Kaua'i Half Marathon F1-15: Eva-Rose Rapp leads a six-strong young field to the finish

• Eva-Rose Rapp, 15, wins the F1-15 age group in 2:11:07 (10:00/mi), edging Brennyn Chan by just 1:21.
• Brennyn Chan, 11, finishes 2nd in 2:12:28 — and her closing leg (11.05 Mile→Finish) was the 111th-fastest women's split in the field, the strongest closing split in this age group.
• Lily Schoettler and Zeckiah Canonigo ran nearly identical races, finishing 3rd and 4th separated by just 22 seconds — 2:40:40 and 2:41:02 respectively.
• Six finishers completed the F1-15 age group, ranging from age 11 to 15, across a spread of 1:12:07 from first to last.

Eva-Rose Rapp, 15, of Kapaa set the pace from the front of the F1-15 field, crossing the line in 2:11:07 at a 10:00/mi clip. Her gender place drifted from 110th to 139th across the first two checkpoints — a sign that the women around her were pushing hard — but she held her form and her lead. Brennyn Chan, just 11 years old and racing out of Mililani, was never far behind. Chan ran the final stretch (11.05 Mile to the finish) as the 111th-fastest women's split in the entire field, steadily climbing from 169th among women at the middle checkpoint back to 152nd by the line. That finishing surge closed the gap but not quite enough — Rapp held on by 1:21.

The battle for 3rd was remarkably tight. Lily Schoettler, 13, of Koloa and Zeckiah Canonigo, 12, of Kekaha both ran the back half stronger than the front — each climbed through the women's standings from around 490th at the midpoint to the low 420s by the finish. Schoettler crossed in 2:40:40 (12:15/mi) and Canonigo in 2:41:02 (12:17/mi), just 22 seconds apart after 13.1 miles on a warm, humid Kaua'i morning.

Bo Grace Mentzer, 11, of Kapaa finished 5th in 2:52:15, and Jaycee Yoo, 12, also of Kapaa, rounded out the age group in 3:23:14 — a 15:30/mi effort across the full distance that is no small feat in 77°F humidity on the South Shore.