November 10

Deanne Soon leads the Mililani Girls to the OIA Championship
Photo by Edwin Alfaro
Advertiser Freelance Photogrpher

With a boost from three runners from their junior varsity, the Trojans raced to their first O'ahu Interscholastic Association cross country championship since 1996 yesterday at Nanakuli High.

McKinley senior Sheena Thain repeated as individual champion, completing the 2-mile girls' course in 12 minutes, 12.1 seconds. Runner-up Kari Tanimoto of Pearl City came in at 12:33.8.

Kahuku senior Ryan Orme, a transfer from Arizona, won the boys' 3-mile race in 16:31.5.

The top 20 individuals earned medals. The girls team champions, Mililani, earned five individual medals, while boys team champions landed four medalists. Winning teams received medals for all seven team members.

All five of the Trojans runners who counted in the team scoring are underclassmen. Three — sophomores Sara Mitman and Rachel McClay and freshman Christina Korodan — had competed in last week's JV meet. Mitman, who won the JV individual title last week, finished seventh (13:06.1), Korodan 11th (13:24.7) and McClay 13th (13:28.2).

"They did great, helped us a lot," junior Deanne Soon said. "Without them, we wouldn't be here."

Soon was the highest-placing Trojan, taking sixth at 13:02.8. The other junior, Megan Kanda, was 14th at 13:32.4. Also on the team was junior Kara Maeda and sophomore Michelle Lee. Mililani had 49 points.

Unlike the Trojans, the Rams boys were predominantly upperclassmen, led by senior Jeremy Winters. He took second to Orme, finishing at 16:41.3.

"We weren't ranked really high in the preseason," Winters said. "We just dropped a bomb shell, did as best as we could."

Seniors Andrew Maixner (3rd, 17:04.3) and Brian Venglar (11th, 17:41.6) and freshman Ryan Shell (12th, 17:42.1) also won individual medals. Junior Eric Venglar (21st, 18:07.5) just missed getting one by one place. Radford scored 45 points.

Meanwhile, McKinley's Thain was running behind Pearl City's Tanimoto and Radford's Elizabeth Schall for the first half of the race. Thain caught them on a downhill portion that starts the back mile. She used the same strategy as last year: relax at the start, then kick at the end.

"I'd say the first half was challenging because I was thinking of Pearl City and Radford, just kind of having doubts," Thain said. "But I just had to pull away in the second mile. That's all I was thinking."

Kahuku's Orme pulled away from Winters on an uphill at about the last quarter-mile of the course.

"I passed him right at the top of the hill," said Orme. "It was all downhill from there."

Added Winters: "I tried to stick with him. He pulled away. He wanted it a little more than I did."

Team: 1, Mililani, 49 points. 2, Pearl City, 66. 3, Castle, 109. 4, Kaiser, 123. 5, Radford, 127. 6, Moanalua, 131. 7, McKinley, 156. 8, Roosevelt, 193. 9, Kailua, 235. 10, Kalaheo, 245. 11, Waipahu, 268.

Individuals (top 20 awarded medals): 1, Sheen Thain (McKinley), 12:12.1. 2, Kari Tanimoto (Pearl City), 12:33.8. 3, Elizabeth Schall (Radford), 12:50.1. 4, Chimene Sienkiewicz (Pearl City), 12:50.5. 5, Natalie Chang (Kaiser), 13:02.4. 6, Deanne Soon (Mililani), 13:02.8. 7, Sara Mitman (Mililani), 13:06.1. 8, Rachel Sokugawa (Roosevelt), 13:08.2. 9, Shao Yu Lin (McKinley), 13:17.8. 10, Jessie Sur (Radford), 13:22.7. 11, Christina Korodan (Mililani), 13:24.7. 12, Lily Lam (Kalani), 13:27.0. 13, Rachel McClay (Mililani), 13:28.2. 14, Megan Kanda (Mililani), 13:32.4. 15, Jennifer Light (Moanalua), 13:35.8. 16, Blair Carbadilla (Pearl City), 13:36.3. 17, Aisha Young (Pearl City), 13:50.2. 18, Ann MIranda (Castle), 13:50.4. 19, Christine Nagano (Moanalua), 13:50.8. 20, Michelle Chiswick (Castle), 13:55.3.

