CONWAY - On Friday, the Coastal Carolina Chanticleer women's and men's cross country teams opened up the season with the 15^th annual Coastal Carolina Invitational at the Hackler Golf Course. Both squads picked up victories in the event as they scored 18 and 36 points, respectively.
 
Junior Lisha van Onselen earned the victory for the women on the 5K course and junior Michael Pieterse was the fastest men's runner for the Chants earning fourth-place.
 
Women
Van Onselen averaged a 5:58.90 mile for her third career win, including her second win at a Coastal Carolina Invitational. The prior event took place on the Coastal Carolina intramural fields in 2017.
 
Her teammates followed up with second, fourth, fifth, and sixth-place finishes.
 
Freshman Ashley Rulison took second-place with a time of 19:55.50, 1:19.50 behind van Onselen. Senior Alyssa LeClaire clocked a time of 20:40.00 good for fourth-place, while fellow senior Alexis Carpenter finished in sixth-place with a personal-best 21:07.10 in her third career CCU Invite 5K. Coastal finished their scoring with two freshmen crossing the line in the fifth and sixth position. Grace Cole and Isabel Debari finished with times of 21:53.50 and 22.06.40, respectively.
 
Winthrop's Harper Henson was the leading Eagle to cross the finish line. Henson placed third overall with a time of 20:00.50 and Charleston Southern's Grace Schvaneveldt was the best Buccaneer performer with a time of 21:29.00.
 
Chanticleer grad, Jackie Brengel ran the 5K in the alumni race finishing with a time of 19:25.80.
 
Men
Winthrop's Theo Kahler and Nick Garrett placed one and two in the men's 5K event. Kahler took the victory as he clocked a time of 15:39.00.
 
Pieterse was the best CCU finisher as he averaged a 5:18.60 mile and finished with a time of 16:31.00, a personal best in any 5K race in his career.
 
Other Chant finishers included freshman Dustin Chambers (16:56.30) in the fifth spot and then back-to-back finishes in seventh and eighth that included freshman Robert Gunia (16:59.20) and junior Andrew Avery (17:07.20). Sophomore Matthew Evans rounded out the Chanticleers field with a time of 17:26.20, good for 12th-place.
 
Charleston Southern' s Jaden Kingsley was the best finisher for the Bucs as ended the race in third-place with a time of 16:30.40.
 
The Chanticleers will visit Charleston Southern next Friday, Sept. 7 as part of the Buccaneer Invitational.
 
For complete coverage of track & field/cross country, follow the Chanticleers on social media at @CoastalTFXC (twitter), @GoCCUSports (Instagram) and facebook.com/CCUChanticleers (Facebook) or visit the official home of Coastal Carolina Athletics at goccusports.com.