PUHI — Just six points separated the Kaua‘i High School girls cross-country runners from Island School when the Voyagers hosted a preseason “practice” run on Saturday.
Island School took the event with 38 points, followed by Kaua‘i High School with 32 points. Kapa‘a High School finished with 50 points, while the Waimea girls piled up 108 points.
On the boys course, Kaua‘i High School dominated the 68-runner field by finishing with all five of its scoring runners crossing in the top 10 finishers for a total of 20 points.
Waimea boys finished in second place with 65 points, followed by Island School with 67 points for third place. Kapa‘a rounded out the field with 87 points.
Kaua‘i High School’s Aileah Villatora, a returning runner from the 2022 season, set the pace early over the 41-runner girls field, and finished first on the 5,000-meter course at 22 minutes, 51.42 seconds.
The Lady Red Raiders were challenged when the Voyagers pushed a trio of runners — Ashleyn Worley (23:36.73), McKenna Kerry (23:40.62) and Sadie Stiglmeier (24:18.32) — across the tape.
Kaua‘i was still chasing when Esjhale Chung Ching Man crossed fifth overall at 24:37.11 before the Raiders were interrupted by Kapa‘a’s Winohia Kitamura — the Lady Warriors’ first finisher — crossing sixth overall at 24:39.74.
Kaua‘i’s Coral Turner, the Raiders’ No. 3 finisher at seventh overall, stopped the clocks at 25:09.34. Kapa‘a’s Sage Hofmann (25:18.32) and Shaira Sanchez (25:25.19) interrupted the flow with their eighth and ninth overall finishes, respectively. Laysa Turner (26:42.45) was the fourth scoring Raider runner.
The Voyager girls locked up the meet when Sydney Manibog (26:53.57) and Michaela Mauldijk (26:57.72) tripped the clocks in 11th and 12th place, overall.
Kapa‘a locked up its five scoring runners when Rayko Farias (27:04.60) and Trinity Pananganan (28:01.53) crossed in 13th and 14th. The Warriors’ scoring started too late for the squad to beat out Kaua‘i High School, whose final scoring runner, Carly Dela Cruz, crossed 15th overall in a 28:13.12 run.
Waimea’s first runner, Jayna Sams (29:24.45) crossed in 19th overall.
On the boys’ course, Island School runner Javin Hennessy set the pace by crossing first at 19:37.07.
But Kaua‘i High School, running not at full strength according to Coach Fred Sasan, pushed all five of its scoring runners — Elias Casillas (2nd 19:59.25), Curren Ibbs (3rd 20:16.09), Zion Akana (4th 20:29.77), Dylan Takata (20:38.02) and Liam Juvan (6th 20:40.48) — in the second through sixth positions.
Waimea’s first runner, Kaleb Parraga (20:42.27) crossed in seventh overall and Kapa‘a’s first runner, Louis Peale (21:12.58), crossed in 10th overall.
The first of the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation cross-country races are scheduled to start at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday at Kapa‘a High School.
