Fresno Pacific raced past 23 valley junior college teams to capture first place at the Clovis CC Crush Invitational. Veteran Rodney Chemalmal won the race by two seconds over teammate Evan Torres. In southern California, Concordia was fourth at the Coyote Challenge, while Hawai`i Pacific and Chaminade competed at the Big Wave Invitational.

2025 Results/Schedule
2025 USTFCCCA National and Regional Polls
 
RUNNER OF THE WEEK: Fresno Pacific's Rodney Chemalmal, Senior, Nakuru, Kenya                                    
Rodney Chemalmal ran to a season-opening victory at the Clovis CC Crush Invitational in Fresno at Woodward Park. The fourth-year Sunbird clocked 20:42 on the four-mile course, edging teammate Evan Torres by a few steps (20:44). The Kenya native finished ahead of 253 runners. A two-time All-PacWest runner, Chemalmal finished eighth at the 2023 conference championships and was 14th in 2022. 

TEAM OF THE WEEK: Fresno Pacific Sunbirds                                                                                                        
Fresno Pacific raced ahead of 23 teams to win the Clovis Crush at their home course of Woodward Park. The Sunbirds tallied 47 team points to host Clovis CC's 89 to win by a decisive margin. FPU went 1-2 with Rodney Chemalmal (20:42) and Evan Torres (20:44) on the 4-mile course, with Sawyer Pugliese (21:13), Daniel Galvez (21:17) and Alesandro Escarzaga (21:39) providing the rest of the scoring in eighth, 11th and 25th.  That made for a double victory for first-year head coach Landon Miller in his first races, with the Sunbird women also winning at Clovis.
 
PACWEST NEWS AND NOTES: Concordia finished fourth of five teams at CSU San Bernardino's Coyote Challenge. Golden Eagle Spencer Handorf paced his team with an 11th place finish on the 8K course with a time of 25:36. Former Golden Eagle Noah Plaza (unattached) won the race in 24:27, followed by five runners from Division III national power Claremont-Mudd-Scripps who won the team race with a perfect score of 15...On Oahu, Hawai`i Pacific and Chaminade ran at UH Manoa's Big Wave Invitational, won by Division I University of Pacific. The Sharks had just four runners so did not factor into the team score but did have the top runner between HPU and the Silverswords with Drake Hanley's tenth place finish of 22:37 on the 6K course. HPU's Aaron Humphries was 11th (22:38) and Chaminade's Kalamakua Francisco was 13th (23:08). The Silverswords finished with 50 team points to Pacific's 15. 

LOOKING AHEAD: Next Friday, Biola will host the Biola Invitational in Fullerton at Ted Craig Park, featuring PacWest squads Azusa Pacific, Westmont and Concordia. Stanislaus State will be the host for Jessup and Dominican at the Kim Duyst Twi-light in Ceres at the River Oaks Golf Course.