WAIPAKE — Darren Lapitan and Daniel Degracia of Kaua‘i High School provided the swing to give the Red Raiders a 32-33 win over Waimea at the opening of the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation cross country season at the Kula Intermediate and
WAIPAKE — Darren Lapitan and Daniel Degracia of Kaua‘i High School provided the swing to give the Red Raiders a 32-33 win over Waimea at the opening of the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation cross country season at the Kula Intermediate and High campus.
Kapa‘a, despite having Adam Kerlin finish second overall, ended in third with 81 points.
On the girls’ side, Kapa‘a took a 30-48 win over Kaua‘i with Waimea coming in third at 52 points.
Kula, host of the first KIF meet of the season, had its share of glory as its freshman runner Pierce Murphy turned heads and triggered conversation with his dominating run in the boys’ race, while on the girls side, following Caralyn Broyles, Kula filled in Gillian Pickett and Jessica Austin in the second and third overall slots.
“Pierce has got to be one of the best runners out there,” said Kaua‘i boys coach Erin Dunn after watching the freshman perform at the Waimea pre-season meet on Saturday.
Dunn said that kind of standard where Murphy was unchallenged in the lead throughout the 3-mile course gives her runners motivation as Christopher Barich, finishing third Saturday, has already told her he wants to beat Murphy.
“The KIF is going to be close all the way between us and Waimea,” Dunn said. “It’s going to come down to who’s coming out to race.”
Murphy’s dad said Pierce started running when he was 5 years old, with his first race being the Waimea-Kekaha run.
“I didn’t think he could finish, but he did, and he’s been running ever since,” Pierce’s dad said, adding that he used to be a runner in high school, but stopped running when Pierce started beating him.
Island School finished fourth in team standings with no team points available as its first of six runners tripped the clock 31st overall at 24.36.60 followed by Ryan Wong crossing at 36th overall on a 25.03.19 run. Kyle Lee (28.26.23), Brennan Wortman (29.03.33) and Marshal Atkinson (29.05.71) filled in the 47th to 49th slots, respectively, with Sam Dunham (31.24.14) rounding out the Navigator field.
Hartley Dabin finished 26th overall for the Island School girls, stopping the clock at 30.56.31.
In the hotly contested boys race, Murphy set the pace with a 19.21.41 run over three miles followed by Kerlin stopping the clock second overall at 19.55.83.
Barich filled in third at 20.15.60 with Waimea’s Christian Tangalin pounding the ground at 20.30.64 for fourth overall.
That set up the boys’ showdown as Lapitan (21.00.19) and Degracia (21.06.53) crossed fifth and sixth overall, respectively, followed by four Menehune runners.
Jared Coleman-Stark (21.15.12), Darrel Nonaka (21.18.10), Benjui Baclig (21.25.07) and Peter Joyce (21.43.49) filled in the 7th through 10th overall slots in a cluster.
Chevas Takasaki (21.57.83) and Jason Chun (22.03.23) rounded out the Kaua‘i team scorers at 11th and 12th overall, respectively.
Broyles set the pace for the girls’ race with an unchallenged first finish at 23.20.55 followed by Pickett crossing second at 24.13.10.
Austin (25.53.06) broke the gap at third overall followed by Stephany Foster, the first Kapa‘a girl to cross at 26.26.55.
Elizabeth Schiller and Elisabeth LaMadrid were back-to-back in fifth and sixth overall, respectively. They represented the first and second runners for the Raiders with Schiller stopping the clock at 26.31.40 followed by LaMadrid tripping the line at 26.31.95. Kapa‘a’s Whitney Rowe brought up the three-pack of runners at 26.32.28, the flower that graced her ear at the start of the race, now in her hand.
Kapa‘a went on to take the team competition as Alia Weiss (27.19.21), Kirsten McCracken (27.35.87) and Keryn Nield (28.57.30) picked up 7, 9, and 11 points, respectively.
Following LaMadrid, Elisabeth Young (26.56.72), Kailyn Kealoha (29.06.74) and Brianna Bailey (29.19.79) picked up 6, 13, and 14 points, respectively.
Waimea’s second runner was Elisa Broyles who finished 11th overall at 27.22.92 for 8 points. Charleen Miguel (28.12.52), LeeAnn Sagucio (29.43.15) and Sheryl Visitacion (30.05.46) accounted for Waimea’s team scoring.
This Saturday, the KIF cross country moves to the Kapa‘a High School campus with the first race starting at 9 a.m.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com.
