Brooks/de Bourmount lead East Division x-country

BIIF boys start at Waiakea

Keaau’s Daniel Brooks and Hilo’s Shalila de Bourmont continued to run well at Big Island Interscholastic Federation cross-country meets this season as both captured top individual honors at Waiakea on Saturday.

At the start of the boys three mile race Brooks opened with at quick pace and rapidly separated himself early on from the rest of the field.

“I heard some footsteps at the first hill, but no one challenged me,” Brooks said. “My goal coming into this race was to break 17 minutes, but no one pushed me. I run better when I’m pushed.”

Books won the race in 17 minutes and 24 seconds with Hilo’s Tyde Kaneshiro claiming second.

“I was happy with my race despite not hitting my goal today,” Brooks said. I went out and set a fast pace and I was strong on the uphill’s while cruising the downhill’s. Next week I’ll come out harder and hopefully the my whole team will come out harder.”

Tyde Kaneshiro

For Hilo’s Kaneshiro it was perhaps his best race thus far. “My teammate, Billy (Ray), and I wanted to beat Keaau’s number two runner (Shannon White) so we tried staying with him most of the race,” Kaneshiro said.

Just before the two mile point Kaneshiro separated himself from a pack made up of Ray and White, along with Kamehameha’s Casey Chai, as Kaneshiro opened up a large gap between himself and third place.

Kaneshiro attempted to catch Brooks in the last half mile of the race, but ran out of gas with about 200 yards to go. “Mentally I couldn’t grasp the fact that I could catch him (Brooks) and I gave up rather than suffer through the pain,” he said.

Kaneshiro finished in 17:40, just 14 seconds behind Brooks to claim his highest placing finish in his young prep career. “I feel great physically and mentally, this is the best I have ever felt during a race,” he said.

Chai took third, 18:04, followed by Ray, 18:11; Hilo’s Johann Kuiper, 18:11; White, 18:12; and Waiakea’s Frank Chi in 18:12.

Second place whet to Waiakea’s Kaitlyn Chock, 21:38; and Kelsie Kobayashi, 21: 43; while Kamehameha’s Bronte Kaneakua was fourth, 21:54; and Keaau’s Dean Nishimura-Thornton finished fifth, 22:06.

“I think I should have stayed with the pack or go faster at the start,” Kaneakua said. “I tried to stay with Kaitlyn (Chock) and Kelsie (Kobayashi), but I fell back after 2-miles.”

While Kaneakua wasn’t very satisfied with her fourth place finish, Nishimura-Thornton was excited with her fifth place time.

: Deann Thornton

“This was probably the best race I’ve had this season as I tried to stay with the front pack for as long as I could,” Nishimura-Thornton said.

“At the soccer field portion of the course (2.5 miles) the other girls in the pack started their kick and we got separated. I’m starting to get better slowly and I like where I’m at this year.”

Last year Nishimura-Thornton was consistently in the top five of each race leading up to the BIIF championships and she did it as a freshman. The young Cougar fizzled at the BIIF championships dropping out of the top ten. “This year I want to put all my focus on the BIIF’s and peak in time for that race,” she said.

Hilo swept the boys and girls team titles with a surprised Viking coach, Bill McMahon looking on. “I tell you, I never really expected this (winning team titles) but these guys and girls are really tough in putting it all together,” McMahon said.

On the north end of the island it was Kohala playing host to the BIIF West Division with a pair of Dragons taking top individual honors.

Chris Mosch, who won it all at Kamehameha two weeks ago, won the boy’s race, while teammate Tia Greenwell, the two time defending BIIF champion, won it all for the girls.

Mosch’s major challenge came from Makua Lani’s Dylan Hardie-Jordan who tried to stay with the senior from Honokaa for most of the race.

Greenwell had little opposition in her desire to retain a third league title and easily took the girls race in 20 minutes and 56 seconds. Teammate Athena Oldfather captured second in 21:28, followed by Makua Lani’s Grace Choe, 22:46, and Hawaii Prep’s Zoe Sims, 22:56.

“The HPA girls really had a solid pack of runners that made it easy for them to win the team title,” Kohala coach, Tom McCue said. “We had some variable weather today with wind gust up to 20 mph and a little rain for the boy’s race, then it got really hot for the girls.”

Honokaa won the boys varsity race with Ka Makani taking the girls team title.