WAIMEA — Kapaa’s Micah Nobriga-Ferris regained the top spot for the boys cross country team and Carolyn Price of Island School continued to set the pace Saturday during the first Kauai Interscholastic Federation cross country race hosted by Waimea High
WAIMEA — Kapaa’s Micah Nobriga-Ferris regained the top spot for the boys cross country team and Carolyn Price of Island School continued to set the pace Saturday during the first Kauai Interscholastic Federation cross country race hosted by Waimea High School.
Despite the fast times in the blistering, windless dry heat, Island School held on to lead the girls’ race, accumulating 38 points over the strong challenge of Kapaa’s girls who finished in second at 44 points, just a point better than the Kauai girls who ended in third place with 45 points. Host Waimea posted 111 points.
Nobriga-Ferris may have been the fastest on the boys’ course, but Kauai High School broke the Island School win streak, pulling in its fifth runner, Micah Chun, ahead of the Voyagers to end with 40 points over Island School’s 46 points.
Kapaa High School, with Nobriga-Ferris in the lead spot, ended with 52 points followed by host Waimea getting 96 points.
Price set the pace for the girls, breaking the 20-minute mark on a 19-minute, 29-second run. Kauai girls took the lead as Sydney Brady (20:26) and Krista Schnackenberg (20:37) filled in the second and third spots, overall.
Kapaa entered the fray when Kelsea Armstrong crossed on a 21:13 mark before Gianna D’Annibale of Island School crossed fifth overall to give the Voyagers six points, a digit behind Kauai. The Voyagers clinched the girls title when its fifth runner, Brianna Binder, crossed the line in 12th overall, stopping the clock at 22:28 while Kauai’s fifth runner crossed 19th overall.
Waimea pushed its first runner across in 16th overall as Akime Dizol stopped the clock at 23:24 followed by Kari Correa stepping across at 24:10, just a tick back of Kapaa’s Tessa Ramesy.
“We’re still missing two of our strong runners,” said Kapaa coach Kara Kitamura. “We just didn’t have our No. 5 runner, today.”
On the boys’ course, Nobriga-Ferris burned the trail on a blistering 16:09 run, a full eight seconds ahead of Island School’s Michael Miller (16:27), the winner of last week’s Waimea Invitational.
“I don’t get credit for this,” Nobriga-Ferris said. “God gave me the strength to do what I had to do. I am where I am because of my team and my parents.”
Off the line, Nobriga-Ferris said he was buried at No. 15 and worked to improve that through the first two miles.
Entering the third mile, Nobriga-Ferris saw his opening and made the move.
“I saw Dutch, Charles and Michael,” Nobriga-Ferris said. “I told myself, ‘I can make this happen’ and I pushed — hard. This is the best start for me. I ran a 17:54 last week, improving to 16:09 this week. This is my thing because of my mom and dad.”
Following Michael Miller, Kauai’s Dutch Fairbanks (16:45) and Charles Samuel (17:03) crossed, bring the Red Raiders to a tie with Island School whose second runner, Josh Miller (17:19) finished fifth overall.
The Voyagers took the lead when Kyle Riddle (17:40) and Tai Mitchell (18:17) filled in the seventh and eighth spots before Kauai’s Reyson Agcaoili (18:28) and Andrew Herr (18:44) crossed, punctuated by Waimea’s Devon Hartsell (18:42).
Micah Chun, finishing 13th overall on an 18:54 run, clinched the Kauai boys’ victory as Island School’s fifth runner crossed 24th overall.
Kauai High School hosts the next KIF cross country meet, Saturday at the Kauai Community College. According to the KIF schedule, start time for the first race is 8:30 a.m.
