PUHI — The Kapa‘a High School boys picked up its second straight team win and the Kaua‘i girls held off Kapa‘a High School for its first place finish, Saturday during the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation cross-country meet hosted by Kaua‘i High
PUHI — The Kapa‘a High School boys picked up its second straight team win and the Kaua‘i girls held off Kapa‘a High School for its first place finish, Saturday during the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation cross-country meet hosted by Kaua‘i High School.
Joshua Herr of Kaua‘i High School set the pace for the boys’ race, clocking his best race of the season at 16:55.00, almost two seconds ahead of his previous season-best.
The top two racers, Joshua Herr of Kaua‘i High and Joy Claypoole of Island School set the standard high, both runners attaining season best runs in a course which challenged the runners with an uphill finish while being spectator-friendly.
Claypoole stopped the clock at 20:18.00 for first overall in the girls’ race, almost a minute ahead of No. 2 finisher Krista Schnackenberg (21:09.00).
“This is not my personal best,” Claypoole said while watching the boys’ race being staged. “But it’s my best race of the season. My first mile pace was about 6:20.”
Basil Scott, the KIF scorekeeper, said Joshua and Joy both marked good times.
“This is a slightly tough course and they ran it as fast as the Waimea course which is usually 20 to 30 seconds faster,” Scott said in an email.
Despite Joshua’s blistering pace being nearly three minutes ahead of the second overall finisher, Mikey Rita of Waimea, the Kaua‘i boys settled for second place points to Kapa‘a’s boys who picked up its second straight win following Rita stopping the clock on a 19:03.00 run over the three-mile course.
With Kaua‘i and Waimea taking the top two spots, Kapa‘a filled in the third, fourth, sixth, 10th and 14th places toward its 37 team points, Kaua‘i finishing with 52 points, Waimea 66 points and Island School with 74 points.
Micah-Kamuela Nobriga-Ferris (19:07.00) topped the Kapa‘a scoring followed by Joshua Cram (19:19.00), Ronnie Perono (19:33.00) in sixth overall, Tanner Henry (19:52.00) in 10th and Eli Lluellen (20:08.00) in 14th, Lluellen being encouraged home by coach Kara Kitamura who shouted, “You’re No. 5, Eli! Push, Eli! Push!”
Following Rita, Waimea saw Bradly Lumabao (19:33.00) cross in seventh overall followed by Henry Delos Reyes (19:46.00) in ninth overall before Justin Pagtolingan (21:54.00) crossed at 27th overall and Mark Abalos (22:04.00) in 29th overall accounting for the Waimea team scoring.
The gap suffered by Waimea also showed its head for the Kaua‘i boys who saw Samuel Charles (19:52.00) cross in 11th overall behind Joshua’s first finish.
Andrew Herr, Joshua’s younger brother, filled in 12th overall at 19:56.00 followed by Kainoa Matsumoto (20:04.00) in 13th place and Koa Kam (20:16.00) in 15th place.
The Red Raiders locked up its second place on Matsumoto’s crossing to relegate Waimea to its third place spot.
Kellan Wortmann (19:21.00) of Island School topped the Voyager boys’ scoring followed by Eric Potter (19:36.00) in eighth overall, Travis Kim (20:57.00) in 18th place, James Papa (21:36.00) in 23rd and Michael Miller (21:38.00) in 24th overall.
Girls race
The absence of Lani Rae Green and Sierra Santiago for Waimea made a big difference for Kaua‘i High School whose Krista Schnackenberg (21:09.00) and Heidi Herr (21:36.00), Joshua’s sister, filling in the second and third overall spots, respectively.
“Lani Rae and Sienna are both participating in other sports,” said Waimea coach Brandon Moises. “But I wasn’t going to work the other girls down. They’ve all got other sports to worry about.”
Kaycee SanAugustine-Nordmeier (22:53.00) filled in the first spot for Waimea, ending fifth overall below Kapa‘a’s Cassie Wilson (22:06.00), was busy helping the Menehune girls in its 3-0 win over Kapa‘a, Friday night as its libero.
She was followed by Talia Young (22:57.00) in sixth overall followed by Bailey SanAugustine-Nordmeier (23:51.00) in ninth overall, Kiani Kamakea (24:10.00) in 12th, Lauryn Fleming (25:59.90) in 27th and Bailey O’Sullivan (26:32.00) in 31st overall.
Following Wilson, Kapa‘a saw Kekai Gonsalves improve three spots from last week’s race, finishing on a 23:28.00 run for seventh overall followed by Camilla Vernon (24:16.00) in 10th, Coral Vernon (24:16.00) in 13th and Malia Hickey (24:50.00) in 16th.
Kaua‘i saw Cascade Mayer (23:48.00) fill in the Red Raiders’ No. 3 spot in eighth overall followed by Hayley Walcher (24:05.00) in 11th and Lorinda Sasan (24:29.00) in 14th overall.
Following Claypoole’s lead, Island School saw Mattea Wortmann (24:45.00) fill in at 15th overall followed by Ally Pascual (24:54.00) in 17th, Makenna Olson (24:56.00) in 18th and Jade Murphy (24:57.00) in 19th overall.
Island School will host the fourth KIF race of the season, Saturday starting at 8:30 a.m. The KIF Championship will also be hosted by island School on Oct. 13 starting at 8:30 a.m.
The Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association’s state cross country championships will be hosted by the Big Island Interscholastic Federation at the Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy on Oct. 26.
