HPU’s Christensen
wins Big Wave event
Hawaii Pacific's Nina Christensen and Sayuri Kusutani took two of the top three spots in the women's division of the Iolani Cross Country Invitational at Kuaoloa Ranch last weekend and helped the Sea Warriors to a fifth-place team finish. Christensen finished first overall in 18 minutes, 41.9 seconds. The University of Hawaii women's team finished second.On the men's side, Christian Madsen led HPU to a second-place team finish with an individual second-place finishing time of 16:09.2 Teammate Abdeslam Naji was the only other Sea Warrior to finish in the top 10 with a time of 17:13.5.
UCLA took both the mens and womens trophies, as the Bruin men placed six runners in the top ten, including Jon Rankin who was the overall winner. Rankin recorded the fastest time at 16:03.5. UH-Hilo finished sixth in the event. The Lady Bruins placed four runners in the top 10, but no runner finished higher than seventh individually.
In the high-school division, Maui's Nick Jachowski recorded the fastest boys time at 18:05.1, which landed him in 16th place. Iolani's Nicole Anderson, who finished sixth overall, posted the fastest Hawaii girls time at 21:01.3.
Kamehameha and Iolani won the intermediate boys and girls titles.