WAIMEA, HAWAII >> Veronica Winham of Seabury Hall didn’t feel comfortable in her last two races off island.

This time on the Big Island, she felt amazing after winning a state title.

Winham led from start to finish to win the girls 5-kilometer race at the Honolulu Marathon/HHSAA Cross Country State Championships at Hawaii Preparatory Academy. Winham finished in 20 minutes, 55.66 seconds on a chilly and windy Saturday morning. She placed fourth at a meet here in late September and was third at the Punahou Invitational on Oct. 8.

“Both times I travelled, I had bad races,” said Winham, who won the MIL title last weekend. “Those were my worst times. Definitely worked hard after those two. It motivated me.”

Winham took off from the start and held a small lead over teammate Ava Shipman. She said that’s how she usually races and treated the meet like an MIL race.

“I came here and felt really good,” Winham said. “As soon as I got to HPA, I just kind of knew.”

Winham led a dominant effort by the Spartans. All seven runners placed in the top 21, with Ava Shipman finishing second (21:15.96), Erika Preseault fourth (21:55.75) and Darby Mulligan fifth (21:57.04). Radford’s Camryn Butz sprinted by Preseault at the finish line to come in third in 21:55.55.

The Spartans finished with 17 points to win the Division II team title. They’ve brought home every trophy since a D-II classifiication was added in 2012. Only one race was held, with runners filtered into D-I and D-II categories for team scoring.

“We had a quality group of girls this year,” Seabury Hall coach Bobby Grossman said. “Coming into today, did I think we’d finish like that? No. That finish that we had, we had four in the top five. It was just incredible to have that team finish for a school our size. They just made a lot of effort this year, stayed healthy.”

Punahou totaled 28 points to win the Division I title. The Buffanblu placed four girls in the top 20, led by Mia Schiel in sixth and Abby Mori in eighth.

“Our whole team has worked so hard for this,” said Schiel. “It’s rewarding to see everyone come out and run well today.”

Punahou has won all but one team title since 2005 and the recurring theme in each championship was a pack that sticks together.

“We practice like how we want to race,” Schiel said. “In intervals, we try to stay in a pack and push each other along the way so we’ll be strong all the way through. That’s how we want to race, too.”

‘Iolani finished second with 75 points and Kamehameha was third with 99. awaii Baptist was second in Division II with 86 points.