Island School sophomore Jaden De Souza placed second overall among the girls runners at the 2018 Honolulu Marathon Cross Country Championships state meet on Saturday at Patsy T. Mink Central Oahu Regional Park.
De Souza completed the three-mile course with a time of 20 minutes, 8.19 seconds. Chloe Gangnath of Seabury Hall (Maui Interscholastic League) won with a time of 19:20.73.
“I coached Jaden starting in the seventh grade for the county track meet and I recognized she’s a very talented runner, but she really hadn’t run competitively since then,” said Island School cross country coach Eric Wortmann. “Jaden played volleyball. So, we had a very conservative training program for her in running. We tried to bring her along very slowly to keep her healthy and injury-free. The last two meets in KIF, she won, and then she won the KIF championship race.
“Jaden is very coachable. She’s very responsive to everything we ask her to do. At the state race, she executed the plan flawlessly,” he continued. “She was able to stay with the lead pack for the entire race. At about the 200-meter mark, I told her to start her kicks. She obviously had phenomenal kicks to go from fourth to second over the last 200 meters.”
De Souza couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday.
Kauai High School senior Kane Casillas was the top boys runner from Kauai, placing ninth overall with a time of 17:33.75. Adam Harder of Hanalani (Interscholastic League of Honolulu) was the top boys runner at 16:50.85.
“I mean, it’s not No. 1. A lot of people might not think it was a great race. But for me, it was the perfect race,” Casillas said Tuesday. “Mentally, I was completely focused. Nothing was really stopping me. I wasn’t hurting physically, so I felt really good there. I knew what I wanted to do when I go to the race. I didn’t want to go too fast or too slow.
“I didn’t focus too much on Kauai runners because there’s 200 runners there. If I focus pick one or two to focus on, it kind of blocks any chance of me getting a big lead on any of the other runners from the other islands. I really just had to think big picture.”
Casillas said in his sophomore year, he placed 17th at the state cross country meet. But during his junior year, he experienced setbacks because of injury and placed 132nd at states last year.
To not only have recovered enough to race again but then to improve from his best result at states, Casillas said it “means the world to me.”
“It wasn’t really a sport to me. It’s more of a journey and a experience. I really put a lot of effort and a lot of work into cross country, especially these past two years working on recovering and working on getting back in shape,” Casillas said. “I’m really proud of myself because I know I did that. My times got faster. I never felt stronger. It feels great to have that as my ending.”
On the team leaderboard, Island School’s boys team placed fourth among seven Division II teams with 95 points. Kauai High School placed sixth with 124 points.
Hawaii Baptist Academy (ILH) was the top Division II boys team with 47 points. Maui High School won the Division I boys championship with 49 points.
Kauai High School placed third among four Division II girls teams with 69 points. Hawaii Baptist Academy was first with 21 points.
Punahou School (ILH) won the Division I girls title with 15 points.
Results (KIF)
Girls
– Jaden De Souza, Island School, second overall (20:08.19)
– Molly Middlebrook, Kauai, 23rd overall (21:20.08)
– Juliana Tampus, Kapaa, 24th overall (21:26.33)
– Ella Beck, Island School, 34th overall (22:01.73)
– Mia Takekuma, Kauai, 53rd overall (22:53.79)
– Samantha Bostic, Waimea, 71st overall (23:28.93)
– Victoria Hennessy, Kapaa, 79th overall (23:37.72)
– Malia Splitstoesser, Kauai, 80th overall (23:37.82)
– Jessica Drent, Kapaa, 88th overall (23:44.34)
– Nicole Matsushige, Kauai, 117th overall (24:14.14)
– Emma Thain, Island School, 121st overall (24:17.67)
– Mia Matsunaga, Kauai, 128th overall (24:24.47)
– Olivia Lutkevich, Island School, 146th overall (24:49.77)
– Kinohi Naive, Kapaa, 194th overall (27:55.39)
Boys
– Kane Casillas, Kauai, ninth overall (17:33.75)
– Garret Smith, Kapaa, 20th overall (17:58.51)
– Matthew Vickers, Island School, 21st overall (17:58.66)
– Joshua Graves, Island School, 40th overall (18:32.95)
– Elijah Ibbs, Island School, 86th overall (19:20.41)
– Henry Scherer, Island School, 105th overall (19:40.23)
– Jeremy Herr, Kauai, 112th overall (19:47.00)
– Sage Ioana, Kapaa, 114th overall (19:49.54)
– Jaheim Scoburgh, Kauai, 143rd overall (20:17.5)
– Samuel Isaraelsen, Kauai, 149th overall (20:22.61)
– Damon Johnson, Kauai, 152nd overall (20:26.99)
– Keon Orlando, Kapaa, 153rd overall (20:28.19)
– Alakai Gonsalves, Kapaa, 165th overall (20:38.10)
– Caleb Brown, Island School, 169th overall (20:41.12)
– James Pratt, Island School, 184th overall (21:20.70)
Full results on www.sportshigh.com.
Info from Hawaii High School Athletic Association.
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Nick Celario, sports writer, can be reached at 245-0437 or ncelario@thegardenisland.com.
