Louie Ondo and Mehana Sabado-Halpern are undefeated no more, but they’ve added another shiny medal to their collections: state bronze.
The dominant Big Island Interscholastic Federation runners each held on Saturday to place third at the Hawaii High School Athletic Association cross-country championships at Central Oahu Regional Park.
It was fitting that Ondo, a Waiakea junior, and Sabado-Halpern, a Hilo senior, finished in the same spot. They rarely found competition in going 7-for-7 in BIIF races this season, but they had to fight off challenges at states.
Sabado-Halpern finished her 3-mile race in 19 minutes, 18.2 seconds, just one one-hundredth of a second ahead of St. Andrew’s Jordan Jones. Kaiser’s Lisa Tashiro (18:59.9) won the championship, with Iolani’s Amanda Beaman second.
Ondo’s 16:19.7 was a little less than a second better than Kamehameha-Kapalama’s Kainalu Asam. The Oahu Warriors’ Kaeo Kruse claimed gold in 15:38.2, while Kalaheo’s Makai Clemons (15.55) was runner-up.
Kealakehe’s Ziggy Bartholomy and Kohala’s Josiah Adams finished eighth and 10th, respectively, and Bartholomy helped the BIIF champion Waveriders place ninth in a team race that was won by Kamehameha-Kapalama, which secured a three-peat.
Kealakehe’s Thunder Frost (13th), Hilo’s River Brown (17th) and Hawaii Prep’s Nate Ladwig (18th) nabbed top-20 finishes, while Keaau’s Carlos Valdez was 23rd.
The highest BIIF girl behind Sabado-Halpern was Kealakehe’s Keili Dorn in 28th.
The Punahou girls ruled at the HHSAA run for the ninth time in the past 10 years. Their only blemish during that span came when Hawaii Prep broke through at states in 2011. On Saturday, Ka Makani were ninth, led by Savannah Cochran (42nd) and Ada Benson (43rd).
Other BIIF runners in the top 50 were Konawaena’s Olga Brocks (48th) and Waiakea’s Saya Yabe (50th), and Kamehameha’s Kaimiola Ho (31st), Konawaena’s Cody Ranfranz (39th), Keaau’s Jeffery Farrell (47th), Hawaii Prep’s Kelii Van Kirk Hawaii Prep (48th) and Waiakea’s Slater Inouye (50th).