Leilehua’s title diet

For one day two summers ago, a little bit of rice represented more than just a source of carbs for Christopher Olverson.

Once again the new kid in school, Olverson had been part of the Leilehua cross country team for two days when a few of his fellow runners invited him for a drive.

"They came up to me and said ‘You’re coming with us,’ " said Olverson, who had relocated from Arizona earlier that summer. "They drove me to get some local food, got me a musubi and showed me all the good stuff around Wahiawa."

That gesture helped ease his transition to his new surroundings and convinced him to stick with the program, a move that’s proven beneficial for both Olverson and the Mules.

"They treat you as family here," Olverson said. "They accept you as soon as you start running."

When he reported for his first day of classes as a junior at Leilehua, Olverson debated whether even to try out for cross country. But he’s since moved to the front of the pack in his second season with the Mules.

The senior has posted five first-place finishes this fall, the latest coming in the OIA championships Saturday when he covered the course at Hawaii Pacific University’s Hawaii Loa campus in Kaneohe in 16 minutes, 44.44 seconds.

"A lot of people look at 3 miles as a long race, but for him it’s attack, attack, attack," Leilehua coach Shawn Nakata said. "He’s an aggressive runner."

The Mules claimed the top three spots in the boys race, with sophomore Jordan Castro and senior captain Dylan Martinez — two of the teammates who welcomed him into the program — following Olverson across the finish line as the Mules won their eighth straight OIA team championship.

Retaining the state title represents their next mission with the Honolulu Marathon/HHSAA State Cross Country Championships set for Friday at Hawaii Preparatory Academy on Hawaii island.

Leilehua, the defending boys champion, has won three of the past five state titles and has produced the individual champion in five of the past six years.

The Mules will try to hang onto the crown on an HPA course considered among the state’s toughest. Since the competition was extended to 3 miles in 1976, the winning time has exceeded 17 minutes just six times, with HPA serving as host in each instance.

Olverson placed 12th at last year’s states on Maui and has lowered his times this season after dedicating his summer to the team’s offseason regimen.

Olverson, who didn’t arrive in time to participate in the training program prior to last season, said the team would run 12 miles most days during the summer and stretched it out to 15 on Saturdays.

"I can’t stop them from running," Nakata said. "With kids, sometimes it’s ‘I’m done, Coach.’ With those guys, ‘It’s slow down, stop, you’re going to overtrain.’ They get beaten up just racing each other every day.

"It’s one of the more dedicated teams that I’ve had," Nakata added. "There’s days when I have to cancel practice, and they’ll call each other, ‘Hey, Schofield track, be there,’ and they’ll make arrangements. I’ve never had that in the past."

OLVERSON OPENED his senior season by finishing first at the Michael Doran Invitational hosted by Kalani on Sept. 1 and won again at Campbell the following week. He later ran a season-best 16:09.4 in winning the Honolulu Marathon/Kaiser High School Invitational on Sept. 22.

He then paced the Mules to 1-2-3 finishes in the OIA Western Division championship and OIA championship meets.

Olverson’s mother, Margarita, was there to greet him at the finish of Saturday’s race and relayed the news to his father, Dustin, a member of the U.S. Army currently stationed in Afghanistan.

Dustin Olverson was deployed in January, and Christopher said they usually communicate via weekly emails and an occasional conversation through Skype.

"As you grow up, you get used to it," Christopher said of having his father abroad. "You have to accept it."

Christopher has also gotten accustomed to changing addresses. He was born in New York City and lived in Louisiana and Alaska before spending five years at Fort Huachuca in southern Arizona.

HE BEGAN competing with varsity runners as a freshman at Tombstone High School, and leaving behind his friends from middle school and two years of high school wasn’t easy.

But in his second year at Leilehua, Olverson is now on the other end of the welcoming committee.

"He was very timid, you had to dig words out of him. Now he’s a little more social," Margarita Olverson said. "I don’t know if it came with age, but the team is really close and they’ve gotten him out of his shell a little bit.

"I think Hawaii has done good things for him. He didn’t want to come to begin with, but now he’s glad he made it, because it’s changed him."