Team: 1, Radford, 45 points. 2, 'Aiea, 71. 3, Moanalua, 99. 4, Leilehua, 144. 5, Roosevelt, 157. 6, Kaiser, 171. 7, Kalaheo 176. 8, Castle, 186. 9, Pearl City, 232. 10, Mililani, 234. 11, Kalani, 235. 12, Kahuku, 266. 13, Kailua, 357.

Individual (top 20 awarded medals): 1, Ryan Orme (Kahuku), 16:31.5. 2, Jeremy Winters (Radford), 16:41.3. 3, Andrew Maixner (Radford), 17:04.3. 4, Erik-Phoung Le (Roosevelt), 17:05.6. 5, Brett Asato ('Aiea), 17:29.0. 6, Stephen Meyers ('Aiea), 17:30.6. 7, Lewis Nakao (Kalani), 17:31.0. 8, Ehren Ching (Mililani), 17:33.5. 9, Zacarias Rivers (Leilehua), 17:33.9. 10, Rei Aizate (Farrington), 17:37.3. 11, Brian Venglar (Radford), 17:41.6. 12, Ryan Shell (Radford), 17:42.1. 13, Efren Domingo (Farrington), 17:49.4. 14, Ryan Moore (Moanalua), 17:54.5. 15, Andrew Low-Gallucci (Castle), 17:55.6. 16, Christopher Light (Moanalua), 17:56.2. 17, Erwin Esperon (Kalaheo), 17:57.4. 18, Curtis Hughes (Roosevelt), 17:58.1. 19, Brian Tanaka ('Aiea), 17:59.9. 20, Aaron Young (Castle), 18:04.4.

In a cross country meet turned survival test, the Kamehameha boys team overcame injury and the Iolani girls team fended off a relentless opponent yesterday.

Kamehameha's J.B. Bolson won the 3-mile boys race in 16:52. The Warriors overcame a disqualification and injury to win their third consecutive ILH title.

Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser

At Kamehameha Schools, the Warriors won their third consecutive Interscholastic League of Honolulu championship and the Raiders won their second consecutive title.

Both streaks appeared in jeopardy yesterday. Kamehameha was hit by a starting-line disqualification to one runner and suffered a key injury to another, while Iolani battled a favored Punahou team that had won nearly every race it entered this year.

But the Warriors rallied with their depth, and the Raiders pulled off their best performance of the season to defend their ILH titles. The Kamehameha boys finished with a low score of 46 points followed by Punahou (49), Iolani (51), Pac-Five (76) and Damien (145). The Iolani girls finished with 29 points followed by Punahou (39), Kamehameha (53), Pac-Five (123) and Hawai'i Baptist (138).

Kamehameha senior J.B. Bolson won the boys 3-mile race in 16 minutes and 52 seconds, while Iolani sophomore Nicole Anderson won the girls 2-mile race in 11:43. The top 10 finishers in the boys and girls varsity races were awarded medals.

Many league coaches considered yesterday's ILH championships a preview of the state championships on Friday at Central O'ahu Regional Park. The Kamehameha boys and the Iolani girls are defending state champions. Kamehameha has won five consecutive state championships.

Yesterday, Kamehameha boys coach Steve Jenness credited his runners for hanging in the race and not losing their composure.

"I'm pleased with the win," Jenness said. "I'm surprised that we had that many things go wrong and we still came up on top."

Iolani's Nicole Anderson won the 2-mile girls race in 11:43. She helped the Raiders win their second ILH title in a row.

Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser

Kamehameha runner Sam Wescoatt, the team's No. 2 runner, collapsed from heat exhaustion during the race and was taken to The Queen's Medical Center as a precaution, Jenness said. Wescoatt's status is "day-to-day" and the senior will be evaluated tomorrow for Friday's state championships, Jenness said.

Before he was driven away by the ambulance, Wescoatt told Bolson that he was "all right," Bolson said.

