Kamehameha's Kaeo Kruse won the boys division of the Kaiser Invitational with a time of 15:30.38, more than 40 seconds faster than his nearest competitor. Kalani Takase | SL

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WAIPIO — Just as he did nearly 11 months ago, Kaeo Kruse was the first boy to cross the finish line at Patsy T. Mink/Central Oahu Regional Park.

Kruse, a Kamehameha senior and the reigning individual cross country state champion, coasted to victory at the Honolulu Marathon/Kaiser Invitational Saturday morning. His time of 15 minutes, 30.38 seconds left the rest of the field in the three-mile race in his dust.

"I feel good about my time," said Kruse, who bettered his time of 15:38.2 from last year's state meet held at the same site. "It was faster than my time last year, so I'm pretty stoked about that. There's slight changes, but it's pretty much the same and this course can get you. There's some hills that don't seem too bad until you complete the full mile and then it gets a little harder, but this course is always tough and to come out here and win is a great opportunity."

Iolani's Royce Garcia was second in a time of 16:17.33, Kalaheo's Avery Torres third in 16:19.64, Kapolei's Patrick Beter fourth in 16:27.13 and Iolani's Nick Arima rounded out the top five finishers with his mark of 16:37.43.

Torres kept Kruse in his sights for most of the first mile or so, but couldn't keep up once they made the turn to the second lap.

"Probably after the first mile I started to get a gap and then it just expanded, but the main thing is that when you get a gap to push harder so that it expands and once that happens you're kind of by yourself and it's hard to approach, but you know that you're in a good spot and you've got to keep going for it," Kruse said.

Kruse was a clear-cut favorite to win the race — and to repeat as state champion come late October — but didn't see it that way Saturday.

"I didn't come out here really expecting (to win), because you never know what's going to happen, but I knew that Punahou was at (the) Stanford (Invitational, in California), so I just wanted to come out here and try my best to beat my time from states last year," Kruse said.

Despite the wide margin of victory, Kruse said he wasn't at his best.

"My legs kind of felt like a little locked, but it was a good effort and just to be able to do with my team and come out here and show what we're made of was great," said Kruse, who is also the reigning two-time boys' 3,000-meter run track and field state champion and holds the state-meet record in the event, which he set as a junior. "The weather was really nice here at CORP. It was kind of breezy, but not too bad and then it was pretty cool because it was overcast."

Meanwhile, Pac-Five's Jordan Jones posted her second strong showing in as many weeks, winning the girls' race in a time of 18:22.5. Jones, a sophomore at St. Andrew's Priory, finished more than 18 seconds better than her nearest competitor.

The Mililani duo of Lauren Gibbs (18:40.64) and Vanessa Roybal (18:44.54) were second and third, respectively, while Seabury Hall's Ava Shipman (19:03.74) and Radford's Marykate Moloney (19:06.79) rounded out the top five individual finishers.

"It was a great race," said Jones, who finished fourth in last year's state championships with a time of 19:18.29. "It was really exciting. There's ust a lot of great competitors here, especially since the OIA and ILH were together, so it was a tough race."

Jones said she had felt comfortable running the race, thanks in part to the familiarity of the course.

"It was almost similar," Jones said, referring to last year's state meet. "There was only one part that was a little bit different, but I think we all knew where to go. I don't think there was any kind of confusion because it was the same as states."

Mostly, she wanted to make the best of the opportunity to run against some of the state's best harriers from all five leagues statewide.

"Yeah, I really wanted to take advantage of being able to run with the OIA this week, because I knew that the next race we're going to run together is states, so it's a really big deal to be able to do well in this race, because I just wanted to see how the OIA girls were going to do up against the ILH," said Jones, who finished second in the ILH behind Iolani's Amanda Beaman — a two-time state runner-up — as a freshman last season.

Jones successfully followed up a fourth-place finish at last weekend's Iolani Invitational at Kualoa Ranch — where she was the top local finisher.

"I think I did pretty good this week, too. Hopefully we'll just keep having good races and then keep working our way up to the state championships," Jones said.

Beaman, who dropped out midway through the Iolani Invitational, did not run Saturday.

Kaiser's Lisa Tashiro, the defending state champion finished sixth in a time of 19:18.89.