BIIF 1500 meter results – Kohala’s Osorio wins first race

Mary Jo Osoria wins 1500

Girls 1500 Meter Run

 BIIFQualify: B 6:24.00                                                       

  HHSAA Auto: A 5:08.34                                                       

  HHSAA Cons: C 5:26.24                                                       

1 Mary Jo Osorio            SR Kohala                  5:41.84B  10  

  2 Shalila de Bourmont       JR Hilo                    5:42.76B   8  

  3 Veronica Ladwig           FR Hawaii Prep             5:44.16B   6  

  4 Hildhang Adona               Honokaa                 5:48.62B   4  

  5 Kaylee Rapoza             SO Hilo                    6:00.04B   2  

  6 Tiana Iwata               FR Kamehameha HI           6:04.51B   1  

Boys 1500 Meter Run

BIIFQualify: B 5:20.00                                                     HHSAA Auto: A 4:19.64                                                        HHSAA Cons: C 4:29.94                                                       

  1 Shawn Doll                JR Kamehameha HI            4:38.11B  10  

  2 Jordan Grotenhuis         SO Christian Libert         4:38.18B   8  

  3 Geoff Whitener               Kealakehe                4:39.57B   6  

  4 Seth Halcomb              JR Konawaena                4:46.83B   4  

  5 Wayne Pavao               SR Keaau                    4:46.94B   2

  6 Ryuta Yoda                SO Hawaii Prep              4:53.87    1   

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Honokaa Boys Dominate BIIF Cross Country All Star selection

Mosch, Robinson, Moniz

All-BIIF Cross Country

BOYS    First team       Name – Grade – School

Chris Mosch Sr. Honokaa
Josh Robinson Sr. Honokaa
Chayce Moniz Jr. Honokaa
Jesse Tarnas Jr. Parker
Tyde Kaneshiro Sr. Hilo
Jackson Halford Jr. Waiakea
Jordan Grotenhuis So. CLA

Second team        Name – Grade – School

Andrew Langtry So. St. Joseph
Geoff Whitener Sr. Kealakehe    Robert Connors Jr. Honokaa       Billy Ray Sr. Hilo       Tony Connors Fr. Honokaa
Rick Michels Sr. Hilo                    Daniel Gregg Sr. Parker

Coach Abner

Honorable mention: James Clubbs (Keaau); Matt Crowell (Hilo); Shawn Doll (Kamehameha); Andrew Dong (Makua Lani); Hajime Hayano (Waiakea); Colton Hill (Kamehameha); Kaulana Ho (Kamehameha); Steven Hunter (Hilo); Kaulana Keaunui (Pahoa); Brandt Mabuni (Makua Lani); Justin Macy (HPA); Brandon Mah (Honokaa); Williamson Marshall (Waiakea); Logan Martin (HPA); Kevin Olsen (Keaau); Wayne Pavao (Keaau); Doug Phillips (Ka’u); Daylan Requelman (Laupahoehoe); Keoni Rice (Waiakea); Michael Rogerson (HPA); Dylan Shiraki (Honokaa); Charles Tolentino (Pahoa); Devin Vandervoort (Makua Lani)

COACH OF THE YEAR:  Josh Abner, Honokaa

HPA Girls Take Second at HHSAA Cross Country Championships

Michael Franklin

HONOLULU – An excited Hawaii Preparatory Academy cross country coach could hardly keep from running his own race at the Hawaii High School Athletic Association cross country championships held at the Patsy Mink Central Oahu Regional Park on Thursday.

“I was jumping up and down at the end of the race that I lost track of some of our kid’s placements,” HPA Coach Michael Franklin said after the race.

Punahou won the girls title for the sixth year in a row with HPA finishing in the runner up position.

“It went great for our seniors and I’m proud of all of them,” Franklin said.  “This was our best race ever today as we probably got four of our girls in the top 20.”

Franklin also had high praise for his freshmen.  “I couldn’t be happier as they all stepped it up today.  Our freshmen did great and I am extremely pleased with the entire team’s performance,” Franklin said.

Ka Makani harrier Zoe Sims and Kela Vargas led the charge for HPA as they’ve done all season long.

