Harder Leads the Way as Royals Compete Well at Kualoa

The Hanalani Royals Cross-Country team competed in the 20^th annual Iolani Invitational held at Kualoa Ranch this Saturday, September 17. This was a huge meet, as 41 high schools competed in the 5,000 meter course, and 29 middle schools competed in the 2-mile course.

 

“This is a great meet, which tends to draw in schools from all over the state. We even saw some Maui schools, as well as California schools”, said Head Coach Jeremy Honold. “More competition gives us the potential to raise our competitiveness, which leads to fast times, which is exactly what happened today”.

Intermediate started off first. On the girls’ side, Railey Okamura led the way for the Royals, finishing in 87^th place with a season best time of 17:00. Okamura led the girls to a 13^th place finish. There were 164 runners overall.

For Intermediate boys, Christian Yagin was the first Royal’s finisher, crossing the line in 14:21 to take 79^th. Teammate Austin Oguma was close behind, finishing in 14:22 for 80^th place. It was a season best for Yagin, who led his team to a 15^th overall finish.

“Our intermediate runners did exceptionally well. A lot of season best times, and now we saw what a big, competitive meet is like. We treated this like a championship meet and they delivered”.

The next race the Royals were in was the Boys Open. With two runners in the race, both juniors Ariel Mercado and Patrick Mahimer ran to season best times. Mercado ran a 27:25, with Mahimer right behind in 27:31.

In the girls’ varsity race, Junior Jordan Pomeroy continued to lead the way, running a season best time of 20:44, good for 50^th overall. There were 166 runners overall. Pomeroy led her team to a 17^th overall finish.

“Can’t say enough good things about our girls,” said Honold. “Each one of them ran season best times today, and we are showing we can compete in the ILH. More importantly, they all showed a lot of fight, which is what we needed to see.”

On the boys’ side, Adam Harder broke the school record in the 5,000, crossing the line in 16:01. Harder finished 5^th overall, and was the first Hawaii finisher. Harder led the Royal’s to a 14^th overall finish. J Serra Catholic’s Anthony Grover won the race in 14:44, which is the fastest 5k in the nation this season.

“Adam did really well today. When you compete against the national leader, you can either shrink back or step up, and Adam did the latter. More importantly, the rest of our boys stepped up too. If you look at just the ILH standings, Adam and Ben Hodge led the ILH this weekend, which is a big step towards our goal”.

Full results can be found here.

Next Satuday, the Royals will compete against the ILH at Kamehameha Kapalama.