SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Competing a pair of Rainbow Wahine short, the University of Hawai'i cross country team finished 20th in the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational, Saturday at Baylands Regional Park.
 
After a moved-up start amid air quality concerns from the northern California wildfires, Junior Danielle Girard was a late scratch for UH due to an ongoing ailment. However, freshman Sienna Santiago (La Mesa, Calif.) stepped into the frontrunner role, running a season-best 22:50.6 in the 6k race to finish 127th.

Junior Kai Hoshijo followed with a career-best 23:29.8 for 140th, while classmate Giovanna Casazza was just two slots behind in 142nd at 23:35.8 - also putting in a career mark.
 
Only running her second career 6k, sophomore Lisa Tashiro also bested her season low with a time of 23:50.9 for 147th, cutting 30 seconds, while sophomore Alison Bowman rounded out the scoring group in 159th (26:19.5), reaching a PR.
 
With UH battling through injuries throughout the 2017 campaign, in addition to Girard, sophomore Piper McDonald also did not travel with the team to California.
 
"I'm proud of the efforts," head coach Tim Boyce said. "All five set personal 6k bests. We had a couple of runners unable to go, and that hurt us scoring-wise, but this group is resilient and will have their best races of the year at Big West and Regionals."
 
The Rainbow Wahine accrued 586 points to finish 20th, averaging 24:01.4 as a team.
 
Saturday's Bronco Invitational wraps the 2017 regular season for UH, which now takes the next 14 days to prepare for the Big West Cross Country Championships, slated for October 28 in Riverside, Calif.