Kamehameha’s Kaeo Kruse ran the fastest three miles since the beginning of the Honolulu Marathon/ HHSAA state cross country championships on the Seabury Hall campus on Saturday.
But times are hard to compare given different courses and weather conditions. One thing that is indisputable, though, is that Kruse towered over his peers more than anyone since the event began in 1965.
Only five other boys have won a race by more than a half a minute, with Kalaheo’s Shawn Nixon holding the largest margin before Kruse came along at 46 seconds in 1993.
Matt Stevens won three races by more than 40 seconds for Hawaii Baptist in 1995-96 and Castle’s Curt Mench won by 42 in 1969 when the race was two and a half miles.
Kamehameha has now won four races in a row with Davis Kaahanui preceding Kruse, who finished 24th as a freshman and second to Kaahanui as a sophomore.
Largest margin of victory
2015 Kaeo Kruse, 53
1993 Shawn Nixon, Kalaheo, 46
1996 Matt Stevens, Hawaii Baptist, 44
1995 Matt Stevens, Hawaii Baptist, 43
1994 Matt Stevens, Hawaii Baptist, 43
1969 Curt Mench, Castle, 42*
2012 Davis Kaahanui, 31
2005 Jeremy Kamakaala, Kamehameha, 31
2007 Bryce Jenkins, Leilehua, 30
* two miles
As fast as he was, Kruse wasn’t fast enough to bring Kamehameha its fourth team title.
‘Iolani took that away from the Warriors, winning for the first time since 2005.
Royce Garcia led the Raiders with a fifth place finish, followed by Jason Wang in 16th, Nicholas Arima in 18th and Tyler Ebisuya in 20th and Tyler Wong in 26th.
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Beaman brings it
This fall sports season has been about ‘Iolani girls joining the elite, and Beaman was no exception.
The Raiders won the ILH in volleyball for the first time since 2001 and the competitive cheerleading team took the ILH for the first time on Friday night.
Saturday morning it was Amanda Beaman’s turn. The senior added a state cross country championship to the state track title she grabbed last year.
Beaman finished second to Lisa Tashiro of Kaiser last year and was runner up to Seabury Hall’s Dakota Grossman the year before that but got her victory against a field deeper than either of those two had to contend with.
How deep was it?
Lisa Tashiro raced yesterday and challenged Beaman early but struggled to a 19th-place finish in the deep field. She was 26 seconds slower than her time at the OIA championships last week at CORP. Pac-Five’s Jordan Jones, the ILH runner up, finished even farther back.
Punahou won the team title yet again behind Teri Brady’s runner up finish.
It was Punahou’s ninth title in 10 years and coach Duncan Macdonald’s 12th as a coach to go with the two individual titles he won as a runner.
Noelani Obermeyer helped Punahou’s cause with a third place finish, followed by Mia Schell in 10th, Mikayla Fujiwara in 16th, Maiya Fujiwara in 18th, Kailey Totherow in 23rd and Claire Cutler in 24th.
Great Article! Congrats to all, though you forgot to mention Punahou’s Teri Brady coming in second place.
oops, sorry Tom, I will add it now. It was actually all I of the stuff I had to cut out of the newspaper version and i didn’t add Teri.