PUHI — Kendall Andersland made her goal and the Kaua‘i High School girls won the race Saturday at Island School. Pierce Murphy finished well ahead of the pack as he’s done through the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation cross country season, but
PUHI — Kendall Andersland made her goal and the Kaua‘i High School girls won the race Saturday at Island School.
Pierce Murphy finished well ahead of the pack as he’s done through the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation cross country season, but the tight Kapa‘a pack that followed earned the Warriors top honors in the boys race.
Paced by the 1-2 combination of Cinzia Bruno (22:19.30) and Andersland (22:23.20), the Kaua‘i girls filled in the fifth, eighth, ninth and 10th slots to command a first finish with 25 points followed by Waimea at 41 points and Kapa‘a at 64 points.
Murphy of Island School topped the field on a 16:30.30 run over the second overall finish by Kapa‘a’s first runner, Riley Cox, at 19:00.20, but with its next runners finishing eighth and 14th, Kapa‘a boys locked up the meet when its third and fourth runners finished ninth and 10th overall.
Kapa‘a ended the boys race with 36 points followed by Waimea, rising from its third and fourth place finish earlier in the season, with 55 points. Island School finished third with 66 points, just three points ahead of Kaua‘i’s 69 points for fourth place.
“My goal was to stay with Cinzia for the whole race,” Andersland said following the race. “All the other races, I was in the top five, so I just wanted to see if I could keep up with Cinzia.”
Andersland said entering the final leg of the race, she knew Waimea’s Natasha Abadilla was trying to make the move on the lead.
“I could hear her coming up,” Andersland said. “But then, Cinzia pulled over and that closed the gap for passing. We just went from there.”
Abadilla, trying for the top slot over the past races, finished third overall for the girls on a 22:24.70 run followed by Ember Teter, running her second race, in fourth overall at 23:40.30.
“She was supposed to not run today because of volleyball,” said Teter’s mother. “But because she ran so well at last week’s race, her first of the year, and because you need at least two races to run in the KIF Championships, she opted to run today.”
Teter went on to play with the Waimea JV volleyball squad that ended taking Kaua‘i, 2-1, later in the evening.
Jessica Gauna (24:34.80), Alyssa Vegas (24:54.20) and Jannin Hashizume (24:56.10) finished in the eighth through 10th positions to lock up the Kaua‘i girls’ win.
Murphy, strong throughout the race, donned new shoes for Saturday’s race, but was still breaking in the pair, stopping the clock at 16:30.30.
But with two more races to be run at the Island School home field, Murphy is still capable of a strong finish when the Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association holds the state cross country meet at the Island School course.
Kaua‘i High School boys, normally strong in the cross country races, returned Jason Chun to the lineup, and following the Mason Vegas (19:34.50) and Chun (19:41.60) in fourth and fifth overall, respectively, the Raiders’ next runner came in at 13th place when Kyle Napoleon crossed on a 20:58.10 run.
By that time, Kapa‘a had already locked up the title when it pushed Bradley Heiser (20:47.90) and Miximilian Drobba (20:50.40) across the line in ninth and 10th place, respectively.
Those finishes put the race out of touch of Waimea that was paced by a strong finish by Keone Mattos (19:56.80, 6th), Christian Tangalin (19:58.90, 7th) and Joshua Quinlan (20:50.80, 11th).
Following Murphy, Island School saw Jeremy Randolph-Flag (20:18.50, 8th) and Ryan Perez (21:06.20, 14th) cross the line.
“We had three of our top five runners out, today,” said Kaua‘i athletic director Ross Shimabukuro. “The way Island School was running, today, they had a shot to take the race.”
Runners have a break this Saturday before returning to Island School on Oct. 17 when the KIF Championships will be run starting at 4 p.m.
•Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com.
