Cross Country

Forty-five years later, the OIA has its first four-peat champion in girls cross country. Kalaheo, coached by Peter Jay and Stan Roth, made it four in a row on Saturday at the OIA Championships on the hilly terrain at Patsy Mink Central Oahu Regional Park. Kalaheo placed its top five runners in second, sixth, seventh, 14th, 20th and 28th places. The Lady Mustangs finished with 46 points to edge Kalani (60). Mililani (74), Radford (128), Kaiser (135), Moanalua (156), Roosevelt […]

In the blink of an eye, Shelby Tanaka has gone from elite cross country runner to mountain-moving coach. Hawaii Baptist Academy’s run to the ILH cross country championship on Saturday broke new ground for a program that Tanaka ran for just 11 years ago. The Eagles edged perennial powerhouse Punahou, securing their first league title since 2019. Senior Ashley Kodama led Hawaii Baptist’s fab five and placed third overall at 20 minutes, 42 seconds. Senior Caley Chun (20:52, fifth), senior […]

There’s no me in win, which is just how coach Jack Kuo likes it. ‘Iolani’s title in the ILH boys cross country championships at Mid-Pacific’s campus came with the same one-for-all ethos that has remained at the forefront. “That’s one of the special parts of this team. We don’t really know who our (first) five are. It was kind of hard to pick the seven. So deep, a lot of kids are deserving,” Kuo said. The young Raiders posted a […]

Twenty-two years is a long time. Ask any of the Mililani Trojans about the year 2000, and they weren’t even born yet. Mililani ended the drought on Saturday, winning the OIA boys cross country championship at Patsy Mink Central Oahu Regional Park. Their first five harriers placed in the top 13, and only one is a senior. Sophomore Payton Mukkada placed third overall with a time of 18 minutes and 16 seconds. Junior Robbey Navarro placed fifth (18:34), junior Luke […]

Connor Malinger tried running for his school team back in seventh grade. It was 2016. Five years and an eternity ago. “In seventh grade, I thought the season would never end. I had never gone to so many practices for so long. Cross country was definitely the most draining sport I had ever played,” said Malinger, now a member of two of Hawaii Baptist’s boys cross country championship teams. The senior ran the treacherous, cold, muddy course at the Honolulu […]

In the most difficult of conditions, a three-peat performance was epic for the girls of Hawaii Baptist Academy. At HBA, the “Chariots of Fire” theme song doesn’t play every morning on the intercom, but maybe it should. The Eagles’ growth in cross country over the years continues to peak. Not even the coldest, muddiest state championship meet in recent memory could stop them. When the HBA girls and boys arrived at the Hawaii Preparatory Academy campus on a rainy Saturday […]