Big Dog’s Boys Preseaon X-C Favorites for 2010

Pierce Murphy will contend for state title

Margarito Martinez, Leilehua, senior, will repeat as state champion and dominate OIA if he’s still in Hawaii

Pierce Murphy, Island School, senior, state runner-up if Martinez runs and Kauai champ

Jordan Thibodeau, Kamehameha-Kapalama, senior

Troy Esaki, Iolani, junior

Nikolai Scharer, Punahou, sophomore

Rocky Balala, Maui, junior, MIL champ

Justin Higa, Iolani, senior,

Nicola Perez-Garre, Maui, junior

Chris Mosch, Honokaa, senior, BIIF champ

Ryan Hobson, Mid Pacific Institute, senior

James Pearson, Baldwin, sophomore

Chad Nakaoka, Hawaii Baptist Academy, senior

Zachary Carvalho, Mililani, sophomore

Borys Pleskacz, Iolani, senior

Others to watch: Alex Ortega, Kamehameha-Kapalama; Micah Velasco, Leilehua; Dino DeSalvio, Maui Prep; Dylan Martinez, Leilehua; Joshua Robinson, Honokaa; Jackson Halford, Waiakea; Quentin Penn, Radford; Mathew Dodge, Campbell (moved to Colorado) Giani Cuadrado, Kapolei. Also watch some of the incoming freshmen who may surprise.

With Kamehameha-Kapalama graduating four of their top six runners the Big Dog will go out on a limb and predict Iolani to capture the 2010 HHSAA boys title, with Punahou taking second.

For the girls predictions go to: https://waynejoseph.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/big-dogs-girls-preseaon-x-c-favorites-for-2010/

July 30, 2010 - Posted by waynejoseph | High School Runners | Alex Ortega, Borys Pleskacz, Chad Nakaoka, Chris Mosch, Dino DeSalvio, Dylan Martinez, Giani Cuadrado, Jackson Halford, James Pearson, Jordan Thibodeau, Joshua Robinson, Justin Higa, Margarito Martinez, Mathew Dodge, Nicola Perez-Garre, Nikolai Scharer, Pierce Murphy, Rocky Balala, Ryan Hobson, Troy Esaki, Zachary Carvalho

40 Comments »

Hey Bigdog,
Thanks for kicking off the X-country season with a reminder of the boy & girl runners to watch..

Comment by RAJ | July 30, 2010 | Reply
big dogggggg.
ive been doing some summer training with Leilehua and the team looks determined with no injuries to at least come in the top 2 this year at states, also keep in mind states will be held in Oahu so they have a slight advantage over the neighbor island teams. but i feel as a ranking of 3rd will suit them.
ill keep in contact some more as i watch most of the OIA meets.

Comment by SK23 | July 30, 2010 | Reply
Nicola Perez-Garreaud is the MIL Champ, not rocky.

Comment by CPR | August 1, 2010 | Reply
good Athletes

Comment by klasher | August 4, 2010 | Reply
Again great list but FYI Matthew Dodge of Campbell moved to Colorado. We always have that flow of military kids to the mainland during the summer. Just maybe one addition in my humble opinion… Gianni Cuadrado (Soph) of Kapolei. He ran really well this summer (track) and could put up a good showing in XC.

Comment by mark | August 4, 2010 | Reply
I think PCHS will do pretty good this season. Does Leilehua have 5 fast guys under 18:00?

Comment by Peter | August 6, 2010 | Reply
leilehua has one under16, 1 under17, 3under 18, and a couple more right behind

Comment by SK23 | August 6, 2010 | Reply
Are these new kids that Leilehua has that are running those times? Looking back at last year’s State Meet, I only see Margarito under 16, the others 1730 or above. Curious where all this talent came from all of the sudden.

Comment by hzy | August 7, 2010 | Reply
- They have many new kids but Margarito has a younger brother Dylan who is running his second year you also have a three more repeat runners who are running really well.
  
  Comment by JHM | August 27, 2010 | Reply
its not talent its all from summer training and mileage.
there up to 10miles a day now tempo runs of 630.

Comment by SK23 | August 11, 2010 | Reply
- 1o miles a day every day seems pretty nuts for Hawaii High Schools. By 63o tempos do you mean that they run 6:30 miles about 5 times? My team runs 4o miles a week at the most which is 5.7 miles per day. 10 miles is quite hard.
  
  Comment by Peter | August 26, 2010 | Reply
If these are returnees to Leilehua then, how do you know how fast they are capable of running? Have they ran races in the times you say? Practice is one thing, racing is another. If these kids have ran those times then that is definitely a team to watch out for. Otherwise, I’ll believe it when I see it. That’s all I’m asking.

