Brad and Greg Surh briefly clasped hands before older brother Greg gave Brad a tiny push to allow him to cross the finish line first.

It didn't matter to them or their Carlmont High teammates as both ended up winners at the eighth annual Iolani Cross Country Invitational yesterday at Kualoa Ranch.

"I asked him, 'Do you want to win this one?' " Greg, a senior said. "He said, 'Who cares.' I just let my actions speak louder than my words.

"Usually we're very competitive. But we saw we were really far out in front, and said let's just run freely without competition. That's the best way to run."

Led by the 1-2 finish, Carlmont won the boys varsity team race and Carlmont sophomore Justine Fedronic won the girls varsity race in the California school's first trip to the event.

Brad Surh won the 3-mile race in 16 minutes, 44.19 seconds, followed by brother Greg in 16:44.54. Castro Valley's James Fazzio was third in 16:52.16.

Brad, a junior, agreed with Greg that the brothers are usually more competitive, but he was looking to have fun in yesterday's race.

"I wish I ran faster," he said. "But we were running as a team, not individuals."

The Surh brothers were two of more than 1,000 participants in the meet, which included divisions for varsity boys and girls, junior varsity boys, open girls, and intermediate boys and girls races. An open race for coaches, parents and alumni was also held.

The meet drew teams from all five Hawai'i leagues, California, Virginia and Wisconsin. Watching the festivities was U.S. Olympian Alan Webb, who competed in the 1,500 in the 2004 Games and is the national high school record holder for the indoor mile (3:59.86), outdoor mile (3:53.43) and 1,500 (3:38.26).

Webb, who was helping out his former high school coach Scott Raczko of Oakton (Va.), which was also competing, said the course reminded him of the Virginia high school state meet course, which is also hilly.

"Racing in courses like this helps," Webb said. "I think I could've done pretty well (yesterday)."

Carlmont won the boys team race with low-best 18 points, followed by Lynbrook (Calif.) with 118 and Westfield (Va.) with 132. The Kamehameha boys were fourth with 145 points.

On the girls' side, Fedronic won by a comfortable margin over Maryknoll sophomore Julie Besenbruch. Fedronic finished the 3-mile race in 19:08.59, followed by Besenbruch in 19:34.81 and Carlmont junior Tamara Abinader in 19:47.20.

"It was fun. This place is so pretty," Fedronic said. "For the first little look I was in the front pack. And one of the girls got ahead by a lot. I passed her the second time going up the hill, but I thought the finish line was closer. At first I was really confused and I kicked too hard so I thought, 'Oh no.' "

Luckily, she had enough of a lead on Besenbruch to win.

Besenbruch was in third until about 600 meters left, when she saw a runner in front of her and decided to chase her down.

"I was in extreme pain, but I figured she was too," Besenbruch said.

Besenbruch said her mantra in the final mile of the race was: "Don't give up, concentrate, smile, and breathe."

Westfield won the girls race with 54 points, followed by Oakton with 60 and Carlmont with 97. Punahou was fourth with 103 points.

Iolani senior Kon Weber was the fastest Hawai'i runner in the boys race, finishing seventh in 17:20.77. Moloka'i senior Manu Adolpho followed in 17:30.50.

"The first mile I tried to keep up with them," Weber said of the lead pack. "I started to fall back and tried to hold the pace by myself."

Weber said his goal was to finish in the top 25, and planned to use the race as a gauge for the rest of the season.

"It's helpful, of course, to see the other Hawai'i runners," he said.

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com.