Kamehameha seeks sixth straight boys cross country championship

By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

Kamehameha's hope of extending its boys state cross country championship for the sixth consecutive year is expected to meet some resistance in tomorrow's meet at Central O'ahu Regional Park.

The Warriors won their third consecutive Interscholastic League of Honolulu title Saturday, squeezing past runner-up Punahou and third-place Iolani. Besides the two ILH rivals, Warriors coach Steve Jenness said there are contenders from other leagues.

"Radford seems to be the team to beat," Jenness said. "They beat us three times this year. We've never beaten them. They have a really good one-two punch on top and they have depth."

He said that perennial Big Island power Hawai'i Prep also is a contender.

"One team you can never write off is Punahou," added Radford co-coach Ron Pate.

The Warriors are led by senior J.B. Bolson, the ILH individual champion (16 minutes, 52 seconds). Expected back is Sam Wescoatt, who was hospitalized with heat exhaustion at Saturday's ILH meet. But the Warriors got a strong effort from freshman Jeremy Kamaka'ala, who finished third (17:12), and senior Adam Mendez-Ancheta, who took sixth (17:15).

Bolson said a key for Kamehameha is running as a pack.

"It's a lot easier to run together in a group," he said. "There's a feeling of safeness, togetherness."

The Rams were strong in winning the O'ahu Interscholastic Association title Saturday, placing four runners in the top 12. Jeremy Winters (16:41) and Andrew Maixner (17:04) were second and third, and Brian Venglar (17:41) and Ryan Shell (17:42) finished 11th and 12th, respectively. The victory was long overdue for the Rams, who had placed second at a number of previous meets.

"We took second at Punahou Invitational, second at Mililani, second in (Western) Division," Pate said. "These second-places were getting old. I think second hurts more than finishing fifth or sixth."

Maui High also could pose a threat. It placed five runners in the top nine at the league championships.

Just like the team competition is up for grabs, so is the individual race. Kahuku's Ryan Orme, a transfer from Arizona, looked strong at the OIA meet (16:31), as did Radford's Winters. Other contenders are Maui sophomore Nick Jachowski, the Maui Interscholastic League individual champion, and Hawai'i Prep's Jared Chapman (18:17), the Big Island champion. Mario Rosa (17:51) of Island School is the Kaua'i Interscholastic Federation champion.

In the girls race, defending champion Iolani can expect a strong run from perennial power Punahou, Hawai'i Prep, King Kekaulike and Mililani.

King Kekaulike took five of the top seven places on Maui, including runner-up Chandi Bickford (12:37). Mililani, led by junior Deanne Soon (6th, 13:02), promoted three runners from the junior varsity to win the varsity title Saturday. Since the ILH ran all three levels of championships Saturday, some JV runners are expected to join the varsity for the state meet.

Iolani won the ILH championship, ending Punahou's season-long domination. Iolani sophomore Nicole Anderson, the ILH champion in 11:43, is a top contender for the state title. Other individual league champions were McKinley's Sheena Thain (12:12), Kapa'a's Sharlene Carillo (12:44), Waiakea's Tamarah Binek (13:46) and Lahainaluna's Caitlin McDonald (12:28).

Other contenders are Kamehameha's Jessica Domingo (12:08) and Punahou's Pippa Macdonald (12:12).

• Bowling correction: Mililani's boys won the OIA team championship. The Trojans' top regular season bowlers were Kellen Inafuku (203 average) and Darren Hidani (199). Teammate Colin Yoshimoto placed second at the OIA individual championships with 1,249 pins (208 average).

• ILH Volleyball: A three-team play-off will determine the Interscholastic League of Honolulu's second state tournament seed.

Punahou (10-5) will play La Pietra (10-5) at 5 p.m. tomorrow at Kamehameha. The winner will advance to play Iolani at 1 p.m. Saturday at Kamehameha. Saturday's winner gets the league's second state berth. All matches are in the best-of-three format, not best-of-five as in the second round.