Comment by hzy | August 12, 2010 | Reply
watch out for some of these newcomers!!! some of them are crazy fast…..good luck everyone….

Comment by kat | August 14, 2010 | Reply
care to elaborate, kat? what newcomers and from where?

Comment by hzy | August 14, 2010 | Reply
watch out for Leilehua. they’ll make a statement after the first meet…

Comment by ramos | August 23, 2010 | Reply
leilehua had their 2mile time trial which included:
Roosevelt, Castle, Campbell, Mililani, Pearl City and Leilehua.
Magarito won, his brother was 2nd.
overall the were 1,2,5,8,9,19,27

Comment by SK23 | August 28, 2010 | Reply
- Any times with those places?
  
  Comment by hzy | August 29, 2010 | Reply
yea. since you would like to know.
they all ran in the 15- 20min timeframe for 2miles

Comment by SK23 | August 29, 2010 | Reply
I was at the Leilehua time trial and Margarito ran a 10:25, his brother was well under 11:00 and Leilehua’s next 3 runners were under 11:25. By the way the course was wheel measured at 3241 meters which is a little over 2 miles. Leilehua is definitely for real and a state title contender in my opinion.

Comment by Frank | August 29, 2010 | Reply
Frank- those are definitely some good times and will make them hard to beat.

SK23- I think you’re a little off with the 15-20 mins. That’s not very good.

Comment by hzy | August 29, 2010 | Reply
how old is margarito’s brother? a 17 year old sophomore?

Comment by hzy | August 29, 2010 | Reply
- Just to get this clear. My son Dylan is a 15 year old sophmore and is very much inspired by his brothers accomplishmets in this sport. We look forward to the upcoming season and the competition. Good luck to everyone!
  
  Comment by Esther | August 30, 2010 | Reply
  - Esther, your boys did great today 1-2. My son finished 3rd behind them today (Soph @ Kapolei). Think he just squeaked under 17, Dylan was comfortably under 17. Great start to the season!
    
    Comment by Denise | September 4, 2010
i was being sarcastic. obviously.
butttt their times for the whole time trial will be posted shortly.
another note is that pearl city looks pretty good.
they pack well. and they have i think it was 4strong.

Comment by SK23 | September 1, 2010 | Reply
@SK23: Obviously

@Esther: How about clarifying the age of your other son?

Comment by hzy | September 4, 2010 | Reply
- Let’s see HZY….Margarito is a Senior and is currently 18 years of age.
  
  Comment by Esther | September 4, 2010 | Reply
look all that matters is Magarito is a SENIOR and is ELIGIBLE to run.

Comment by SK23 | September 6, 2010 | Reply
- Of course that is all that matters, if you are okay with the rules being how they are. Personally, I feel that if an individual is 19 by the state competition he/she should be ineligible to run. The fact that Margarito is almost 2 years older than Peirce, who is also a SENIOR, seems to me an unfair advantage.
  
  SK23, I’ll assume, from this and previous posts, that you are a Leilehua fan/alumni/coach/etc. If your perspective was more objective you might feel differently.
  
  Comment by hzy | September 6, 2010 | Reply
  - I am not sure why this is such a great topic with all of you about my son’s age? My other son who is 15 is running just as good as his older brother. You fail to see all the hard work that these young men put into thier training I don’t care how old or young you are if you don’t put in the hard work that it takes guess what you are not going to be anything. My son did not choose to be a Senior at is age and he will be 19 soon but he is not there yet. Last year he was 17 going on to 18 when he won States was that unfair as well? Think about that question before you question his age.
    
    Comment by Jose | September 6, 2010
yes i am an alumni, i ran with the 08 team, i graduated in 2010, from keaau on the big isle. so im a fan of both the BIIF and leilehua. im 17 and i graduated, so i totally know what your trying to get at, i could still be a senior but although magarito is as old as he is, we dont know his family past if he had family problems or etc, Leilehua gets a lot of kids from military based families and there coulda been some state or place where they allow the kids to start later than in hawaii. so we will never know the real reason as to why hes going to be 19 during states, thats his privacy, and even as being his past teammate i dont know the reason why. i still believe pierce is a great runner, hes mentally strong, and you never know what could play out during season. although magarito is a heavy favorite, pierce is still coming back from a great track season, even jordan from kam. i believe leilehua is more concerned with a team state championship rather than indivdual, if peirce won and magarito came second thats still 1 point for lelhua because pierce doenst have a scoring team.
this is how i see it.