“It was a great race and I was better prepared for this year compared to last year,” said an excited Sims of her seventh place finish.

“Kela (Vargas) and I were together almost the entire race, but it wasn’t planned that way, it’s just the way it worked out,” Sims said.

Vargas, a senior, improved on last year’s 14^th place finish by coming in eighth place which helped propel HPA into a solid overall team finish.

“It must have rained last night because a portion of the course was muddy,” Vargas said.  “This was the fourth year that I ran at a state meet and this was by far my best race.  It feels good to be going out on top.”

Included in the top 50 for HPA was freshman Kristiana Van Pern, 14^th, Emily Evans, 17^th, and Mariah Haight, 34th.

Punahou won their sixth consecutive girls state championship, placing six of their seven girl’s in the top 19 spots. (The top 20 girls and boys are awarded medals.)

  But it was freshman Dakota Grossman of Seabury Hall that claimed top individual honors making it the second year in a row that a freshman girl has taken the top spot.  Last year Punahou’s Elli Brady won the overall race as a freshman.  Brady finished second overall this year.

“Punahou definitely won the team title,” Franklin said shortly after the race.  “They were really strong up front, but I’m hoping our team got a top three finish.”

Other BIIF girls breaking into the top 50 were Honokaa’s Tialana Greenwell, 23^rd, Hilo freshman Carmen Garson-Shumway, 35^th, and Waiakea’s Kelsie Kobayashi, 50^th.

Besides HPA’s second place girl’s team finish Hilo took 12^th and Honokaa was 13^th.

In the boys three mile race it was Big Island Interscholastic Federation Champion, Chris Mosch of Honokaa leading the way.

Mosch stuck with his game plan of not going out too fast in the early going and found himself in 10^th place at the first mile marker.

“I hit the first mile at a 5:28 pace,” Mosch said.  “I was trying to keep a pack of three guys within striking distance as they were 20 to 30 yards ahead of me.”

Mosch improved on last year’s state finish of 14^th place when he crossed the finish line in 9^th place.

“I didn’t have that extra gear during the second half of the race to reel those guys ahead of me in,” he said.  “I’m a little disappointed, but it was a great season for me overall.”

Parker’s Jesse Tarnas (28^th) finished in the top 30 and was extremely pleased with his performance.

“Last year I was 82^nd overall, so this is a big improvement for me,” Tarnas said.  “I liked the course, but it was really hot and humid and the weather seemed to have affected everyone differently.”

Tarnas led the Bulls to a BIIF team runner up spot which allowed Parker to bring their entire seven man squad to compete at the state championship and as a result the team had a seventh place finish.

Leilehua senior and the defending state champion Margarito Martinez had a close battle with Island School’s Pierce Murphy (the state runner up last year and third this year) and Kamehameha-Oahu’s Jordan Thibodeau (second) with Martinez retaining his individual crown.

Other BIIF boys breaking into the top 50 besides Mosch and Tarnas were:  Waiakea’s Jackson Halford, 24^th; Parker’s Daniel Gregg, 32^nd; Christian Liberty’s Jordan Grotenhuis, 34^th;  Honokaa teammates Joshua Robinson, 38^th; Chayce Moniz, 42^nd    and Shawn Correa-Doll, 46^th; Kamehameha-Hawaii.

Kamehameha-Oahu successfully defending their team crown with Leilehua taking second.  The top BIIF scoring teams were Honokaa, 5^th; Parker 7^th, and HPA 14^th.

HPA Girls – Honokaa Boys Dominate BIIF Championships

Three times BIIF champions, the powerful Ka Makani ladies

WAIMEA – Déjà vu!  If you were at the Big Island Interscholastic Federation cross country championships on Friday you weren’t having a reoccurring flash back from the past.

What you did see was the running dynasties of a talented Honokaa boys and Hawaii Preparatory Academy girls’ team both win another BIIF team crown.

Honokaa’s Chris Mosch led a powerful Dragon squad to their fourth consecutive team title and Mosch has the bragging rights to being the only member of the squad to pocket four BIIF medals.

