Mililani girls, Kalaheo boys take OIA crowns
By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
NANAKULI —The only thing close in yesterday's O'ahu Interscholastic Association cross country championships was how Mililani High's girls crossed the finish line.
The Trojans' top four runners placed fifth through eighth, each at a hundredths of a second apart in capturing their second consecutive and sixth overall league title at Nanakuli High's campus. Mililani tallied 39 points to runner-up Moanalua's 70.
Meanwhile, Kalaheo's depth overcame Pearl City's three top-nine finishers in a 79-108 decision to win its first title since 1992.
Individual champions also put distance between their competition.
Newcomer Emily King, a junior at Moanalua, won the two-mile girls' race in 11 minutes, 39.8 seconds. Runner-up Kari Tanimoto, a senior at Pearl City, came in at 12:20.5.
King, a military dependent from North Carolina, said she pulled away from the pack at about the halfway point. She said North Carolina runs 5-kilometer (3.1 mile) meets, which explained her strong finish.
"I still push hard, though," she said. "When I cross the finish line, I feel like I'm in North Carolina and that I should be running another mile."
Radford sophomore Ryan Shell won the three-mile boys' race in 16:07.0, 34 seconds ahead of Pearl City sophomore Joseph Gonzales. He separated himself from Gonzales with about 400 meters to go at one of the downhills, which he said is his strength.
"There's a lot of uphllls and you can relax on the uphills," he said. "You can get'em on the downhills. That's when I make my moves."
Meanwhile, Mililani's girls showed their quality and depth.
Senior Deanne Soon was Mililani's highest finisher, taking fifth at 13:03.7 with Michelle Lee next at 13:04.6, Sara Mitman following at 13:05.6 and Megan Kanda placing eighth at 13:06.5. Even the Trojans' fifth scorer, Kara-Lee Maeda, placed 13th (13:27).
"We're never that close usually in a race," Soon said. "It happened we were all close together and we worked together. That probably helped us a lot."
Helping the Trojans take points from the competition were Christina Korodan (19th, 13:40) and Rachel McClay (35th, 14:13). That means all seven Mililani runners qualify for Saturday's state meet on Maui. (The top 61 girls from the OIA qualify for states.)
In the boys' race, Kalaheo's three medalists (top 20 finishers) — Ryan Hodges (7th, 17:19), Erwin Esperon (12th 17:39) and Patrick Nakagawa (13th, 17:42) — combined for more points (32) than Pearl City's top three (13), but it was the Mustangs' fourth and fifth scorers, Orrys Williams (21st, 18:00) and Drew Broderick (29th, 18:23) that made the difference. The Chargers' fourth and fifth runner placed 53rd and 54th.
"It was pretty unexpected," Hodges said. "We weren't sure we were going to win it at the beginning of the season (because of injuries). We felt we had to get the job done and we did it."
Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.
