File photo/Elliot Portilo/Cal Poly Humboldt Athletics – Nick Brichta

Former Arcata High and College of the Redwoods runner Nick Brichta is enjoying an outstanding start to his Cal Poly Humboldt cross country career and had another strong showing over the weekend.

Brichta placed fourth overall at the 17-team Charles Bowles Willamette Invitational in Oregon on Saturday.

The local standout finished the 8K course in a time of 24 minutes, 30 seconds and helped the Jacks to an impressive fourth-place finish as a team.

“That was a really great race for Nick,”  head coach Jamey Harris said. “He ran really smart and it paid off.”

It was the second straight strong showing by Brichta, who also won last month’s Jim Hunt Invitational at Beau Pre Golf Course.

Sebastian Vaisset-Fauvel (43rd), Ricardo Torres (47th), Carson Cohn (48th) and Luis Sandoval (49th) rounded out Humboldt’s top-five performers.

University of Portland placed first as a team, followed by Eastern Oregon and Oregon Tech.

The Jacks finished just 12 points behind the Owls and were 11 points clear of fifth-place Seattle University.

Rosa Granados was 10th overall for the Cal Poly women, who placed eighth as a team.