Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com/ Arcata’s Riley Martel-Phillips, right, and Thea Norlund placed one-two at the league opening race last week.

The Humboldt-Del Norte League cross country season continues this week, with the second meet of the campaign hosted by Arcata High on Wednesday at 4 p.m.

The Arcata girls are the overwhelming favorites this year, and lived up to the billing at the season opening meet at the Arcata sports complex last Wednesday.

The Tigers took the top four individual spots at the meet, led by senior standout Riley Martel-Phillips, who finished in a time of 19 minutes, 57.66 seconds.

Exchange student Thea Norlund matched her teammate step for step for most of the race before falling behind late and finishing second, seven seconds back.

Vivian Gerstein and Claire Monge were next across the line, followed by McKinleyville’s Cecelia Ferreira and Tamia Crackel.

KyleeAnna Zink Clinton paced Eureka in seventh, while Maggie Stacy led the Fortuna girls in eighth and Amaya Bechler was the top Northcoast Prep runner in ninth.

Arcata comfortably won the team event with 17 points, with Eureka a distant second (52) and Fortuna third (55).

The boys teams begin their race at the Arcata sports complex last week.

In the boys competition, both Fortuna and McKinleyville had strong showings to open the campaign.

In a close finish, McKinleyville’s Adam Vera took first place in a time of 17 minutes, 2.06 seconds, with Fortuna’s Colin Stockwell less than half a second back.

Fortuna’s Augustin Garcinuno placed third, helping the HUskies to the team title, edging Mack 37-42.

McKinleyville’s West Wood and Max Combs rounded out the top five.

In the team event, Arcata was third, followed by Eureka and Del Norte.

Ben Narwold was Arcata’s top finisher in ninth, while Dimitri Stefanakis paced the Loggers in 11th.