WAIMEA — Pierce Murphy, the top name in the boys Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation cross country last year, was on O‘ahu, Saturday. But that did not stop the run from taking place as Kaua‘i High School took advantage of the missing
WAIMEA — Pierce Murphy, the top name in the boys Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation cross country last year, was on O‘ahu, Saturday.
But that did not stop the run from taking place as Kaua‘i High School took advantage of the missing runner to sweep the Waimea Invitational cross country event, Saturday.
Daniel Degracia eked out an early lead and held it through the three-mile course, dousing himself with water at the aid station manned by Waimea High School Jr. ROTC cadets.
Degracia finished the three-mile course at a 19:05.10 pace, more than 13 seconds ahead of second finisher Brycen Phillips of Kapa‘a.
That set the stage for the final results as the Kaua‘i Boys Cross Country team topped the overall standings with 38 points. A tie for second between Waimea and Kapa‘a was broken by Waimea as its No. 6 runner finished at 14th overall to Kapa‘a’s 20th overall finish. Each team had 47 points.
The tightness of that race was demonstrated in the tight battle for the No. 4 overall slot as Kapa‘a’s Makana Weiss held the berth heading into the final turn.
But Waimea’s Keoni Mattos used that turn to boost himself past Weiss to stop the clock at 19:57.50 in fourth, just .10 second ahead of Weiss (19:57.60).
Island School, in the abscense of its top runner Murphy, finished fourth with 98 points, its first runner, Jeremy Randolph-Flag crossing the line 10th overall at 20:37.50.
With the abscense of Murphy from the boys arena, the Kapa‘a coaches said things will change drastically when the KIF season opens Saturday and Murphy returns to the course.
For starters, they will lose 24 points from their tally as Murphy is expected to finish first.
Kaua‘i coaches Erin Dunn and Fred Sasan were pleased with their boys’ performance.
“Daniel did real good, and considering we’re missing two of our top five runners because of illness, we’ll be in good shape,” Dunn said.
Natasha Abadilla, running in the shadow to Waimea’s top runner Caralyn Broyles in last year’s KIF season, broke into the sunlight and dominated the girls’ field, stopping the clock at 22:03.00 for the first finish overall.
But the second Waimea runner did not cross until 10th overall while Kaua‘i’s Cinzia Bruno tailed Abadilla throughout the race, losing ground in the final mile to cross second at 22:58.80.
Christina Pearson (23:01.40) finished third overall, second for Kaua‘i, chased by Kapa‘a’s Tiare Welborn (23:16.70), fourth overall, but first Kapa‘a runner to cross.
That one-two finish for Kaua‘i put the girls in the lead overall, and held for the meet.
Following Bruno, Kaua‘i pushed four more runners across the line before Waimea’s second runner, Elisa Broyles, Caralyn’s younger sister, crossed at 24:39.70, 10th overall followed by Waimea’s Jade Cano (25:18.40).
Kaua‘i’s Alyssa Vegas surged past Waimea’s Amber Fujimoto in the final stretch to finish 13th overall (25:46.00) ahead of Fujimoto’s 25:49.80.
That gave the Kaua‘i ladies first place honors with 26 points followed by Kapa‘a High School ending with 45 points and Waimea in third with 54 points.
Saturday marks the first KIF cross country match of the 2009 season.
Due to ACT testing, the first race will start at 4 p.m. at the Island School course in Puhi.
