[ HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS ]
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Punahou's Pippa Macdonald is beginning to fill the big cross country shoes of her father and sister.
All in the Family Those who follow high school cross country called the victory in last month's Punahou Invitational the "breakthrough race everyone knew she was capable of." Everyone seemed to know it ... except for Pippa Macdonald.
Pippa Macdonald runs in the footsteps
of her dad and older sisterBy Cindy Luis
cluis@starbulletin.comThe Punahou School senior literally has been running in the footsteps of her father Duncan, a 1976 Olympic 5,000-meter runner and the inaugural Honolulu Marathon winner; and of her sister Eri, the only female to ever win four consecutive Hawaii high school cross country titles (1995-98).
But the youngest Macdonald has been unfazed by the family tradition of success, so much so that she was unaware her dad won the first two Hawaii boys state cross country championships in 1965 and '66.
Pippa Macdonald runs because she loves it. And as for winning ...
"I have no idea why it happened," she said of her Punahou Invitational victory. "I hadn't been doing great this season. It came as a surprise."
Macdonald won the two-mile race by nearly nine seconds over Waiakea's Tamara Binek, favored to be the first Big Island cross country state champion since Casey McGuire-Turcotte of Ka'u in 1994. Macdonald came from behind to win on Oct. 12, catching Binek in the final 800 meters of the Central Oahu Regional Park course, the same one that will be used for the ILH championships this Saturday and the state meet a week from this Friday.
On Oct. 27, Macdonald won an ILH meet on the hilly course at Kamehameha by four seconds over Iolani sophomore Nicole Anderson. Does that bode well for another first-place trophy for the Macdonald clan?
"I could win it, but then I could NOT win it," she said. "There's so many strong runners like Nicole and Tamara. Right now, we're just building for a team success."
Punahou has won 18 of 29 state titles, and five of the last seven. Macdonald and several of her senior class teammates won as freshmen and sophomores, but lost out to rival Iolani last November.
"It's not like it's been haunting us," said Macdonald. "But we would like to win it as seniors."
"We want to go out on a good note," added senior Laura Melahn. "Everyone is working really hard and we've been having a good time together this year. It's been a lot of fun."
The senior class is the core of the Buffanblu, a cohesiveness that goes back even farther to elementary school. Macdonald, Melahn and Carly Killam grew up in Kailua together and played HYSA soccer for the successful Kailua AA club team.
"Going back to soccer, it's always been more of a team thing," said Melahn. "We want to do the best we can whenever we're out there.
"And Pippa ... she's always been her own person. She doesn't get into the whole spotlight thing."
Macdonald's recent successes have vaulted her into No. 2 in the state rankings, right behind Anderson. At No. 3 is Binek, followed by Pearl City's Kari Tanimoto and Jessica Domingo of Kamehameha -- and then five Punahou runners: Melahn, senior Rachel White, sophomore Katie Cragie, Killam and sophomore Amara Humphrey.
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Punahou runner Pippa Macdonald listened to father and coach Duncan Macdonald, a former Olympian.
"As a team, I think we're a clear favorite," said Buffanblu coach Duncan Macdonald. "Our job here is not to blow it and keep focused.
"We have a very motivated group of returnees from last year. Our anchor has been Laura Melahn and we've had a couple of breakthrough performances from others. This team finished second and felt they were closing the gap on Iolani last year. So they started training earlier, came in ready to compete and, in terms of depth, this is probably the most talent I've had and quite possibly the most talent that's been here for a long time."
Most of the team members are multi-sport athletes who will compete in track in the spring. Macdonald, Melahn and Killam will likely to reunite on the soccer field this winter.
"I think soccer and running are very compatible," said Duncan Macdonald. "I think a lot of soccer coaches haven't figured this out yet."
As for coaching his youngest daughter, Macdonald figured it out a long time ago.
"For Pippa, running was a little bit of a family thing, a little bit that her big sister took to it," he said. "We never emphasized running until she was in intermediate school and it became more of a big deal. Before that, it was always just for fun.
"Pippa is great. She's a good student and we've been able to separate the coach from the parent thing. We have a good time together. We've had the advantage of being able to talk about running as a family thing."
Saturday's ILH championships should be a good preview of next week's state meet, which will be held on Oahu for the first time since 1981.
"The course has moderate hills and is pretty good from a spectator's standpoint," said Duncan Macdonald. "The hills are not prohibitive but they're not nonexistent either.
"I think it's a good course. And our team knows it well. They didn't like it at first but now that they've been successful on it, they've come to like it. There's something about familiarity."
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