Comment by SK23 | September 6, 2010 | Reply
I wouldn’t think that was unfair if your son was a senior last year. I have thought about my question and I know I am not the only one that is curious about the situation. It is a great topic because the fact is your son is a man competing against high school boys. A 19 year old is more physically matured than a 17 year old. May not be his fault that he is competing at the age he is, but that doesn’t make it more fair to his much younger competition. It especially strikes me as inequitable because in Hawaii you have a lot of young kids for the grades they are in (compared to the mainland). Most states don’t do school admissions based on being born between December and December, but instead based on a school year calender (August to August). This means you don’t have a lot of 18 year olds in Hawaii high schools, let alone 19 year olds. This means that Margarito will be competing against kids that are mostly at least 2 years younger than him. Does that sound fair?

Comment by hzy | September 6, 2010 | Reply
- I understand that your curiosity has brought you to the point that you have to try to make it seem like my son is doing something wrong! Listen to me now because I am not going to comment on this ever again because this is not his fault if you want to be angry be mad at the person who raised him me or maybe the board who signed in the rules, again he did not choose to be a 19 year old senior! He is within the guidelines to participate or is this not suppose to matter. Margarito did not make the rules and have you checked all the students that participate in all sports in all of Hawaii or is just because my son is the State Champ or the fact that he has the opportunity to repeat. If you have not researched all students or you are not commenting on the just the rules,then you have made it your goal in life to single out my son, this is called discrimminaton and I clearly see what type of person you are.I am not a Hawaii resident, I have the good fortune to Serve my Country so I am a resident in Texas (love Hawaii), so I suggest that you and all the curious people take this thru the democratic process and change the rule!!! God Bless and I will see you at States I will be the one cheering on my boys (not a man yet in my book) if you want to ask me anymore questions in person, I will also be at all his events I am the one wearing a ballcap with the letter M with green and gold. Go Mules!
  
  Comment by Jose | September 7, 2010 | Reply
  - Jose,
    
    God Bless you. I think you put this issue to rest. I admire both of your son’s and the hard work they have put in to be at the top of their chosen sport. Best of luck to both of them and the Leilehua team this season. See you at the CC meets.
    
    Hzy, I hope you will have the common decency to let this issue rest and really try to move on. The battle between Margarito and Pierce will be exciting and they both deserve to be where they are.
    
    P.S.I have no affilation whatsoever with Leilehua, I am the parent of a runner from a different school.
    
    Comment by run4fun | September 7, 2010
And if your son will be 19 soon, wouldn’t he have been 18 last year when he won states?

Comment by hzy | September 6, 2010 | Reply
hzy.do you run cross country and what are yout times?

Comment by ramos | September 7, 2010 | Reply
oh and the age thing, as a sports fan, age really doesnt matter, if you just TRAIN HARD enough you can acheive whatever you want, especially in High School, thats where most Athletes start their careers, and it looks like hes doing a pretty good Job. and hes probably not the only 18 or 19 year old High School Athlete in Hawaii.

Comment by ramos | September 7, 2010 | Reply
Regardless of how I view the rules regarding the age of participants high school sports in Hawaii, I should have never made comments that made anyone feel personally attacked. I apologize to the Martinez family for offending them and I apologize to Margarito for minimizing the hard work he has put in to become the runner he is today. Good luck to Margarito and all of the cross country runners in Hawaii this season.

Comment by hzy | September 8, 2010 | Reply
- I speak for Pierce, I am his father. Pierce has no problem with Margarito being 19 years old. Pierce considers Margarito a friend and good competitor. They have spent time together on and off the course. If anything Pierce is glad Margarito is running. He knows who he has to beat and he is training to do that. When Pierce goes to college he will be running against competitors much older then him. Margarito is a man, just as Pierce is a man. Look at their times. They are not boys. They both will represent Hawaii proudly for years to come. Good luck to them both.
  
  Comment by Shawn | September 13, 2010 | Reply
I really respect someone like Pierce who doesn’t make excuses and just goes out to take on all challengers. The better the competition, the more it brings out the best in each competitor. Both these runners should be happy to have the opportunity to push each other in a small state like ours. When they go on to the Kinney cross country meet or the regional qualifications they will be better prepared to represent Hawaii where the competition is much much stiffer than in Hawaii. I’ve been watching Margarito the last few meets and he looks to be in the best shape he’s ever been. Both of their times look to be of national caliber. Best of luck to both.

Comment by run4fun | September 13, 2010 | Reply
From the HHSAA Handbook-
Age Limit Eligibility:
A student is ineligible if he/she has reached the age of 19 years on or before September 1.
That’s the rule, end of story.
We have had students who turn 18 in August, so the are still 17 at the end of their senior year, so even if we change the rule, there will be someone who will complain about 18 year olds competing against 17 year olds, and so on. We have a rule, its being followed, lets move on.

Comment by bosco | September 16, 2010 | Reply