“I feel good and well rested today,” Mosch said before the race.  “I’m out here to run my own race and to run as fast as I can.  I feel a little pressure, but confident that things will go well.”

Chris Mosch

On Friday Mosch went out quickly and took a commanding lead to also grab his second consecutive individual title on the hilly foothills of HPA’s sprawling campus. 

“The pace of the race was really fast as Jesse (Tarnas from Parker) and the CLA kid (Jordan Grotenhuis) went out quick and me and Josh (Robinson) stayed back during the first half mile,” Mosch said.

Dragon teammates, Mosch and Robinson began to separate from the rest of the field after climbing HPA’s first steep hill.

“On the second trip over the large hill my dad yelled at me that I had a 30 to 40 yard lead over Josh,” Mosch said.

Mosch won the race in 17 minutes and 37 seconds with Robinson 10 seconds behind.  The real surprise came when Dragon teammate Chayce Moniz finished third overall.

“My goal going into the race was to stay with Chris (Mosch) for as long as I could and to keep him in range,” Robinson said.  “I was shooting to win the race, but if anyone was going to beat me it was going to be Chris.”

For Moniz this was a dream race come true.

“We bet our science teach, Mr. Dan Whetstone, that if we finished one, two, three that he would shave his head,” Moniz said.  “Looks like we’re going to have a bald teacher at school on Monday!”

The Honokaa boy’s team ran away from the rest of the BIIF schools scoring just 26 points in route to their 4^th title.  Brothers Robert (10^th) and Tony Connors (12^th) rounded out the team scoring for the Dragons.

Honokaa head coach, Josh Abner, had high praise for his high flying Dragons.

“I like to think that we have a bunch of hard working people,” Abner said.  “This is a dynamic group of amazing kids and each one has a special place in my heart.”

Parker Coach Ceri Whitfield

Another surprise came when Parker School finished second in the team scoring which will allows their entire boys team to run at the HHSAA championships on Oahu.

“This is the most incredible thing I’ve ever done,” Parker Coach Ceri Whitfield said.  “We really worked very hard and I am one proud coach.  We knew we were improving each week and we put the challenge out to the boys.”

In the girl’s team and individual competition it was all HPA dominating from start to finish.

Ka Makani Kela Vargas, Zoe Sims, Emily Evans and Kristiana Van Pernis ran away from the rest of the field taking the top four overall places with teammates Mariah Haight, Sam Neal and Hana Scully finishing 7^th through 9^th respectively.

HPA won their third consecutive team title and fourth out of the last five years under head coach, Michael Franklin.

“This is what I expected today from our team,” Franklin said.  “They overwhelmed me as individuals and I’m very proud of them.”

“My goal was to just go out and help my teammates,” Kela Vargas said after winning the individual BIIF crown.  “We try to push each other and we don’t want to disappoint each other so we just try to run our hardest.”

BIIF runner up, Zoe Sims, also had high praise for her team saying, “We’ve grown a lot as a team and we love each other so much that we did it for our team.”

Tia Greenwell

The girl’s race started with Honokaa’s three times defending BIIF champion, Tialana Greenwell, going out fast and pushing the pace.

“I came into the race feeling confident and I wanted to get away from the pack early on,” Greenwell said.  “But Zoe (Sims) and Kela (Vargas) kept up with me and eventually passed me.”

Greenwell, who had been hampered by nagging injuries, had her best race of the season and finished fifth overall.

“I’m happy that I finished in the top five and I hope this will carry over to states next week,” she said.

Greenwell and Waiakea’s Kelsie Kobayashi were the only BIIF runners to infiltrate a powerful onslaught by Ka Makani harriers, with the Warrior taking sixth overall.

“I wasn’t happy with today’s race as I thought I could have done better,” Kobayashi said.  “I was hoping to break into the top three, but I just couldn’t keep up with the HPA girls.”

The Honokaa girls, like the Parker boys, surprised everyone with their second place team finish which allows the entire seven person squad to run at the state championships on Thursday, Oct 28^th.

“We were shooting for a second place team finish,” Honokaa Coach Abner said.  “This was a hell of an accomplishment and our highest team finish all season.”

Joining the top two boys and girls teams going to the state championships the BIIF also sends the top 23 individual boys and 22 individual girls.

