File photo – Eureka’s Claire Gast has won all three H-DNL races she has competed in this fall.

Eureka sophomore Claire Gast continued to set the pace for the rest of the H-DNL with her third victory in three league cross country races at the Eureka Municipal Golf Course on Wednesday.

The impressive Gast finished well ahead of the field once again and took the victory in a time of 21 minutes, 21.44 seconds.

The Fortuna Huskies took second and third, but it wasn’t enough to prevent a deep Arcata Tigers team from taking the team victory.

The Tigers scored 33 points, with Fortuna second (44) and Eureka third (53).

Lester crossed the line in a time of 22:15.56 to place second, with teammate Alexa McCall just three seconds back in third and finishing in a time of 22:18.6.

Arcata’s Quincy Kelly (23:07.42) and Zoe Cappuccio (23:07.56) were less than a second apart in fourth and fifth.

Eureka’s Summer Morales, Del Norte’s Zakayla Robinson, and Arcata’ Nehla Espiritu-Blackstone, Sydney Ventuleth and Madison Trieu placed fifth through 10th, respectively.

Trieu was the highest placed senior on the day as the league’s younger runners continued to dominate the field.

Five of the top-eight girls on Wednesday are either freshmen or sophomores.

Kiara Weldon led the McKinleyville Panthers in 11th, while Eden VanMaren led Brookings-Harbor in 25th and Kiera Maloney led Hoopa in 30th.

Eureka’s Everett Docherty placed first in the boys race, recording his first victory of the season.

The league runners will be back in action next Wednesday at Fortuna.

File photo