By Ray Hamill — Sophomores dominated the field at this week’s H-DNL girls cross country meet at Hiller Park in McKinleyville, most notably Eureka’s Claire Gast.

Gast led a one-two-three finish for the 10th graders, with a freshman in fourth and no seniors finishing in the top 10.

The Eureka standout is off to a flying start this fall and now has won both of the league races she has competed in.

After winning the season opener at Arcata two weeks ago by almost two minutes, Gast cruised to another big win on Wednesday, outpacing the rest of the field by a minute.

She closed the finish line in a time of 21 minutes, 8.78 seconds which was a new PR for a 5K course.

Arcata’s Zoe Cappuccio was second on the day in a time of 22:08.49, followed by Fortuna’s Alexa McCall (22:23.52) in third.

Arcata freshman Quincy Kelly placed fourth in a time of 22:27.97, with Del Norte junior Zakayla Robinson fifth in a time of 22:50.25.

Four different schools were represented in the top five.

A strong showing for Arcata saw four Tigers place in the top 10 on the way to the team win.

The Tigers scored 29 points followed by Eureka (49) and Fortuna (53).

Arcata’s Sydney Ventuleth, Fortuna’s Brida Lester, Eureka’s Summer Morales, Arcata’s Anna McLaughlin and Eureka’s Rathlin Hemmingson placed sixth through 10th, respectively, followed by Arcata senior Madison Trieu in 11th.

The H-DNL boys were also in action on Wednesday, with impressive Fortuna freshman Juan Ornelas taking the win for the second straight week.

Fo more on the boys race, see Fortuna freshman Ornelas the pace setter once again at McKinleyville …

The fourth league race of the season will be hosted by Eureka next Wednesday.

Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com