M1-15 Half Marathon: Wyatt Ballard Leads a Field of Young Kaua'i Runners

• Wyatt Ballard, 15, of Lihue won the M1-15 group in 1:40:20 — a 7:39/mi pace that put nearly 10 minutes of daylight between him and 2nd place.
• Seeley Riggs, 11, of Lawai claimed 3rd in 1:52:00, finishing just 1:45 behind runner-up Sawyer Kimball — and his younger brother Lowick, age 9, finished 8th in 2:16:00, making the Riggs family one of the day's great stories.
• The top five were separated by under 20 minutes, but the pack spread wide after that — 20th-place Blayze Kawakami crossed in 3:17:39, nearly 1:37 behind Ballard.
• River Kirsch, age 7, finished 19th in 3:13:04 — almost certainly among the youngest finishers on the course all day.

Wyatt Ballard set the tone early and never let up. The 15-year-old from Lihue ran a measured 7:39/mi through Kaua'i's warm, humid morning — 77°F and 69% humidity are no small thing for a half marathon — and his mid-race push from the HALF to 11.05 Mile checkpoint, where he posted the 34th-fastest split in the men's field on that segment, showed he was racing, not just surviving. He crossed in 1:40:20, a commanding win.

Behind him, Sawyer Kimball (14, Kapaa) and Seeley Riggs (11, Lawai) ran a tightly contested battle for 2nd and 3rd. Kimball held 2nd in 1:50:15, while Riggs closed the gap on the back half — posting the 75th-fastest men's split on the 11.05 Mile-to-finish segment — to finish just 1:45 back in 1:52:00. Greyson Eaton (12) and Maximus Israelsen (14), both from Kalaheo, rounded out the top five within seconds of each other: 1:58:37 and 1:59:28 respectively.

The depth of this group — 23 finishers ranging from age 7 to 15 — was remarkable in itself. Nine-year-old Lowick Riggs covering 13.1 miles in 2:16:00 at a 10:23/mi pace is a feat worth noting on its own. And Waikoa Martins (13, Kapaa), Shane Schoettler (11, Koloa), and others kept grinding through the humidity well past the two-hour mark. On a tough day on a beautiful island, every one of them earned it.