Freshman Cross Country Runner ‘Comfortable’ With CUH

Freshman student-athlete Owen Daughtery was debating between running for Colorado State University in Fort Collins, or venturing out to compete as a Chaminade Silversword in Honolulu. His decision was heavily influenced by a previous runner at Chaminade, Alena Albertson, who was a fellow teammate of his back in high school. The two ran together for three years before Alberston decided to run for Chaminade, who would have been joined by Daughtery a year later. Just after committing to Chaminade he later found out that his previous teammate and friend was in the process of transferring to the University of Hawaii to run as a Rainbow Warrior.

Albertson transferred to UH Manoa due to a better financial opportunity and to pursue a field of education that was unavailable at Chaminade. Although Daughtery is now unable to call Alberston a teammate, the two remain close friends.

“I’ve been to Hawaii several times in the past for vacations so I felt super comfortable with the idea of moving out here, especially since I already knew Alena from back home,” the Austin-native said. 

Daughtery graduated in the class of 2019 from Cedar Park High School in Austin, Texas, the same school Albertson graduated from the previous year. Throughout his career at Cedar Park, he had earned an extensive amount of accolades both as an individual as well as a team. His past awards range from newcomer of the year in 2016 to being named team MVP his 2018 season. In between these accomplishments he helped his team take home a variety of hardware from district championships to regional championships, as well as several top 10 finishes at the state level. One of his greatest individual accomplishments is his 15:40 5k (3.1 miles) time.

The most recent Silversword to come close to this feat was sophomore Jorge Cisernos (Class of 2015), who earned himself a 2nd place finish at the 2012 Hilo invitational with a time of 15:48. With such a respectable 5k time, Daguhtery hopes to bring home some hardware as a Chaminade Silversword in the near future when competitions are back in action. 

“I was really looking forward to competing this year, but it’s good to hear I can have an additional year of eligibility if I choose to,” said Daughtery, first-year biology major. “This year has been super chill as far as allowing me an open schedule. I’ve had lots of time for long runs and some time to adventure and explore as well.” 

After moving to Honolulu in early July, Daughtery decided he was more interested in an island experience more so than the typical college experience. Instead of signing up for a dorm room like most college students from the mainland, he decided to get his own place. Similar to most freshman students, he held off on buying a car until he found out all the good hikes, beaches, and lookout spots. Daughtery took the time to get familiar with the environment by utilizing his long runs as an opportunity to explore the city streets and scope out what restaurants and parks he would check out when opportunities of transportation arose. 

Now that classes are done until February, he will be spending most of his break in Colorado where his family recently moved. Although he is ready to spend time with his parents and younger brother, he is looking forward to coming back for spring semester and spring cross country training.