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the Aloha spirit
- background - schedule
of events - prior years - the
course -
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4th
Iolani Invitational
- September 21, 2002 - iolanixcinvitational.com
a high school cross country meet on Kualoa Ranch, Oahu
Hawaii, site of filming of Jurassic Park
Meet HQ hotel: Ohana Reef Tower, 227 Lewes St., Waikiki
Beach, 808-924-8844 www.outrigger.com
Hotel contact Michele Nagamine (808) 921-6871, [email protected]
Entry Contact: Greg Char (808) 689-0132 or [email protected]
- James Rubasch [email protected]
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The race is run at Kualoa Ranch, on the ocean on the windward side
of Oahu. Headquarters is on Waikiki Beach.
In it's fourth year, the Iolani Invitational
is accepting teams for the 2002
meet. Previously, a few mainland teams participated each year, including
Montgomery Santa Rosa CA (with Sara Bei) in 2000 and Ukiah CA (with
Amber
Trotter) in 2001. Along with Hawaii native Victoria Chang in the
inaugural meet
in 1999, that makes three straight years that a girl has opened
her season by
winning here and ended it by winning the Foot Locker Cross Country
championship
at Disney World in Orlando FL. Teams interested
should email Greg
Char [email protected]
Iolani
Invitational's own web site
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Headquarters Hotel
Ohana Reef Towers
Lewes Street
Waikiki Beach
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Schedule of Events
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9/19/02
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- 4:00 p.m.-6:00p.m - Registration at Meet Headquarters
in the penthouse at Ohana Reef Towers Hotel
- 7:00-9:00 pm - Coaches Meeting at Meet HQ
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9/20/02
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- "Free" day... enjoy Waikiki's 85 Degree weather
- 4:00-5:00 p.m. - late registration at Meet HQ
- 6:00 p.m. - Hosted "Pasta Feed" at Iolani School
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9/21/02
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- 7:00-9:00 a.m. - Hosted continental breakfast at Meet
HQ
- 11:00 a.m. - University of Hawaii "Big Wave"
Invitational at Kualoa
- 12:00 p.m. - Iolani XC Invitational at Kualoa
- 4:00-5:00 p.m. - Awards Ceremony, followed by optional
dinner
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9/22/02
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Prior Years
Background
by the founders: Jim Rubasch (Boys) and Greg Char (Girls)
We started the meet for two reasons. 1) to have an additional Invitational
type meet for our runners where they could compete for awards. 2)
to have mainland competition to help raise the performance levels
of local runners. This was especially important on the girls side.
Hawaii is one of the few States left where the girls compete at
2 miles. We race 3 miles at our Invitational and it was our intent
to prove to Hawaii and to Iolani that local girls can not only race
3 miles, but can be competitive with their mainland counterparts.
We did not originally intend to have a huge meet. We wanted to
keep it small and intimate with a few mainland schools. The 1st
year we had two mainland schools, the 2nd year we had four, and
last year we had two. This past Fall Paul Shinkawa approached us
about turning the meet into something big and we agreed as long
as the meet would continue to have a personal, intimate feel for
our guests.
Iolani School runs girls volleyball and boys basketball tournaments
which are highly regarded on a National level. We hope to do the
same with our Cross Country Invitational.
The Invitational is not run on the Iolani Campus. It is held on
the windward side of Oahu about 45 minutes from Waikiki. The reason
is that the Iolani campus and its surroundings are FLAT and not
conducive for an Invitational meet. We decided to have our meet
at Kualoa Ranch beacuse it offers beautiful surroundings and great
conditions for a cross country meet. The course is mostly dirt trails
with several challenging uphills and downhills.
the "Aloha Spirit"
Message from Paul Shinkawa, meet organizer:
We run a good meet with many factors contributing to our meet’s
success, including:
1) the "Aloha Spirit" of our group and meet... and the
planning of additional events for our mainland visitors;
2) the spectacular natural beauty of Kualoa Ranch (site of the filming
of Jurassic Park) and the support of Kualoa Ranch;
3) the support of our volunteer group;
4) the support of Iolani School and its running program;
5) the support of Outrigger/Ohana Hotels;
6) the support of our local running community.
Those who attend soon realize they have participated in a meet
that is second to none... and for some our meet has led to additional
good fortune. The last 3 girl’s winners of the Foot Locker
National High School Cross Country Championships (Amber Trotter,
Sara Bei & Victoria Chang) participated in our meet and began
their XC seasons with a “win” at Kualoa Ranch.
Our goal is to share our "aloha spirit" and the road
to good fortune with as many visiting competitive runners that we
can properly host.
DyeStat US
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