(file photo by Kelsey Walling of the Hawaii Tribune-Herald)

KANEOHE, Hawai`i--If the name of the spring cross country season is improvement, the UH Hilo Vulcans knocked it out of the park in their final race on Saturday at the Hawaii Pacific Loa Campus course.

The Vulcans had major improvements from their top four runners, who bettered their times from the same course earlier this month by anywhere from 30 seconds to just under a minute. Still, it wasn't quite enough to knock off host Hawaii Pacific who had the first two runners across the finish line to gain the team win, 26-29.

For the third straight race in the February season, HPU's Robyn Kaltenbrunn ran away from the field for a first-place time of 20:55 on the five kilometer course. Her teammate Karen Corona Perez was second (21:49). 

UHH's Olivia Jarvis was third (22:18), finishing as the Vulcan's top runner in two of the three races this spring. Jarvis ran 23:02 earlier this month at the Loa course. Making the biggest leap was freshman Leilani Stone who was UHH's second runner to cross the line (fourth overall) just behind Jarvis at 22:21. Four weeks ago, her time was 23:10. 

Emma Heidelmeier was fifth (22:34) after running 23:03 on Feb. 6. Caitlin Kawaiaea was seventh (23:04) and Makena Morris was UHH's fifth scoring runner in 11th (24:22). 

"I was very pleased with how we raced," said Vulcan head coach Jaime Guerpo. "They all ran their hearts out.  We fell short in the team score but to me that race was better than the one they ran earlier in the season. Win, lose or draw they all competed and did their best, and that's all you can ask of them. 

"It was a great way to finish the spring season and should help us build a base for next fall."

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