KAPA‘A — Kapa‘a’s Ella Arume waited as trainer Sam Henriques applied heavy taping to one of her ankles Saturday. Despite the tape, Arume held the overall lead through most of the two laps in the three-mile cross country course to
KAPA‘A — Kapa‘a’s Ella Arume waited as trainer Sam Henriques applied heavy taping to one of her ankles Saturday.
Despite the tape, Arume held the overall lead through most of the two laps in the three-mile cross country course to help lead Kapa‘a girls to a first-place finish in team points Saturday.
Kapa‘a’s Whitney Rowe, who, along with Nahtice Nield, had been in the No. 2 and No. 3 slots for most of the race, finished ahead of Arume but just two seconds short of overall finisher Sarah Faraola of Island School, who tripped the clock at 22:10.44.
Kapa‘a girls’ team picked up first place with 22 team points, followed by Kaua‘i’s 59 points, Island School’s 80 points and Waimea’s 89 points.
One Kapa‘a assistant coach was pleased with the Warriors’ individual performances in the race, noting how several runners had increased their times by more a second from their 2005 runs.
Kula School fielded less than five runners and was not counted in the team scoring. Kula runners Gillian Pickett, Amber Loughead and Jesse Austin finished sixth, seventh and eighth overall.
Pickett crossed the line at 23:39.46, followed by Loughead at 23:41.09 and Austin at 23:41.52.
“Two of our top girls are at the Iolani Meet,” Kaua‘i coach Erin Dunn said. “So we’ll see how the rest of the girls run.”
Rowe topped the Kapa‘a finishers with a 22:12.81 run, followed by Arume at 22:31.78. Nield (22:54.66), Kirsten McCracken (24:28.52-9th) and Rachel Ganir (24:35.18-10th) were the other Kapa‘a runners in the scoring.
Elizabeth Schiller crossed the line at 24:50.93, 11th overall, to lead a pack of redshirts for Kaua‘i. Other Red Raider girls in the scoring include Kailyn Kealoha (25:35.50-14th), Siarra Balckford (26:01.00-15th), Michelle Kato (26:07.46-16th) and Elizabeth Young (26:48.52-18th).
Following Faraola for Island School, Sonia Gordines (25.32.42-13th), Rayna Carlson (27.31.84-19th), Nicole Arruda (34:20.98-30th) and Courtney Tokuda (34:21.56-31st) accounted for the Voyagers’ scoring.
Carolyn Hoeckman topped the Waimea runners at 23:15.31, fifth overall. Other Menehune who figured in the scoring include Kelly Joyce (25:19.63-12th), Tatum Gonsalves (28:50.27-21st), Erin Connelly (34:32.24-32nd) and Mollie Connelly (34:32.47).
The revised three-mile course was hard on the runners as Hoeckman audibly made her way down the final 50 yards to the finish chute.
Waimea’s Kaimana Girod dominated the boys race and helped set the pace for Waimea’s first-place team finish with 33 team points.
Kaua‘i and Kapa‘a high schools were tied for second after scoring their top five runners. When the deciding factor became each school’s sixth finisher, Tyler Hee gave the second-place berth to Kaua‘i. Kaua‘i finished with 78 team points as Hee finished 18th overall. Kapa‘a finished third with 96 team points after its sixth runner, Mark Baltazar, finished 36th overall.
Island School, which got a strong finish from Chris Marsh, finished fourth with 132 team points.
Times for the boys race were unavailable at press time, although an unofficial time for top finisher Girod was estimated at 17:40.
Waimea coach Rod Martin was pleased with his team’s overall performance although slightly concerned that Girod was pushing a little too hard off the line.
Maggie Martin, whose three children were strong Waimea cross country runners before graduating last June, said the cross country camp Girod attended over the summer in Australia did him some good.
Kaua‘i High hosts this Saturday’s races at the Kaua‘i Community College course at 9 a.m.
