by having the best women's discus (32.45m) and shot put (9.66m).
The Hill City team of Liz Wilson, Lauren Wilson, Fiona Hely and Anna Smythe won the women's 4x100m in 50.66sec and the 4x200m in 1min 49.04sec.
Tony Payne (Caversham) led the 3000m field from the middle stages and held on to win in 9min 11.07sec.
Bryce Morgan (Ariki) came with a rush at the finish and almost caught Payne when he ran the last lap in 65sec for a time of 9min 12.19sec.
Caversham won the three-man teams race with Payne first, Lyndon Brown third in 9min 14.87sec and Daniel Balchin fifth in 9min 18.05sec.
The first woman home was Paula Whiting (Hill City) in 10min 06.24sec.
