WAIMEA — The Waimea High School girls and Kauai High claimed team titles in the Kauai Interscholastic Federation cross country season opener on Saturday in Waimea. Running the same 3-mile course for the second time in two weeks, runners were
WAIMEA — The Waimea High School girls and Kauai High claimed team titles in the Kauai Interscholastic Federation cross country season opener on Saturday in Waimea.
Running the same 3-mile course for the second time in two weeks, runners were treated to much different climate conditions as they faced blistering conditions along with little to no breeze.
But although the weather was different, the top runners for both the boys and girls stayed the same.
Kapaa’s Micah Nobiga-Feris broke away from the pack again and kept the lead throughout the race. Nobiga finished with a time of 18 minutes, 13 seconds.
Nobiga pushed through a pinching feeling in his knee in the last lap of the race and admitted the heat made the race harder.
“I’m a hunter, so I’m used to this heat,” said Nobiga. “But just running man, it just killed me.”
Coming in second was Kauai’s Kainoa Matsumoto in 18:24, followed by fellow Red Raiders Charles Samuel in 18:26 and Andrew Herr in 18:30.
The Red Raiders secured first place as a team with a point total of 33 behind Brodie Noice’s eighth-place finish (19:17) and Xavier Visaya’s 16th place finish (20:26).
Island school finished second with 53 points, followed by Kapaa High with 57 and Waimea High with 69.
Kauai’s Krista Schnackenberg took first place honors for the girls, again, completing the course in 21:04.
“It was a lot hotter,” she said. “And everyone was pushing a lot harder.”
Island school’s Chan Hsu finished second with a 21:14 time, followed by Cassie Wilson of Kapaa High in third with a time of 21:53.
Waimea took home first place with 47 points, thanks to a sixth-place finish by Talia Young (22:36), a seventh-place finish by Bailey San Agustin (22:38), and a ninth-place finish by Lani Rae-Green (22:45). Fellow Menehune Kiani Kamakea and Sienna Santiago came in 12th and 13th place with times of 24:18 and 24:32 to round up their top five.
Kauai High school came in second place 53 points, followed by Kapaa with 56 points and Island school with 63.
Cross country will continue next Saturday at 8:30 a.m. at Kauai High.
