PUHI — The Kaua‘i girls and the Kapa‘a boys took the latest Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation cross country meet, Saturday morning at Kaua‘i Community College. Kaua‘i’s girls edged out Waimea by a scant five points, 27-32 points. Kapa‘a High School finished
PUHI — The Kaua‘i girls and the Kapa‘a boys took the latest Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation cross country meet, Saturday morning at Kaua‘i Community College.
Kaua‘i’s girls edged out Waimea by a scant five points, 27-32 points. Kapa‘a High School finished third at 73 points.
The competitive rivalry for the top spot in the boys race changed to the fight for second place when Kapa‘a controlled the top berth with 38 points.
But Waimea and Kaua‘i finished in a tie for second with 56 points each, the Menehune getting control of second when its fifth runner crossed 18th overall to Kaua‘i’s 22nd place. In the battle for sixth runner, Waimea’s runner crossed 19th overall to Kaua‘i’s 27th finish, giving the second place to Waimea.
The Island School boys team finished fourth with 79 points.
The course featured facets from a previous state championship layout, and coupled with overcast skies, presented a deceiving course.
But spectators agreed that the two-lap course was better than a three-lap layout because runners could not affect standings by lapping other runners. Additionally, a long uphill segment leading to the finish line minimized course layout confusion that presented itself in previous runs.
Waimea’s Natasha Abadilla, a casualty of course mishaps the previous two races, fell back to let Kaua‘i’s Cinzia Bruno take the top overall finish on a 23:07.80 run, Abadilla coming through the chute on the uphill finish on a 23:23.00 run.
“This was a really hard course,” Abadilla said. “My best time this year was at the Waimea Invitational, and that one doesn’t count.”
Kendall Andersland, breaking into the front-runners during last week’s outing at Kapa‘a, finished third overall at 24:13.00.
Jayme Jacinto won a challenge for fourth place as she held off a strong charge by Kaua‘i’s Christina Pearson on the final stretch to cross fourth overall, second for Waimea at 24:22.00. Ember Teter crossed fifth overall, third for Waimea at 24:22.10 followed by Pearson at 24:22.70.
The Kapa‘a girls, normally strong in the previous races, did not have its first runner across the line until ninth place when Tiare Welborn crossed on a 24:56.00 run.
Similar to the girls’ run, the course victimized the boys, Pierce Murphy of Island School posting a time slower than his last week’s race.
Murphy, clearly the dominant boy runner in the KIF event, finished Saturday’s rae on a 16:39.60 run followed by Kaua‘i’s Joshua Herr at 19:02.40.
Waimea’s Joshua Quinlan, finishing 19th overall, was pivotal for the Menehune, finishing sixth for the Waimea boys to break a 56-56 deadlock for second place.
Quinlan, sandwiched between Menehune Marcus Barnes (21:51.50) and John Joyce (21:56.40) finished the course on a 21:54.60 run.
Kaua‘i’s sixth runner, Lucas Gushikuma, finished 24th overall on a 22:17.10 run.
Kaua‘i coaches Erin Dunn and Fred Sasan noted unfortunate accidents to several of their key runners, but felt comfortable the runners would be back for next week’s race at Island School.
Riley Cox, Kapa‘a first runner, crossed third overall at 19:08.60 and locked up the top berth by pushing runners across in fourth, eighth, 11th, 12th, and 15th place.
The next KIF cross country race moves to the Island School campus, Saturday starting at 9 a.m.
The KIF Championship is Oct. 17 at Island School starting at 4 p.m.
