LIHUE — The top six boys and girls from the Kauai Interscholastic Federation championship meet in October were selected as this year’s KIF cross county all stars. “It feels pretty good to be one of the top runners on Kauai,”
LIHUE — The top six boys and girls from the Kauai Interscholastic Federation championship meet in October were selected as this year’s KIF cross county all stars.
“It feels pretty good to be one of the top runners on Kauai,” Kauai High School sophomore Dutch Fairbanks said in a phone interview Tuesday.
Fairbanks was the top boys finisher in the last month’s KIF championship meet. He went on to finish 73rd among the boys at the Honolulu Marathon Cross Country Championships on Maui on Oct. 31.
“When I first started out, I was a little nervous. I didn’t know what freshmen were coming out and how fast they were,” Fairbanks said about this past season. “The season was really fun. (Coach Marissa Purcell) made it fun and interesting. She’s a really good coach.”
The Red Raiders sophomore added teammates Tytan Heresa and Andrew Herr helped motivate him throughout the season.
Also among the boys all stars is Kapaa senior Braden Andrews, who was runner up in the KIF championship meet and placed 74th at the state meet on Maui.
“It really means a lot to me. I’ve worked really hard. I’ve trained all summer. It’s really awesome to know all the hard work and diligence pays off,” Andrews said. “I really wanted to have a great year because I’ll never have the chance to run cross country again.”
Andrews said of his four years of cross country, this past season was his best.
“Our team is just amazing. My team is literally like family to me. I run for them,” he said.
Island School junior Carolyn Price led the KIF girls this year. She and fellow Voyager, senior Gianna D’Annibale, finished first and second, respectively, of the girls at KIF championship meet.
“We’ve been training all season together. And we’re friends, so it was nice to round off the season like that,” Price said.
Price placed 25th among the girls at the state meet last month. D’Annibale was 53rd.
“It was great to finish like that,” Price said about her performance on Maui. “Especially since Kauai is such a small fish pond, it was great to go to Maui and compare yourself to other top athletes.”
Waimea sophomore Kekoa Kimata-Lopez, who was the sixth best boys runner at the KIF championship meet, is the only Menehune on this year’s all star list. He couldn’t be reached Tuesday.