Ramirez outkicks Vargas to remain undefeated in BIIF

Ramirez takes a break after close victory

Waimea – The battle for girls fastest cross country runner in the Big Island Interscholastic Federation took another turn this past Saturday as Hilo’s Nadia Ramirez and Hawaii Repertory’s Kela Vargas fought it out to the finish.

In what was a near photo finish Ramirez used her overpowering kick to narrowly eclipse Vargas at the finish line.

With less than 100 yards to go both Ramirez and Vargas were shoulder to shoulder with faces in obvious grimacing pain as both harriers fought valiantly to win the contest.

“For the first time in my racing career I thought, I don’t want to come in second,” Ramirez said after the race.  “I realized today that I have far more potential than I thought I had.”

Ramirez (20:48.67) and Vargas (20:49.02) hit the tape with less than a half second dividing them with Ramirez remaining undefeated in BIIF competition.

“Oh my God, this was the most intense thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Ramirez said of her narrow victory. 

Ramirez, who normally goes out fast and distances herself from the rest of the BIIF field, was challenged the entire way by Vargas as both girls exchanged the lead twice during the race.

Kela Vargas

“I just pushed really hard and I tried to close the gap.  I felt comfortable on our home course and it was my intention to try to win this race,” Vargas said.

The HPA girls were just coming off a major win in Honolulu the week before as they won the Kaiser Invitational race on what is to be the state championship course.

“Our team has bonded well together and we’re working hard and pushing each other to do well,” Vargas said.

Zoe Sims

Third place went to another Ka Makani as Zoe Sims edged out Waiakea’s Kelsie Kobayashi at the finish line.

“Kelsie and I played leap frog for most of the race,” Sims said.  “I’m happy with how I ran today and I had a lot of fun.  We’ve been training hard and growing as a team.  We knew we would have great competition today and we were prepared to do our best.”

The HPA girls used home field advantage to win their first BIIF team title of the season bumping off previously unbeaten Hilo.

Michael Franklin

“We’ve been bringing along two freshmen in our top seven runners and we’re starting to gel as a team,” HPA coach Michael Franklin said.  “Kaiser was all positive for us and it was good to see us compete against good teams from Oahu.”

For the boys it was all Honokaa’s Chris Mosch who led from start to finish and was never seriously challenged during the 3 mile race.

Mosch, the defending BIIF champion, had been hampered by a stress fracture he received at the end of the track season in May and appears to be totally recovered.

“I wanted to take it easy in the early going and not go out too hard,” Mosch said.  “I ran my first mile in 5 minutes and 30 seconds and I knew I couldn’t keep that pace on this hilly course.  My goal coming in was to break 18 minutes.”

Mosch met his goal by breaking the tape in 17 minutes and 48 seconds with the rest of the field more than 30 seconds behind.

Jackson Halford

The real surprise came from runner-up Jackson Halford (18:08) from Waiakea.  Halford was rarely seen in the top 10 during the season, but at HPA had a break through race.

“HPA is my favorite course because of the big hills and the altitude,” Halford said.  “I live in Volcano at the 4000 foot elevation and it helped me do well here today.”

Halford also credits his intense training schedule for his late season blooming.

 “We’ve been putting in the mileage and have started doing hill work last week.  Today’s finish gives me a big boost in confidence especially since the BIIF championships will be held on this course.”

In third place was Christian Liberty Academy’s Jordan Grotenhuis (18:18) who followed closely behind Halford.

Jordan Grotenhuis

“I made it my goal to get in the top three today since I won’t be at Kamehameha next week,” Grotenhuis said.

“I started this race in 10^th place as I just wanted to see how the race would pan out.  I didn’t want to go out too fast at the start and didn’t want to push myself in the early stages of the race,” he said.

After the first half mile and before going into the steepest portion of the race Grotenhuis moved himself into fourth place.

“At one point I tried to catch Jackson (Halford) but I couldn’t so I just tried to keep my pace and not let anyone pass me,” Grotenhuis said.

The strategy worked for the Canefire harrier as Grotenhuis, a sophomore, finished in third just five seconds behind Halford.