The looks on the faces of BIIF cross-country finishers during a sunny and sultry throwback Saturday at Waiakea painted a telling story.
Just strolling from the high school parking lot to the finish line by the middle school, one could tell this was no time for a leisurely, late-morning 5K run.
Some runners had looks of anguish, and others chose to laugh or cry away the pain.
One finisher turned to his teammate and, as they walked away, said, “This is worse than …”
Other BIIF courses?
Anything?
The opposite of heaven?
“Hottest race of the year,” Kealakehe sophomore Alec Ankrum said, “but since I’m in Kona it was pretty cool for me,”
Ankrum remained at the head of the pack with his fifth victory of the season, but the pack is getting closer.
On the girls side, Hilo’s pack was impenetrable, though there was a one visitor the Vikings couldn’t keep up with.
And another boys team contender may have revealed itself.
Here are some highlights of the fifth and penultimate regular season meet, which started and finished in the same spot as the course that was used for the 1997 state championships.
5 for 5
Ankrum was trailing slightly behind Waiakea’s Eric Cabais-Fernandez nearing the 2-mile mark, he estimated, but he again took advantage of his 2018 energy conservation strategy, pulling away from Cabais-Fernandez and Hilo sophomore John Marrack to win in 17 minutes, 41.13 seconds.
Ankrum noticed he was going out too hard, too fast last season, and by laying back this season he’s yet to be challenged near the finish line.
But the competition is closing, he said, and that’s just the way he likes it.
“Eric and John are both getting so much faster,” Ankrum said. “They are running harder. I think they are doing better, a lot better.
“I love it,” he said of his pursuit. “Competition is great. Just to be able to run with some guys, it’s really fun.”
Marrack is 4 for 4 in finishing runner-up – he sat out one race –and the closest he’s come to Ankrum was a 9-second difference Sept. 15 at Keaau.
“I just run as fast as I can, and Alec works really hard as well,” Marrack said. “Alec always gets me in the last half-mile, but we work together really well and push each other, and Eric is coming and coming and getting better, so we have three people now.”
Marrack said that while he runs as hard as he can each time out, the Vikings treat the six meets leading up to the BIIF championships Oct. 19 at Hawaii Prep as “training runs.”
“Then we’ll taper,” he said.
There will be two-week break between Saturday’s race at Kealakehe and BIIFs, and the course at Waimea offers a unique challenge.
“Oh that hill,” Marrack said. “That hill is very hard.
“Alec seems to really like it, he powers up it. I really like the downhill. It’s one steep uphill and the race is gradually downhill. It’s actually a very nice course.”
On Saturday, Ankrum can show off his home course for the first time this season.
“I’m planning on going out hard and pacing the whole meet,” he said.
One Spartan, many Vikings
A four-pack of Hilo runners already had separated from their BIIF competition for a loop around the track at Ken Yamase Memorial Stadium, but no one was catching Seabury Hall’s Chloe Gangnath.
The lone runner from Maui’s Spartans in the field, Gangnath crossed in 20:29.97, and it was more than a minute before Vikings Teijah Rosas, Phebie Wyatt and Cloud Rodin occupied spots 2-4.
“She was really fast,” Wyatt said. “Really lets us know what our competition is going to be.
“Really kind of pushed us. (She was) a total surprise.”
Rosas’ second-place finish marked the first time this season a Hilo girl paced the BIIF competition.
Team-wise, however, the defending champion Vikings continue to set the pace, putting four runner in the top 10 (Alexia Palafox was eighth), and seven in the top 29 – the top seven runners will be counted as point-scorers at BIIFs.
Wyatt, a freshman, said her 21:54.99 was close to a personal-best.
“I felt I pushed myself hard,” she said, though there is more to come. “I think we’re just going to keep working hard, pushing ourselves: hills, strength, endurance.”
New Warrior contender?
Waiakea is the three-time BIIF boys champion, and it got there with a long-term view.
“We’re building,” coach Mary Jane Tominaga said, “and we only focus on one race (BIIFs). Every thing else is building up to that.”
It should be noted, however, that Kamehameha topped the boys team total for the first time this season with five runners in the top 25, highlighted by Trey Tina in fourth and Carlos Masuko in eighth. If the top seven runners had been scored, Hawaii Prep’s total would have been lowest. Ka Makani’s Valentinas Ulinas was fifth.
Included in the building category is Cabais-Fernandez, who won BIIFs as a junior in 2017.
“Eric is still working his way back in,” Tominaga said. “Credit Alec and John for figuring out a certain way.
“Eric is hoping he be working closer to Alec and John, which he has done.”
At BIIFs, Waiakea would love to duplicate the roaring success of last season, when public-school Warriors represented seven of the top 16.
“They definitely are working on closing in and linking in together,” Tominaga said. “What we like is there is a lot of athletes that are stepping up and cracking that top seven.
“The girls are working together, too. Not like Hilo, they’re definitely the team.”