On Saturday morning, the isle’s high school cross country runners will descend upon Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy to compete in the Central Pacific Bank/BIIF championship.
The day will see three races — a combined boys/girls open, and two gender-specific races.
It has been a highly competitive season thus far, especially on the girls’ side.
The reigning champions — Hilo High’s Vikings — have been excellent, led by the Halpern twins, Kekaihulali and Kekaimalino. At this year’s final regular season meet, Hilo’s Maya Schneider and Titahni Ka‘awaloa also placed among the top eleven individuals.
The twins come from an athletic lineage — as their older sister, Mehana Sabado-Halpern, was a record-setting track runner at Hilo and went on to compete in the NCAA track and field championships for Linfield University in 2017.
“The (Halpern twins) are pretty good,” Hilo head coach Bill McMahon said. “Hulali is experiencing a little more success than Malino, but they’re only juniors. There’s no telling what the next year and-a-half has in store for them.”
But, a dark (blue) horse entered the race — and beat Hilo last week by just five points, two minutes of total time and 23 seconds on average. That team was Waiakea High, which has been steadily becoming more and more of a dominant presence on the girls’ side of things throughout this season.
“We are fortunate, we’ve got a core group of returning runners that are leading our girls’ team,” Waiakea coach Lance Tominaga said.
Waiakea’s top girl has been Shanay Ha‘a, who led the Warriors at No. 5 last week. While Hilo’s top-four scorers (No. 1 Hulali Halpern, No. 3 Malino Halpern, No. 7 Schneider and No. 10 Ka‘awaloa) placed higher than Waiakea’s (No. 5 Ha‘a, No. 6 Sri Butz, No. 8 Nova Stickley and No. 11 Camile Megargel), the Warriors’ lower three runners of their top seven got WHS the win — all placing within the top 30.
“We’ve got two seniors in (Ha‘a) and Malia (Hill),” Tominaga said, “and we’ve got enough depth on the girls’ side to make it competitive. We’ve been fortunate to have the addition of (Megargel), who’s a freshman, our lone freshman in our top seven. They’ve been training really hard, and they’ve been working together in practice.”
There is, however, a third close contender for No. 1.
HPA’s girls have been a force all throughout the season — and at the last meet, closely trailed Waiakea (48 points) and Hilo (53 points) with 61 points and all of their top seven runners finishing among the top 30.
Ka Makani has been led by Wynter Radey-Morgan and Tiffany Ravaglia, who each placed among last week’s top ten — but grouping has ultimately been HPA’s strong suit.
“We have a lot of depth,” HPA girls’ head coach Kimo Higgins said. “No one on our team has won a race all year, we can’t compete with the Hilo girls — and Kealakehe is pretty loaded too — we just have a whole lot of solid performers. If we have any hope of winning, that’s where it’s from.”
Kealakehe, on the other hand, does have a chance of boasting an individual champion. The Waveriders’ Elisa Childers has been closely trailing Hulali Halpern all throughout the season — placing first at an early September meet in which the Halperns didn’t take part.
Things are a bit different on the boys’ side.
Waiakea has been absolutely crushing the compeitition. At last week’s meet, the Warriors scored 22 points — with six of their top seven placing in the top ten. For some perspective, Hilo placed No. 2 with 106 points and two runners in the top ten.
WHS’ Austin Mohica and Shane Tominaga are always far in front of the pack, rotating between first and second place at every meet this season.
The only other runner on the isle who has come close to keeping up with Mohica and Tominaga has been Hilo’s Nathan Hock, who has placed third at nearly every meet this season. Hock is half of Hilo’s second set of twins, as brother Henry also runs for the Vikings and consistenly places around the top ten.
“(The Hock twins) are both really, really good kids,” McMahon said. “Nathan is really a smart runner. He doesn’t go out fast, he just runs everybody down at every single meet. That’s a good quality to have, to not get too excited.”
The Warriors’ other top runners — Sebastian Ortiz-Bloom, Kiran Latewsky, Rogelio Doratt, Henry Huovinen, Rylan Colbert and Carlos Soto Centeno — are who really bring it all together for the Warriors, as no other team has managed to field a squad of seven or more that consistently all finish in the top 15 to 20.
“We’re asking them to continue to do what they’re doing,” Tominaga said. “We want them to run like the girls, in the way that the girls are focusing on trying to run together.”
Saturday’s setting will certainly keeps things interesting. HPA’s course is no cake walk, in fact, it is notoriously challenging.
“It’s probably one of the toughest courses in the state,” Tominaga said. “If you look back at the results every time the state meet is held at HPA, the winning time is minutes slower than when it’s on other islands.
“It’s a beautiful course. Our kids have a real love-hate relationship with it.”
Hills, high elevation, wind and a trail mostly comprised of soft grass and dirt make the course stand out among others.
Despite Ka Makani’s familiarity with it, Higgins does not believe his team has a home course advantage.
“I’ve been around a long time, and I think that’s a little overrated,” he said. “The course didn’t stop the Hilo girls last time. It helps in some ways, but moreso when O‘ahu schools come here and their mind’s blown when they see the hills — but the BIIF teams all know what they’re dealing with.”
Saturday’s championship will begin with the open race — with the starting gun scheduled for 9 a.m. The boys race will follow, then the girls.
