All-American runners Marko Cheseto and Ruth Keino led the Seawolves to a season-opening sweep of the team titles and individual victories at the Hawaii Pacific Invite cross country meet Saturday at Honolulu's Sand Island Beach Park.
The men's and women's teams each landed eight runners in the top 10, with Cheseto recording a winning 5-kilometer time of 14 minutes, 26 seconds to lead a men's team that took the top-five spots.
Micah Chelimo took second place, seven seconds behind Cheseto, in 14:33. Jake Parisien took third place in 14:44 in his first race since sitting out last season and Paul Rottich (14:45) and William Ritekwiang (15:06) rounded out the top five.
The women's team, ranked No. 3 in the preseason national poll, placed four runners in the top five, led by Keino's winning time of 17:17 and Miriam Kipng'eno finishing right behind in 17:19. Junior Shoshana Keegan took fourth place in 17:44 and freshman Susan Bick (18:08) made her college debut in fifth place.
The Seawolves will continue to train in Hawaii throughout the next week as they prepare for Saturday's BYU-Hawaii Invitational.
Anchorage Daily News
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