Taking Hawaii in strides

Camille Campos spent the summer running at 6 a.m. daily in 100-plus temperatures to prepare for her first year of college cross country at Hawaii.

Increasing her mileage and waking up early helped bridge the transition from high school to college running. But California’s summers didn’t quite prepare Campos for one harsh aspect of running in a tropical climate.

"At first when I got here, holy moly, it’s very humid," Campos said. "I’m not used to it because we have dry heat in California. So the first few weeks, just trying to breathe was difficult. After a bit, you get used to it."

The freshman from Bakersfield, Calif., has adjusted to the weather and life as a college athlete. Campos has dropped her 5-kilometer time by 26 seconds. She has been the Rainbow Wahine’s top finisher in two races this season, placing third at the season-opening Big Wave Invitational and 35th at the Sundodger Invitational. Her performance at the Sundodger, with a 6K time of 22 minutes, 14.83 seconds, earned her the program’s first Big West Athlete of the Week honor on Sept. 22. Teammate Alli Cross became the second when she was honored on Tuesday.

"A freshman at UH has a number of things to adjust to," said cross country coach Tim Boyce. "Increased mileage, for sure, we train early in the morning, 6:30 every day so that’s an adjustment for many. Training in the heat, humidity are constants here.

"Freshmen all across the country are dealing with new friends, academics, college life, living away from home, different diets, all of those different things. For Camille to have started out as well as she has indicates she’s done a great job balancing all of these new things that are occurring at the same time."

Campos was one of three runners Boyce found during a recruiting trip in California and Oregon last fall. She did her recruiting visit in February with future UH teammate Piper McDonald.

"I wanted to run cross country in college," Campos said. "I’ve been talking to a lot of coaches, it seemed like the perfect fit. I got along with Tim and the team, and it’s beautiful here. I love it."

Campos is one of eight freshmen on the 14-runner squad. Rounding out the class of nine newcomers is Cross, who ran two years at Lane Community College in Oregon. Cross finished 18th at Saturday’s Sacramento Capital Challenge with a 5K time of 17:44.7. Cross dropped her 5K time by about 1:30 and it was the best performance by a Rainbow Wahine since Ashley Aitken in 2010.

"They’ve all bonded remarkably well since before the first day of practice," Boyce said. "Fortunately that’s carried into practices and into our meets. It’s created a lot of energy for the program and there’s a lot of excitement. I don’t think anybody sees there are limits now for what is possible for our cross country and distance program."

The Rainbow Wahine will race at Saturday’s Chaminade Invitational, which begins at 7 a.m. at Kapiolani Park.

"It’s great we have so many girls in the same time range and we’re all just trying to get better," Campos said. "I’m excited for the team — we just keep improving."