KILAUEA — For the first time since their participation in the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation (KIF), the Island School Voyagers’ boys cross country team took the title at the KIF cross country championships run at the Kula School course on Saturday afternoon.
The Voyager boys edged out Kaua‘i 36-40 for the first place finish with Waimea following at 51 points and Kapa‘a finishing fourth at 121 points.
Earlier in the season, the Navigators had taken a first place finish, edging out the Kaua‘i Red Raider boys.
This, combined with the added motivation of the first finish, egged the Navigator runners to more intense practices, Sean Magoun, the school’s athletic director said following the announcement of their winning the KIF championship.
Heading into the final race of the season, Kaua‘i High School and Island School boys were one and two respectively, Kaua‘i having accumulated 11 points to Island School’s nine points.
With the championship meet having double points, the first finish for Island School gave them six points while Kaua‘i got four points for their second place finish resulting in a tie at 15 points for each school.
However, Magoun explained that if that happens, the winner of the KIF championship meet will be the winner, giving the Voyager boys their first KIF title.
Magoun explained that having the Martin boys, Scott and Nathan from Waimea finish high in the order, also helped them as it took points away from Kaua‘i while at the tail end of the top 15 overall finishers, Kaua‘i’s two runners, Cody Kimura and Aaron Fujimoto, had slipped slightly from their previous race performances.
Scott Martin held the lead throughout the three-mile course, sandwiching Island School’s Mario Rosa between himself and brother Nathan coming out of the first leg where Scott started increasing his lead over Rosa.
By the second leg of the race, Scott had a sizeable lead, utilizing the downhills to build on the lead, and as the runners came out of the final turn leading to the uphill stretch to the finish line, the order was Scott Martin tripping the clock at 17.50 followed by Rosa at 18.24.
Kaua‘i’s Ross Brandeburg had overtaken Nathan Martin somewhere between the second and final leg, finishing third overall at 18.49 followed by Nathan at 19.02, and Kaua‘i’s Chad Naganuma filling in the fifth slot at 19.14 and Lucky Andres at 19.25.
What followed was a squad of Navigators who filled in the seventh through tenth overall slots, Chris Marsh following Andres at 20.17 and finishing with Alan Hoffman at 20.36.81, just .06 of a second faster than William Ajates, and exchange student from Spain.
With the KIF championship under their belt, Island School will have five slots (plus two alternates) at the state championships coming up on Maui.
In addition to these five slots, the cross country teams get to fill a total of 14 slots, Magoun explained.
With the girls KIF championship going to the Kaua‘i High School girls, they will get five slots of the 14 available.
The Red Raider women took first place with 27 points followed by Waimea accumulating 55 points, Kapa‘a finishing third with 71 points, and Island School girls taking fourth at 181 points.
Shauna Tachibana easily paced through the two-mile girls’ course with her only challenge coming from Waimea’s Rachel Martin, but by the second half of the race, Tachibana was clearly in control of the course as she breezed through the finish line at 13.54 over Martin’s 14.04 time.
Kassy Morishige of Kaua‘i recovered from an injury that sidelined her last week to finish third at 14.24 followed by Kapa‘a’s Kristy Nagahisa finishing at 14.51 for fourth overall finish.
