Christian Madsen and Sayuri Kusutani picked up their fourth and third individual titles of the year, respectively, as the Sea Warriors men and women’s cross country teams won the HPU Invitational held at the windward campus Oct. 12.

“Everything went very well,” said Sea Warrior Head Coach Vien Schwinn. “From setting it up to the runners performance.”

The HPU men finished with 23 points, 45 points ahead of Irvine Valley College, while the Lady Sea Warriors finished with 21 points, 26 ahead of BYU-H. “We expected to win and we did,” said Schwinn.

Madsen, who finished the men’s 10 km race in a meet record 31:33 to capture his 10th career individual title, finished one minute and 20 seconds ahead of the next competitor, IVC’s Shane Dougherty. Madsen and Dougherty got ahead of the pack early and raced side by side for four miles before the Sea Warrior senior broke away.

Kusutani, who finished the women’s 6 km race in 21:33, one minute and seven seconds ahead of BYU-H’s Chelsea Smith. The sophomore from Japan broke away from Smith and teammates Janine Brown and Rachelle Miller about two miles into the contest. Brown finished :16 seconds behind Smith and :53 seconds ahead of Miller as the Lady Sea Warriors took third and fourth, respectively.

HPU junior Abdeslam Naji and sophomore Chris Larson took third and fourth, respectively, in times of 33:52 and 33:59. Larson edged IVC’s JD Krawcyzk by two seconds.

Freshman Herald Buerkle finished sixth in 34:12, senior Shadrak Nabea finished eigth in 34:47, and sophomore Robert Tyler took ninth in 34:59 for the Sea Warrior men.

A week later, in the final meet of the season before the West Regionals, the Sea Warriors attended the UH Sprint Invitational on the Kane‘ohe Klipper golf course. The men took first while the women finished second to UH-Manoa, on Oct. 19.

Madsen led the Sea Warrior men, placing first in the 5 Km race with a 16:24 finish, :15 seconds ahead of HPU alumn Christian Friis. HPU’s Tyler took third in 16:51.

Kusutani, who finished the women’s 3Km race in 10:46, took second to UH-Manoa’s junior Victoria Chang by :13 seconds. UH’s Hanna Bremler took 3rd in 10:53.