Kaiser Cross-Country Invitational at C.O.R.P. - Girls

Saturday was cross-country day as usual. With 2 daughters running on the Iolani team, where else would I be?

The Kaiser Invitational was moved from Koko Head to CORP this year. Koko Head was never one of my favorite courses, so I was happy about this move. Also, the State Championships (and ILH Championships) will be held on this same course, so it was a good chance to get some experience on it.

With Lea Lundblad back on Maui and Jenna Wong running in the varsity division this week, Kimberly Pugliese of Mililani Intermediate was in the driver's seat in the Intermediate division. She won this 2-mile race in a time of 14:40 with Brie Adams of Maryknoll giving chase about 20 seconds behind. In the team competition, it was Ilima Middle School placing 4 runners in the top 10 and just edging out Mililani Intermediate by 3 points, 52-55.

This was my first real chance to get a feel for the quality of the OIA this year. Dayna Domingo of Pearl City opened my eyes wide in the JV division! She took off fast, built a huge lead, and kept it. She finished with a time of 22:37, almost a full minute ahead of 2nd place finisher Jessica Porter of Sacred Hearts. Dayna also led her Pearl City team to the JV Championship with 43 points to second place finisher Kamehameha-Oahu at 62.

In the girls varsity race, Julie Besenbruch (Maryknoll) continued her dominating season. Haley Abing was not there to give her usual battle so the gap to 2nd place was almost a minute. Julie's time was 20:27. Kristen Ali Keith (Mililani) was 2nd at 21:08, while steadily improving Malia Kagawa (also from Maryknoll) was 3rd at 21:16.

Team-wise it was all Seabury Hall with 50 points as Seabury placed 3 in the top 10, and all 5 scorers in the top 20. Mililani had 93, while Iolani had 109. Seabury was dominant in this race, but I'm not going to jump to a lot of conclusions here as Punahou's best runners were in California, while both Kamehameha and Iolani also had many key girls missing due to school functions, injury or illness. Punahou, in my book, is still the prohibitive favorite this year on the girls side. They not only have the quality, they have tremendous depth.