Kaua‘i boys nip Menehune

KAPA‘A — The cold bug and Junior ROTC exercises made the difference in the scene at the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation cross country race Saturday.

“Some of the girls have been sick,” said Kaua‘i High School athletic director Ross Shimabukuro.

That accounted for slower times as the girls in red were relegated to third place below Kapa‘a (47 points) and Waimea (50 points). Kaua‘i finished with 57 points followed by Kula Intermediate and High tallying 65 points for fourth place in the girls competition.

“They have Junior ROTC competition today, so some of our runners aren’t here,” noted Bunga Fuertes, one of the coaches for Waimea.

That changed the face of the girls’ race as Kapa‘a’s Stephany Foster took the lead in the girls race until Natasha Abuadilla overtook the Warrior in the final leg to cross first on a 22.16.66 run.

Gillian Pickett maintained her consistent top five slot for Kula with a 23.07.81 followed by Foster stopping the clock at 24.27.03.

Following Foster, Kapa‘a’s top scoring finishers included Keryn Nield (25.08.12-5th), Kalia Mayer (26.16.79-10th), Alia Weiss (26.33.25-14th) and Lerea Palmerira (26.33.25-15th).

Following Abuadilla, Waimea’s scoring finishers included LeeAnn Sagucio (25.24.49-7th), Charleen Miguel (26.02.71-9th), Elisa Broyles (26.30.11-13th) and Cayla Kitabayashi (27.37.95-20th).

Elizabeth Schiller topped the Kaua‘i girls with a 24.47.09 run at fourth overall. She was followed by Elisabeth Young (25.35.86-8th), Kailyn Kealoha (26.26.54-12th), Michelle Kato (26.43.53-16th) and Elizabeth LaMadrid (26.58.25-17th).

Pickett was followed by Jessica Austin (25.10.16-6th), Amber Loughead (26.18.01-11th), Emily Rider (27.54.88-21st) and Camille Christie (30.07.55-25th).

Island School got runs of 29.44.90 (29th) and 34.05.59 (32nd) from Sonia Gordines and Stephanie Steuri.

Pierce Murphy was the only boy running from Kula School, and he continued his domination of the 3-mile course, crossing at 18.13, more than a minute ahead of second finisher Adam Kerlin of Kapa‘a who stopped the clock at 19.03.

Christopher Barich of Kaua‘i followed at third overall (19.15) with Waimea filling in the overall fourth and fifth berths with Christian Tangalin (19.33) and Benji Baclig (19.45).

Darren Lapitan (19.51), Daniel Degracia (19.51) repeated the close top 10 positioning similar to last week’s race in Kula, broke up the field of blue as Darrel Nonaka from Waimea finished 8th overall on a 20.41 run.

But there were no more red shirts as Greg Griffin (20.24-9th) of Waimea and Kanoa Nartatez (20.25-10th) of Kapa‘a filled in the chute.

Cole Pemberton (20.31-11th) of Kapa‘a followed before Kaua‘i’s Charles Finlay (20.4-12th) crossed, and Jason Chun (20.42-14th) anchored the win for the Red Raiders.

The Tangalin-Baclig, Nonaka-Griffin cluster for Waimea was anchored by Kalen Kali-Abihai who crossed at 21.1 (17th).

Hunter Hudson (20.41-13th) and Bilbo Hunter (21.09-18th) filled in the Kapa‘a scoring runners below Kerlin, Nartatez and Pemberton.

Island School did not field any runners for the boys race.

Saturday’s race moves to the campus of the Kaua‘i Community College when Kaua‘i hosts the meet starting at 9 a.m.