MARYSVILLE The Arlington Eagles boys and girls harriers each placed ninth out of 17 teams at the North County class meet Thursday, Oct. 12, at Cedarcrest Golf Course.
On a sunny and crisp autumn afternoon the Lady Eagles tallied 62 points en route to their ninth-place finish while their male counterparts scored one more for the same finish.
Both teams had two finishers in the top-10 on the 5K (3.1-mile) course that was reversed from last year to make for more downhill area and faster times.
Junior harriers Luke Passalacqua (17:15.20) and Paul Simbeck (17:20.50) finished fifth and sixth place, respectively, overall in a photo finish.
Passalacqua was quick to credit Simbeck for driving him to a strong finish and race overall.
I felt pretty good after a hard week of workouts, he said. Paul has really been stepping it up this year which should help our team scores for league. This is my second time running this course and I definitely improved from last year.
The Lady Cougars class of 2010 member Safa Pinkens finished second overall among her peers in 20:34, and senior Kristina Bosket continued her successful season with a third-place overall finish of 19:49.
The runners may been a bit distracted as a string of gawking drivers along 67th Avenue began a double fender bender between the sophomore and junior races.
Coach Mike Shierk, sporting a short new haircut, was ecstatic upon reflecting on his teams success on the new course.
The kids are a lot stronger this year, he said. After last weeks Hole in the Wall we took Sunday off and then hit it hard. Its nice to see the times were pretty improved. Kristina and Sofa were just extraordinary today.