Bolson said Kamehameha's strategy was to stick with Iolani's top runner, Patrick Morrissey, who finished second at 17:04.

"We wanted to go out fast," Bolson said. "We wanted for our team to run in a pack."

The strategy worked and Kamehameha's third, fourth, fifth, six and seventh runners picked up the slack for the starting-line disqualification and Wescoatt's injury.

"Their quality runs so deep," said Punahou boys coach Michael Georgi. "They can make mistakes and survive."

"I like to believe our girls stepped it up today," Iolani coach Greg Char said. "This is by far the best race we had all season."

Iolani's Anderson set the pace early, taking the lead after about 400 meters. Anderson, who suffered her only loss this season to Punahou's Pippa Macdonald at the same site last month, said she was wary about the Punahou star. Kamehameha's Jessica Domingo finished second at 12:08 and Macdonald finished third at 12:12.

"Pippa's a very fast runner," Anderson said. "I ran as fast as I could and I hoped that would be good enough."

Punahou coach Duncan Macdonald said the Raiders' runners ran well as a team and praised the Iolani coaches for preparing the team. Macdonald said his team could perform better.

"Basically, we had an 'off' day and Iolani had an 'on' day," MacDonald said. "We hope to reverse that next week (at the state championships)."

Team: 1, Kamehameha 46. 2, Punahou 49. 3, Iolani 51. 4, Pac-Five 76. 5, Damien 145.

Individual (top 10 awarded medals): 1, J.B. Bolson (Kam) 16:52. 2, Patrick Morrissey (Iol) 17:04. 3, Jeremy Kamaka'ala (Kam) 17:12. 4, Satoshi Mitsuda (Pun) 17:13. 5, Owen Martel (Pun) 17:14. 6, Adam Mendez-Ancheta (Kam) 17:15. 7, Jon Yasuda (Iol) 17:26. 8, Tyler Tajima (Pac5) 17:37. 9, Peter Deptula (Pun) 17:37. 10, Tyler Chun (Iol) 17:49.

Team: 1, Iolani 29. 2, Punahou 39. 3, Kamehameha 53. 4, Pac-Five 123. 5, Hawai'i Baptist 138.

Individual (top 10 awarded medals): 1, Nicole Anderson (Iol) 11:43. 2, Jessica Domingo (Kam) 12:08. 3, Pippa Macdonald (Pun) 12:12. 4, Joleen Oshiro (Iol) 12:15. 5, Laura Melahn (Pun) 12:19. 6, Christi Morrissey (Iol) 12:21. 7, Megan Chock (Iol) 12:23. 8, Carly Killam (Pun) 12:29. 9, Katie Craigie (Pun) 12:30. 10, Maya Coelho (Kam) 12:36.

Team: 1, Punahou 31, 2, Iolani 57. 3, Hawai'i Baptist 82. 4, Kamehameha 85. 5, Pac-Five 106. 6, Damien 173.

Individual: 1, James Schulmeister (Pun) 18:18. 2, Michael Medoff (HBA) 18:24. 3, Danny Mills (Iol) 18:30. 4, Tommy Gill (Pun) 18:32. 5, Michael Wong (Pun) 18:37.

Individual: 1, Ame Uyema (Iol) 12:59. 2, Piper Marshall (Pun) 13:00. 3, Nicole Leong (Iol) 13:02. 4, Lara Malins (Iol) 13:13. 5, Kira Tamashiro (Iol) 13:33.

Team: 1, Iolani 37*. 2, Kamehameha 37. 3, Punahou 62. 4, Pac-Five 115. 5, Hawai'i Baptist 131. 6, Damien 190.

Individual: 1, Troy Yasuda (Pun) 11:12. 2, Jesse Moniz (Kam) 11:22. 3, Jay Kauka (Kam) 11:48.

Team: 1, Iolani 39. 2, Hawai'i Baptist 56. 3, Punahou 57. 4, Kamehameha 74. 5, St. Andrew's 147.

Individual: 1, Chelsea Oda (Pun) 12:27. 2, Lauren Ho (HBA) 12:54. 3, Sarah Medoff (HBA) 13:22.