KEAAU – They went and ruined Sophia Cash’s preferred route to victory at Kamehameha.
Gone was a hill she enjoys, as well as some of the landscape she savors.
“I’m actually kind of sad,” Cash said Saturday. “I feel like I’m in my element on this course, and I’m just sad I can’t try out all the grass and the trees, and all the nature aspects if it.”
Her favorite parts of her favorite BIIF 5K changed, but that did little to alter the finish.
“It still worked out,” the Honokaa High senior said finishing first in 21 minutes, 36.56 seconds.
It usually does for the three-time cross-country champion, who got back on course toward possible BIIF history with her first victory of the season after an off outing last week at Hawaii Prep.
In the season-opener, Cash said her mind wasn’t right in finishing 13th, more than two minutes behind Kealakehe’s Leann Hamilton, who was second Saturday.
This time, Cash was seeing red, literally
“I was told I was going to meet the UHH coach (Jaime Guerpo),” Cash said, “so I guess in the back of my mind, I said, ‘OK, do all right. …’
“I met (the Vulcans team), they seem nice. I’m looking at them for college. I’m looking at a lot of colleges right now.”
She has a chance to head to college with a resume like none other.
According to BIIF records dating to 1972, no runner has pocketed four titles. Honokaa alum Tia Greenwell (2007-09) and Hawaii Prep’s Keri Ogden (2003, 04, 06) and Maile Wall (1974-76) won three crowns, as did Ka Makani’s Chris Carswell, including a tie in 1982.
It’s worth noting the cross-country season is effectively a series of six exhibitions ahead of the BIIF championships, Oct. 20 at Hawaii Prep.
There are varying opinions on how to treat the road leading up to Waimea.
“The next step is going undefeated all year,” Kealakehe sophomore Alec Ankrum said Saturday after winning for the second consecutive week. “That’s one way to definitely keep it interesting: goals, (personal records), stuff like that to keep you motivated.”
Ankrum matched his victory total from last season, and he’s changed his strategy to try and stay in front all season. He finished in 17:12.28, more than 70 seconds ahead of defending league champion Eric Cabais-Fernandez, a Waiakea senior who was the second BIIF runner to cross and third overall. Matt White of visiting Whittier (Calif.) Christian was second.
In 2017, Cabais-Fernandez picked up steam midseason as Ankrum trailed off a bit.
“Last year, I went out really hard and I tried to hold on as long I could,” Ankrum said. “I’m trying to go out a little slow and pick up as I go on.”
So he was happy to hang back for a while, pulled ahead a bit before the 2-mile mark, “and I kept building and never looked back,” he said.
“I would have gone out harder last year, and I would have gone out in front of Eric and I might have tired out,” Ankrum said.
By the mid-afternoon start of the boys race, the sun had tucked behind the clouds with a nice breeze, not that Ankrum isn’t used to running in the heat. He’s competed in a Lavaman relay as well as other 10K and 5Ks in West Hawaii, so “when it’s perfect like it is (now), it makes it so much easier.”
In fact, by Sunday, the meet was probably a distant memory to Ankrum and Hamilton, who planned to join Kealakehe coach Patrick Bradley at 7,500 feet of elevation off Saddle Road for a run of 45-50 minutes.
Those training sessions make a BIIF 5K seem “like nothing,” Hamilton said.
The junior finished almost six seconds behind Cash in what could be an interesting friendly rivalry to watch this school year on multiple fronts. Hamilton won the 800- and 1,500-meter BIIF track and field titles last season, though Cash relegated her to second in winning her third consecutive 3,000 final.
“I’m getting better and better,” Hamilton said of longer races, “so I feel like toward the end we’re going to be neck and neck.”
An added bonus for Hamilton is that she prefers the course at HPA.
“Everyone complains about the hill, but I really love it,” she said.
Hilo freshman Phebie Wyatt finished third in 21:53.19, a nice follow-up effort after taking second in her debut.
“She’s incredibly easy to work with,” Hilo coach Bill McMahon. “If you tell her to jump, she says how high.”
Looking for a BIIF repeat, the Vikings fared well for the second consecutive week, placing four runners in the top 12 (Alexia Palafox was ninth and Teijah Rosas and Cloud Rodin were 11th and 12th, respectively) and five in the first 23.
McMahon is definitely a coach who takes a long view on the season.
“We just want to analyze each race and figure out what our mistakes are and try and improve on that, so that at end of the season we can apply all that stuff,” he said.
Asked about his biggest takeaway Saturday, he went big picture, saying, “There is a big difference between HPA and every other course in the state.”
The fact HPA is hosting BIIFs this season perhaps will alter the way the Vikings train.
“I’ll say something metaphorical,” McMahon said. “I’ll just throw more body punches at my kids because HPA is a body-punch course.”
Waiakea’s boys posted the most impressive team performance, with junior Elijah Carigon (fifth), freshman Kederang Ueda (eighth) and junior Deylan Okinaka (10th) joining Cabais-Fernandez in the top 10 for the three-time BIIF champion. Magnus Namohala-Roloos was 13th as seven of the first 33 runners to finish were from Waiakea.
Kealakehe senior Jahren Simpliciano was fourth, while Hilo was led by junior Elisha Watlins in sixth. Vikings sophomore John Marrack didn’t run after finishing second at HPA.
“Waiakea, Hilo and (Kealakehe) should be back and forth all year I think,” Bradley said.
Cash is just glad the Dragons have a team.
Last track season she ran alone in track and field. Cash had a throwing teammate, but they never practiced together.
“I felt so lonely, I’m just grateful for my team,” she said. “I really love the team spirit.”
Cash came out of nowhere to win her first BIIF title at Kamehameha, and her sophomore crown at HPA was somewhat of surprise relative to the season’s results. Last year, she won at Kamehameha as a front-runner.
Teammates, no teammates, in front or behind, the circumstances don’t really matter.
Not even if they change the course on her.
“I have my ups and downs, but at the end of the day running is part of my life now,” Cash said. “I can’t really imagine my life without. Competition is a feeling that makes me feel alive.
“I just love it.”