BIIF X-C 2nd place teams, Hilo and Waiakea Top 7 runners readies for States

Bean	Nina	9	Hilo
Breitbarth	Jordyn	10	Hilo
De Bourmont	Shalila	12	Hilo
Garson-Shumway	Carmen	10	Hilo
Lawrence	Karina	12	Hilo
Rapoza	Kaylee	11	Hilo
Ray	Satya	9	Hilo

Halford	Jackson	12	Waiakea
Hayano	Hajime	10	Waiakea
McQuate	Ian	10	Waiakea
Meguro	Robbey	12	Waiakea
Perez	Nathaniel	9	Waiakea
Rice	Keoni	11	Waiakea
Sato	Dyson	10	Waiakea

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HPA Boys cross country making their move in closing weeks of season

 The Hawaii Prep boys cross country team made their move in team scoring during the final meet of the regular season with their highest finish – THIRD.

Michael Rogerson, Hide Akai, Ryuta Yoda, Michael Spetich, Walter Disney, Tucker Higgins and Justin Macy are giving Ka Makani harriers a possibility to take one of the top two automatic berths into the HHSAA championships to be held the end of October.

The BIIF cross country chamtionships will be held at Kamehameha on Oct 22 with the top two teams gaining an automatic berth along with the top 38 boys.

Honokaa, Waiakea, HPA, Hilo, Parker and Kamehameha will be gunning for one of those top two spots.

 

Honokaa Boys Cross Country Four Time BIIF Champions

4 time league champion Dragons

The Honokaa Boys cross country team has won the Big Island Interscholastic Federation team title 4 times and look to win their fifth title on Oct 22.

The Dragon boys were no where to be found this season in team scoring until the mighty dragon was awakened this past Saturday during a meet at Kamehamhea.

 

Kamehameha will host the BIIF championships and the Dragons appear to be peaking at the right time under Coach Josh Abner.

 

Four of their runners, Chayce Moniz, Tony and Robert Conners, and Alden Aguirre broke into the top 10 this past Saturday with Clayton Robinson being the all important 5th runner.

 

Waiakea had won all the  team scoring titles this season during the previous four meets and now faces a rejuvinated Dragon team who might be peaking at the right time and looking for their 5th league championship.

Knowing your BIIF cross country leaders – simple ID Quiz

Can you recognize each of the following photos?  They are all top three runners in the BIIF and anyone of them have the capability to win a cross country meet on any given Saturday:

Top 6 girls in the BIIF that can win a league meet on any given Saturday.

We’ll see what happens at Kamehameha with the young lady from Hilo saying this is her favorite course.

Any of these three guys on any given Saturday, with the young man on the far left given the advantage at the Kamehameha course.

Name all 9 and get a Big Dog paw print drawn on your forehead for all to see you are the best in BIIF cross country awareness.

For answers place your cursor on any photo – to win the big dog paw print no cheating!   Honor System please 🙂

Waiakea Boys, HPA Girls, perfect in BIIF cross country

Halford and Langtry

WAIMEA – The Waiakea boys and Hawaii Preparatory Academy girls kept their unblemished record intact on Friday winning team scoring during all schools Big Island Interscholastic Federation 3 mile cross country meet on Ka Makani home turf.

Leading the way for the Warriors was Jackson Halford while HPA had Emily Evans in the front of the girl’s completion.

Halford needed a late kick at the finish line to hold off a feisty Andrew Langtry from St. Joseph.

Both boys have exchanged BIIF victories during the season with each winning two meets.

“Andrew (Langtry) really pushed me hard today and I ran a lot faster than I would have if I ran on my own,” Halford said.

Halford led for most of the race before being challenged by a gusty Langtry in the final 150 yards of the race.

“He had me worried and he put up a great fight,” Halford said of his opponent.  “I had no idea he has such an awesome kick and it caused me to dig deeper for that little extra effort that made the difference.”

Halford won in a time of 18 minutes and 27 seconds, just .27 of a second ahead of Langtry.

“Jackson did great and I feel great because I was able to push him the entire way,” Langtry said after the race. 

Langtry allowed Halford to keep the lead for most of the race saying it was part of his strategy.

“I wanted to draft off him, and it was actually fun to do that,” Langtry said.  “I waited until the flat straight away to do my kick, but it was probably too late as I should have started the kick earlier.”

Paul Gregg

Parkers Paul Gregg surprised the crowd by taking third with Makua Lani’s Brandt Mabuni sneaking into a season high fifth place.

“I was more focused today than I’ve been the entire season,” Gregg said.  “My mental drive was better and I didn’t think about most of the people in the race and just tried to run my own race.”

Mabuni

For Mabuni, a senior, doing his final race at HPA of his four year harrier career may have made the difference.

“I decided to run for a greater cause,” he said.  “I ran in appreciation for all that I have and I’m hoping that today’s success is something I can build upon for the rest of my life.”

Absent from the top five leader board was Kamehameha’s Shawn Correa Doll.

“We tried something different today and asked Shawn to run with our teams pack,” Coach Ryan Cabalse said.

“Shawn has been injured for the past couple of weeks, so we asked him to relax during the first two miles and open up during the last mile,” Cabalse said.   “We want him to be ready for the BIIF championships and we didn’t want him to push too hard today.”

Waiakea won the team scoring with 69 points over a newly awakened and more focused Parker team with 98.

In the girls race it was HPA dominating from start to finish with their third different runner winning the overall individual honors.

Emily Evans

A smiling, jubilant, and what might have appeared to be happy carefree, Emily Evans, claimed her first victory in her young prep career.

“It was all about fun today,” Evans said of her smiling during the entire race.  “I was feeling good and I believe that we should be here to have fun or we shouldn’t be running.”

Evans was in eighth place at the halfway point in the race before passing runners going up the second and final steep hill in the back slopes of the HPA campus.

“I wasn’t thinking about winning and just tried to run my hardest, like I do in every race,” Evans said.

In second place was Ka Makani harrier Zoe Sims, who is making a comeback from an early season injury which saw her sit out for four weeks.

“I’m happy to be running again,” Sims said.  “I just wanted to run hard and have fun which is something the entire teams believes in.”

Sims held the lead for just past the half way mark with a host of other Ka Makani in hot pursuit.

HPA nearly had a perfect score, which is only accomplished in cross country when a team takes the top five spots.  But Waiakea’s Kelsie Kobayashi prevented Ka Makani harriers from the 15 point victory by claiming the fifth spot.

“I never thought about team scoring during the race,” Kobayashi said.  “I was just trying to run my best and to get use to the elevation.”

HPA coach Michael Franklin was impressed in seeing a fifth different girl in five weeks win top horrors for the league.

“Five winners in five weeks that’s the way it should be,” Franklin said.  “It’s good for cross country supporters and it’s good for the BIIF.”

Franklin also spoke about his decision to keep Sims out of competition for four weeks.

“Zoe stayed in shape by doing pool workouts and by riding the bike,” Coach Franklin said.

“We saved her from possible further injury so that she can be happy and healthy and be able to run and win races when she’s 60 years old,” he said.

When told about Coach Franklin’s saving her so that she can be running well into her 60’s Sims replied, “I expect to be running well into my 90’’s.”

“We don’t have any stars on this team,” Franklin said.  “We believe in team and the girls believe in that concept and that is why we are where we are.”

The BIIF season continues on Saturday, Oct. 8, with an all-schools meet at Kamehameha starting at 2:30 pm with the boy’s 3 mile race followed by the girls 3 miler.