Osan’s Hanks, Falcons tennis lead parade of firsts

Firsts ruled the day for Seoul American and Osan American during the Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference season-ending cross country and tennis tournaments:

• Junior Josh Hanks became the first Osan runner to win a KAIAC gold medal, in torrential rain on International Christian School-Uijongbu’s 3.1-mile course. In the girls’ race, Seoul freshman Siarria Ingram set a meet record, 19 minutes, 49 seconds.
• Seoul’s girls tennis team, led by 2007 Far East singles champion Kennedy Allen, won the KAIAC team title for the first time since the league formed 37 years ago.

Hanks beat Seoul American senior Thomas Kim by 11 seconds, 17:08-17:19.

Osan’s girls and boys finished third in the team standings, the best in school history. Seoul American’s boys failed to finish in first for the first time this season, taking second behind Seoul Foreign. The Falcons girls repeated their KAIAC title.

KAIAC tennis finished Friday before the rains hit, and with Allen winning the girls No. 1 seed singles title for the second time in three years, the Falcons edged Seoul Foreign 10 points to nine.

Michelle Roh won the No. 3 singles and Clara Buss and Allen’s freshman sister, Carson, captured the No. 1 doubles in their final tune-up for Far East Nov. 9-11 on Okinawa.

Continuing their best season since 2003, Seoul American’s girls volleyball team, led by outside hitter Liz Gleaves and middle blocker Destinee’ Harrison, won the KAIAC title, rallying from a one-set deficit to beat Daegu American in the final at Seoul Foreign School.

Seoul Foreign won the boys KAIAC volleyball crown.

• At Asan, Guam High’s most successful football season ended two victories shy of an Interscholastic Football League title. The Panthers (6-2) lost 20-12 to Father Duenas in Saturday’s semifinal; Guam beat the Friars 33-28 in the regular season.

Aaron Cosey tossed a 15-yard touchdown pass to Devon Jacobs and Jason Brunson rambled 60 yards for a TD for the Panthers’ only points in the second half. The Friars’ Will Williams intercepted a Cosey pass with less than a minute left, killing a potential Panthers game-tying drive.

Guam High was penalized 16 times to only seven for FDMS. "My kids played their hearts out," Guam High first-year coach Billy Henry said. "My defense played incredibly. We’d stop them repeatedly, then we’d get a penalty. The penalties weren’t consistent."

Williams threw touchdown passes of 31 and 36 yards to Anthony Aguon and Keoni Pablo added a 4-yard scoring run for the Friars. Brunson gained 108 yards rushing to pace the Panthers.

Guam High next plays in the DODEA Far East Class AA playoffs starting with a semifinal against Seoul American on Nov. 10 on Okinawa.

John Wesley Jr. contributed to this report.