Gangnath Earns Seabury’s Third Consecutive Individual Win

By Ian Tsang For DyeStat

Once again, Seabury Hall proved itself to be Hawaii’s distance running powerhouse.

Despite the graduation of last year's champion, senior Chloe Gangnath managed to step up and claim the state title. She ran 19:20 for 5K to win the 2018 HHSAA State Championships at Central Oahu Regional Park.

Gangnath's win gives Seabury a third consecutive individual girls title and seven over the past 10 years. 

Running in overcast conditions and mild temperatures, Gangnath immediately took to the lead and by 800 meters had a sizable gap. From there, her lead only grew and she ultimately crossed the line nearly 50 seconds ahead of her closest competitor.

“I made it a point to get a strong start, and really work the uphills and stay light on the downhills. I wanted to really maintain that gap even on the hills. I’m very proud of my team this year because we overcame a lot of difficulties and they really put it all out there on their first states,” Gangnath said.

There was a battle for second as a big pack of runners eyed podium finishes. Leading the chase was sophomore Johanna Seng from Hawaii Baptist Academy. Seng was in second place for a majority of the race before eventually fading to sixth. Second and third place went to Island School’s Jaden De Souza and Gianna Sbarbaro of Le Jardin, in 20:08 and 20:09, respectively.

Punahou won the girls Division 1 title and Hawaii Baptist Academy took home the home the Division 2 trophy, ending Seabury's six-year win streak. 

On the boys side, Adam Harder of Hanalani won the individual title in 16:50. Harder was a pre-race favorite and was undefeated against Hawaii competition. His only loss was at the Iolani Invitational last month, where he faced mainland talent to and ran a personal-best 16:01 to take fifth.  

Behind him, Maui teammates Hunter Shields (16:59), Adam Hakola (17:09) and Damon Wakefield (17:14) went 2-3-4 to lead the Sabers to their first state title in cross country. 

“Going into the race our gameplan was to race how we’d raced all year, and trust that if we did so it’d be enough to win,” Maui High coach Jared Welch said. “The goal was for the top three boys to run together how they had in previous races. And our fourth and fifth boy had to be ahead of the fourth and fifth boy of our main competitor.”

Hawaii Baptist Academy won the Division 2 boys title.

MEET PHOTOS by Ian Tsang

Team Champions 

Division 1 -- Maui boys, Punahou girls

Division 2 -- Hawaii Baptist Academy boys, Hawaii Baptist Academy girls