Last Saturday (October 22nd) each section in Hawaii competed for spots at the state meet this weekend. While most of the results saw the favorites prevail, there were also a few surprises.

Maui (MIL)-

Course: KCC

Races: Div. 1 & 2 combined

Who Qualified: Boys- Maui High and Baldwin, Girls- Maui High and Seabury + 19 boys and 18 girls

Girls: Seabury Hall girls dominated the race sweeping spots 1-4 and 6 to take first as a team for the 11th consecutive year with 16 points. The champion Veronica Winham led from start to tape; taking the race out fast to create a gap that grew as the race went on, beating teammate Ava Shipman by 23 seconds with a time of 19:48. After spots 1-4 Maui High girls filled in the remaining spots to qualify as a team with 45 points.

Boys: Defending league champion Eden Mackinnon ran out with the lead pack but later fell back to finish 20th due to sickness earlier in the week. Maui High’s Dylan Vega led the charge and controlled the pace for the whole race, later making a sizeable gap over the rest of the field until the home stretch where Baldwin’s Kai Sears outkicked him in 18:11 to 18:12. Behind them Maui High placed the rest of their five runners in the top 13 and won as a team with 28 points while Baldwin came in second with 65.

Oahu (OIA)-

Course: CORP

Races: Div. 1 & 2 combined

Who Qualified: Boys- Kalaheo and Campbell, Girls- Radford and Kaiser + 47 boys and 50 girls

Girls: Radford senior Camryn Butz dropped the field early to win by nearly a minute in 20:53 while also leading her team to a title with 62 points. Pearl City’s Megumi Takushi finished second in 21:41. Fourth place Leigh Farah led Kaiser to a second place team finish with 73 points.

Boys: Kalaheo’s Avery Torres stayed back in the beginning until the leaders died out before taking the lead at the half mile marker; from that point he and teammate Colby Otero broke away from the field. Torres then pushed the pace and eventually dropped his teammate before coming away with the win in 16:46 to 17:00. Both runners led their team to the league title with 49 points, ahead of Campbell's 94.

Oahu (ILH)-

Course: Mid-Pac

Races: Div. 1 & 2 combined

Who Qualified: Boys- Iolani and Punahou, Girls- Punahou and Iolani + 33 boys and 32 girls

Girls: Mia Schiel of Punahou ran 19:50 to beat Jordan Jones, who was previously unbeaten by anyone from Hawaii. Schiel led Punahou far ahead of any other team with a score of 30 points to second place Iolani’s 58.

Boys: Punahou’s top runner Connor Lehl led from the gun to clinch the win in 16:52 far ahead of his teammate Aaron Shiinoki (16:58) who later on in the race began to close the gap. Lehl said: “The gap ended up decreasing but the fast start was good practice for next week, and my teammate Aaron did really well so I think we’re ready for states.” The two of them led their team to a second place finish with 38 points while third and fourth place finishers from Iolani led their team to the title with 29 points.

Hawai’i (BIIF)-

Course: HPA

Races: Div. 1 & 2 combined

Who Qualified: Boys- Div 1 (Waiakea and Hilo,) Div 2 (HPA and Kona) Girls- Div 1 (HPA and Waiakea,) Div 2 (Honokaa) + 31 boys and 29 girls

Girls: Hawaii Prep (HPA) dominated the team scorings; running all of their 5 scorers into the top 11 spots on their home course. The individual results showed an exact repeat of last year’s league meet as the top 2 finishers were Sophia Cash of Honokaa (22:18) and Saya Yabe of Waiakea (22:30.) Yabe led the Warriors to a second place team finish behind Hawaii Prep.

Boys: The Waiakea boys took home the win with 49 points led by last year’s standout freshman Adrian Larkspur who finished 4th in 19:12. Konawaena’s Cody Ranfranz won the overall race in 18:59 but his team’s fourth and fifth runners placed high which only produced a team finish in 3rd.

Kaua’i (KIF)-

Who Qualified: 14 boys and 15 girls

Next weekend (Saturday October 29th) will mark the last cross country meet of the 2016 season. The races will take place early saturday morning at the HPA course on the Big Island. The course which takes place on the Hawaii Prep Academy campus is historically known to be the hilliest and toughest in Hawaii; so challenging that it usually adds 2 to 3 minutes onto an athlete’s time. And after last weekend’s results in the qualifying rounds, the state meet will definitely be interesting and unpredictable as the anticipated girls winner Jordan Jones was dethroned. However on her last attempt at the HPA course she won in a sprint finish so the results will be promising. On the boys side the contenders include Connor Lehl and Colby Otero who both broke away from the field they’re last time on the course and won by nearly 20 seconds (17:59.) Otero’s teammate Avery Torres since then has beaten him in a few races and established himself on top so he may be able win gold this weekend.

Drone Footage of the Course

Course Map