PUHI — Somewhere between the second and third mile, the Kauai High School girls’ No. 4 runner disappeared Saturday during the Kauai Interscholastic Federation cross country race hosted by the Red Raiders at Kauai Community College. “Has anyone seen her?”
PUHI — Somewhere between the second and third mile, the Kauai High School girls’ No. 4 runner disappeared Saturday during the Kauai Interscholastic Federation cross country race hosted by the Red Raiders at Kauai Community College.
“Has anyone seen her?” Kauai Coach Marissa Purcel inquired among the field of officials. “She didn’t come through. I saw her come through the first time, but she didn’t come through again.”
The rapidly rising heat combined with the humidity from the overnight rains sent the physical trainer’s truck onto the course, retrieving runners like the No. 4, who succumbed to the Kona weather.
Kauai girls, after nailing the top spots by just three points during last week’s race, relinquished the lead to Kapaa’s girls. Juliana Tampus moved up a few spots from her earlier finishes, and helped Victoria Hennessy lead the Warriors to 38 points by finishing just off Hennessy’s heels.
Kauai finished in second place at 54 points, just two points ahead of Island School, whose Ella Beck took command of the grueling course and finished first overall, stopping the clock at 21 minutes, 45.82 seconds.
Kauai’s Mia Takekuma followed at 22:14.51, with Hennessy (22:22.42) and Tampus (22:36.54) filling in the top slots.
The Voyager women finished with 56 points with Waimea’s girls pushing its lead runner role to Samantha Bostick (24:57.45) collecting 73 points.
“This was painful,” said Henry Scherer, Island School’s lead runner who crossed at 18:48.13, third overall. “The course is really tough.”
Scherer led the Voyager men to first place with 29 points after its next four runners crossed the line in the top eight spots, an improvement over last week when the Voyagers’ fifth runner came in ninth place.
Kapaa’s Garret Smith continued to pace the field of 72 runners in the humid air, the boys getting the advantage of cooler conditions by starting earlier than the girls.
“It was hot,” said Smith, who tripped the clocks at 17:24.54. “It was wet (from the overnight rains) so the air was humid. I just wanted to finish, but I didn’t really know the course layout so I paced (Kauai’s) Dodger Middlebrook for the first mile, and from there, just took off.”
Middlebrook followed in Smith’s shadow, crossing second overall (18:48.13) and leading the Red Raiders to a solid second place at 53 points followed by Kapaa’s boys at 66 points. Waimea’s boys rounded out the team scoring at 75 points paced by Braden Lumabao finishing fourth overall at 19:22.02.
Kauai Christian Academy fielded two runners, with Kevin Cabreira finishing 16th overall (20:27.48).
Island School hosts the next cross country race Saturday starting at 4 p.m. on its Puhi campus. The late start time is due to SAT testing.
Results
Boys (Top 20)
Garret Smith (Kap) 17:24.54, Dodger Middlebrook (Kau) 18:17,75, Henry Scherer (IS) 18:48.13, Braden Lumabao (Wai) 19:22.02, Matthew Vickers (IS) 19:25.77), Joshua Graves (IS) 19:27.43), James Pratt (IS) 19:34.80, Ben Griep (IS) 19:35.75, Jeremy Herr (Kau) 19:42.86, Keon Orlando (Kap) 19:43.11, Dutch Fairbanks (Kau) 19:55.46, Levi Snowden (Wai) 20:04.82, Alakai Gonsalves (Kap) 20:07.38, Jaheim Scoburgh (Kau) 20:21.70, Ian Penner (IS) 20:24.63, Kevin Cabreira (KCA) 20:27.48, Hanohano Kuhaulua (Kap) 20:35.94, Isaac Dilley (Kau) 20:43.34, Jacob Delos Reyes (Wai) 20:44.16, Micah Matsunaga (Kau) 20:54.45.
Girls (Top 20)
Ella Beck (IS) 21:45.82, Mia Takekuma (Kau) 22:14.51, Victoria Hennessy (Kap) 22:22.42, Juliana Tampus (Kap) 22:36.54, Kristin Chun (Kau) 22:46.43, Kahlil Shockley (Kap) 23:03.87, Nahe Edwards (IS) 23:15.52, Olivia Lutkevich (IS) 23:45.61, Samantha Bostick (Wai) 24:57.45, Tu Nguyen (Kap) 25:05.11, Amber Drake (Wai) 25:09.96, Nicole Matsushige (Kau) 25:19.12, Starlyn Soares (Kau) 25:29.45, Gianna DeTrolio (IS) 25:59.55, Lily Stokes (Kap) 26:25.50, Kaya Akana (Wai) 26:28.69, Melissa Murphy (Kap) 26:32.70, Jordan Simao (Wai) 26:33.55, Kari Correa (Wai) 26:35.60, Natalia Bogdanov (Kap) 26:36.08.
