Cross country season around the corner

AND THEY'RE OFF: Two West Valley runners break away at the start of the race, which was part of a pre-Northern Athletic League meet last Wednesday.

The West Valley cross-country team competed in the Division 4 races at the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto over the weekend.

The Eagle girl's team placed 18th out of 27 complete teams with 442 points. Corissa Storms led the team with a 3rd place finish and a time of 19:01 on the 3.1-mile course. Freshman Hannah Dorman was 14th with a time of 19:47 followed by Misty Jensen 123rd (23:21), Jessamyn Panza 160th (25:00), and Autumn Serota 167th (25:29).

The West Valley boys placed 17th with 518 points out of 32 complete teams. Forrest McBride led the team and was 23rd with a time of 16:45, followed by Justin Hale who was 64th with a time of 17:39. Mats Welzbacher and Ryan Stockton were 127 and 128 both scoring a time of 18:37, and Jacob Lucero rounded out the team scoring in 176th (19:32). There were 215 runners in the race.

Earlier last week on Wednesday, West Valley hosted a pre-Northern Athletic League match. Competing in the meet was Anderson High School, Yreka High School, Corning High School, and Lassen High School.

West Valley's varsity girls team won with 23 points over second place Corning, who had 43 points. For the varsity boys, the young team lost a close competition with Corning 41 - 44 points.

Anderson Union High School sent three runners. Senior Jerome Bjerklund placed 31st followed by freshman Lucas 'Dell (38) and Armando Amador (40).

This was also the meet where Chris Lopez of Yreka collapsed after placing 27th in the race.