‘Iolani’s Amanda Beaman repeated as the ILH girls cross country champion at Mid-Pacific Institute on Saturday, beating freshman Jordan Jones of Pac-Five.
Beaman, who was third in the event as a sophomore two years ago, covered the hilly course in 19 minutes, 25.55 seconds. Jones, a freshman who won the two previous ILH races, came in with a time of 19:39.14. Hennessey Ellis of Kamehameha was third in 19:46.40, followed by Punahou freshman Mia Schiel in 19:55.90 and Kailey Totherow of the Buffanblu in 20:04.99. Kai Hoshijo of Kamehameha was the top placing senior in eighth place.
Beaman beat Jones twice in the regular season, but they hadn’t raced against each other in a month. Jones races for Pac-Five but attends St. Andrew’s Priory.
The Raiders probably had Beaman’s points written in ink, but her teammates came up big to give the school the team title. ‘Iolani and Punahou both scored 43 points, but the Raiders won it on the tiebreaker. Kamehameha was third with 65 points.
Maya Ushijima (seventh), Jamie Tanaka (ninth), Marissa Miyagi (12th) and Zelda Cole (14th) brought ‘Iolani its points, with Kelsi Ikeda finishing a strong 17th to beat Punahou’s Sara Buck (19th) by more than 20 seconds to win the tiebreaker.
Kamehameha senior Kaeo Kruse beat senior teammate Kainalu Asam by more than 30 seconds to take the ILH title. Kruse, who was second at states last year, covered the course in 15 minutes, 59.14 seconds. Asam clocked a 16:36.58, with Thomas Adkins of Saint Louis (17:00.74), Punahou’s Connor Lehl (17:01.11) and Gordon Kowolkowski (17:10.84) of Punahou following them.
The 1-2 punch gave Kamehameha the team title by two points over Punahou 36-38. ‘Iolani was third with 79 points.
Grant Kam (sixth place), Kawika Jacang (14th) and Race Oshiro (15th) helped the Warriors to the victory.
