KAHUKU, O'ahu, Hawai'i – Saturday's season-opening races for the Chaminade University men's and women's cross country teams saw the future leading the way.
A pair of freshman,
Alena Albertson (Austin, Texas/Cedar Park) of the women's team and
Peyton Oshiro (Honolulu/Hawai'i Baptist Academy) from the men's squad, were both first team finishers at the University of Hawai'i Big Wave Invitational at Kahuku Golf Course.
Albertson completed the 5-kilometer race in 20:10.00, finishing 19th overall despite three of the seven teams competing coming from the NCAA Division I ranks (host UH, BYU and Pacific). Albertson was the second Division II runner to finish, only behind Hawai'i Pacific University's Robyn Kaltenbrunn.
Her success helped the Silverswords finish sixth with 142 points, 48 better than Hawai'i Hilo, marking the first time since the Chaminade Invitational on Oct. 8, 2016 that the 'Swords finished ahead of the Vulcans.
Sophomore
Hannah Hovestol (Modesto, Calif./Beacon Academy), who sat out last year, also made a successful collegiate debut, completing the race in 21:05.00 to finish second on the team.
Olivia Mariucci (Templeton, Calif./Templeton) was the 'Swords' No. 3 finisher, clocking a time of 21:25.00. Rounding out the ladies' squad for Chaminade was
Eri Leong (Las Vegas/SECTA) at 25:40:00,
Montserrat Lanfranco (Honolulu/Roosevelt) at 26:30.00 and
Riley Hallman (Renner, S.D./Tri-Valley) at 26:59.00.
BYU, Division I's sixth-ranked team, dominated the course by having the first 13 overall finishers – and 14 of the first 15 – for a perfect team score of 15. The Cougars' Whittni Orton was the medalist finisher at 18:05.00.
In the men's 5-k, Oshiro, one of Hawai'i's top high school runners last year, broke the tape at 18:08.00 to finish 14th overall.
Beau Larsen (Papillion, Neb./Daniel J. Gross Catholic) was the next Chaminade runner at 18:51.00, marking just the second time in 11 career races that he did not finish first among the team.
Joseph Yoakum (Gibraltar, Mich./Wayne State/Carlson HS) was the 'Swords' No. 3 team finisher at 20:37.00 followed by
Elijah Bernardo-Flores (Waipahu, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Kamehameha-Kapalama) at 20:43.00.
Freshman
Josiah Rodrigues (Honoka'a, Hawai'i/Honoka'a) came in at 22:22.00 followed by
Matthew Schmidt (Hanalei, Kaua'i, Hawai'i/Hawai'i Technology Academy) at 22:31.00.
Chaminade received 76 points to finish third as a team.
George Fox captured the team title with 25 points while HPU's Lukas Motschmann was the race winner.
Both Silverswords' squads will next be in action when they host the Chaminade Invitational at Kapiolani Park on Sept. 21.
