Makai Clemons won his race and still has more left in him.

The Kalaheo senior is saving his energy for this week’s state championships, and he got a preview of the state course at Saturday’s OIA cross country championships at Central Oahu Regional Park.

Clemons won the boys 3-mile race for the second straight season, unofficially in 16 minutes, 8.02 seconds, almost 50 seconds ahead of the next runner. Knowing the course helps formulate his plan for states.

"My goal for the season is to definitely win states," Clemons said. "Today was making sure to defend my title, not trying to race too hard and kill myself for next week, and feel the course. The main goal is to win states and we’ll see what happens from there."

Clemons opened up a lead early in the 3-mile race and got a good feel for the state championship that will be held here on Saturday. This year’s route has changed from previous races at the park with more hills and loops.

"It was a lot harder than what I thought it would be from walking the course (during warmups)," Clemons said. "I’m really happy I got to feel the course, knowing for next week, and it feels more like a cross country course."

Lisa Tashiro of Kaiser won the girls 3-mile race in 19:32.21 and helped the Cougars win the team title for the second straight year. Tashiro led from the beginning and was one of four Kaiser runners to place in the top 10.

"I felt like I had a good pace throughout the race," said Tashiro, who is running cross country for the first time.

The Cougars totaled 33 points, with Lina Schell and Hanna Heiss finishing fourth and fifth and Erica Schell placing 10th. Several members of the team, including Tashiro, are swimmers, which helps with their conditioning.

"They got good endurance, good cardio," Kaiser coach Dennis Swart said. "They tend to have good cardio as a rule of thumb, swimming workouts do that. The swimming is helping those girls."

Mililani was second with 65 points. Radford’s Mary Moloney still had energy left from an earlier race to rally for a second-place finish in 19:58.74. She won Wednesday’s OIA junior varsity championships that was postponed from Oct. 18 because of Hurricane Ana. She said Wednesdays are usually a rest day for the team.

Official boys results weren’t available after the race due to computer difficulties.