Moanalua's Allen, Kalaheo's Otero win OIA cross country titles

Moanalua's Brooklyn Allen won the OIA Girls Varsity cross country individual title. Leighland Tagawa | SL

WAIPIO — Moanalua's Brooklyn Allen and Kalaheo's Colby Otero are this year's Oahu Interscholastic Association cross country varsity individual champions.

The 3.1-mile race was held on the muddy hills of Patsy T. Mink Central Oahu Regional Park with a total of 211 runners competing. The top 61 girls and top 63 boys in today's races booked their ticket to the Honolulu Marathon/HHSAA Cross Country State Championships next Saturday, Oct. 28 in Lihue, Kauai on the campuses of Island School and Kauai Community College.

Allen, a senior, finished the race with a time of 20 minutes and 42.35 seconds.

"It was a very intense race," said Allen, who is a first-year cross country runner. "I've heard a lot of bad talk about this course. The first time I ran it in the Eastern Division championship, I was terrified, but I won. Today, I was just as scared with all the other schools here. There's some great competition here but I pulled through and I got a better time than I did last time."

Even though it is only her first year running cross country, Allen has placed first in both the Eastern championship and today's OIA championship. She was also the fastest Hawaii runner at this year's Kaiser High School Invitational where she placed third, behind two runners from Dana Hills (California).

Allen has been a track athlete for Na Menehune and made the switch over to cross country to help the varsity girls team, who finished fourth with 101 points.

"I did track last year and got moved to distance," Allen said. "My coach wanted me to come out for cross country and told me that I'll do great. It's similar to track but it's a lot more intense. We don't have a track right now so we've been practicing at parks and around school."

Nanakuli's Caitlin Kawaiaea finished second with a time of 21:09.96 and Pearl City's Megumi Takushi took third with a time of 21:18.75. Both runners had finished No. 1 and No. 2, respectively at the OIA Western Division championship.

For the varsity girls team results, Pearl City placed first with a team score of 75. Leilehua placed second with a team score of 77 and Kalaheo placed third with a team score of 94.

Takushi, Ashley Hwang (21:41.73), Sasha Lee (22:31.96), Kaila Oshiro (23:24.89) and Kyrra Ogawa (24:10.76) were the top five finishers for the Chargers, all placing inside the top 40.

Kalaheo's Otero, a senior, won his first individual OIA title with a time of 16 minutes and 40 seconds.

"I'm feeling pretty good right now," Otero said. "I've been running my hardest and I'm just trying to keep the winning tradition at Kalaheo going."

Kalaheo has won the boys OIA individual title the past five years dating back to 2013 — Makai Clemons ('15) in 2013 and 2014, Avery Torres ('17) in 2015 and 2016.

Otero finished No. 4 in 2015 and at No. 2 in last year's race.

"I think he (Torres) definitely helped lay the foundation and pave the way for me," Otero said. "It's my senior year so I'm just going to go for it and try to win it all at states."