File photo – Claire Gast

It was a good day for a couple of Eureka runners at Saturday’s H-DNL cross country championships at the Arcata Marsh, as the 2024 regular season concluded.

Sophomore Claire Gast capped an incredible season with her sixth win in six league races this fall on her way to the girls league title, while senior teammate Everett Docherty won the boys championship to give the Loggers a pair of league champs.

It was also a good day for the Arcata Tigers, who had nine top-10 finishers combined and won both team championships.

Gast comfortably beat the rest of the field by more than a minute one her way to victory and crossed the finish line with a personal best time of 20 minutes, 47.9 seconds over the 5K course.

And it was a good day for the league’s younger runners, with three sophomores taking the top three individual spots.

Arcata’s Zoe Cappuccio placed second with a time of 21:49.4, followed by Fortuna’s Alexa McCall, who was third in a time of 22:05.8.

Four different schools were represented in the top five.

McCall’s teammate, junior Brida Lester was fourth in a time of 22:26.8, with Del Norte’s Zakayla Robinson finishing fifth in a time of 22:27.4.

The next four finishers were all Tigers, as the Arcata girls comfortably took the team title.

Arcata scored 28 points, followed by Fortuna and Eureka who tied for second with 48 points.

Arcata’s Sydney Ventuleth, Sonya Chisholm, Nehla Espiritu-Blackstone and Quincy Kelly finished sixth through ninth, respectively, with Eureka’s Summer Morales rounding out the top 10.

Kiera Weldon paced the McKinleyville Panthers in 20th, while Trinity Moore led the Hoopa Warriors in 29th.

Docherty meanwhile, saved his best for last this fall, posting only his second ever league win in his final ever league race.

The Loggers team leader also had a PR time and crossed the finish line in a time of 16:03.2 for his second victory in the last four league races.

Unlike the girls race, the seniors dominated for the boys and took the top three spots.

But like the girls race, four schools were represented in the top five.

Del Norte’s Dylan Rodriguez placed second in a time of 16:11.2, followed by Arcata’s Levi Browne in third in a time of 16:36.3.

Eureka sophomore Ryder Bullman capped a strong season with a fourth-place finish in a time of 16:39.9, with impressive Fortuna freshman Just Ornelas fifth, also in a time of 16:39.9.

Arcata had four runners in the top eight and edged Eureka for the team championship with 36 points.

The Loggers, who had two of the top four runners and three of the top 10, scored 41 points.

Fortuna and Del Norte tied for third with 74 points each.

Arcata’s Evan Poston, Ocean Walker and Caden Demers placed sixth through eighth, respectively, followed by Del Norte’s Luke Padilla in ninth and Eureka’s Eli Chiles in 10th.

Jason Weldon led the McKinleyville Panthers in 15th, while Brenden Knight led the Hoopa Warriors in 24th and Charlie Vanderpool led Northcoast Prep in 34th.

Arcata junior Gianni Orlandi won the boys JV race, followed by teammates Rowan Magnuson and Christopher Bogar in second and third, respectively.