Trojans, Rams claim OIA cross country titles
By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
For Mililani High's girls, the future is now.
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.
Meanwhile, Radford's veteran squad won its first boys' crown since 1998.
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 respective team champions landed four medalists apiece.
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. 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."
Girls Varsity (2 miles)
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.
Boys Varsity (3 miles)
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.
