By Ray Hamill — Eureka junior Claire Gast and Fortuna sophomore Juan Ornelas both won for the second time in three league cross country meets this week.

On Wednesday afternoon, the league runners traveled to Hiller Park in McKinleyville and it was business as usual for Gast and Ornelas.

The Loggers standout won for the eighth time in nine career H-DNL races, bouncing back from a rare second-place finish at Del Norte the previous week.

Gast won the girls race by 51 seconds, crossing the finish line in a time of 21 minutes, 4.84 seconds.

Fortuna junior Madison Ruiz placed second in a time of 21:55.63 to lead the Huskies to the team win.

The Fortuna girls, who had three runners place in the top seven, edged Arcata by just one point (39-40), with Eureka (50) third and Brookings-Harbor (104) in fourth.

Arcata’s Zelia Stoll (22:08.82), Fortuna’s Alexa McCall (22:16.98) and Eureka’s Evelyn Ladika (22:25.00) rounded out the top five.

Arcata’s Sonya Chisholm placed sixth, followed in turn by Fortuna’s Elizabeth Stevens, Arcata’s Zoe Cappuccio, Del Norte’s Zakayla Robinson and Eureka’s Rathlin Hemmingsen.

Senior Kiera Maloney led the Hoopa Warriors in 23rd, Oceana Powers-Schmitz led Brookings-Harbor just one place further back, and freshman Faith Menexas led McKinleryville in 29th.

Ornelas, meanwhile, won a league race for the second straight week in boys action.

The Fortuna sophomore crossed the finish line in a time of 16:02.14 and beat the field by 11 seconds.

Eureka’s Ryder Bullman was second on the day in a time of 16:13.93, followed by Arcata’s Evan Poston (16:16.20) in third.

Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

The Tigers had six runners place in the top 10 and comfortably took the team win with 23 points.

Eureka (36), Del Norte (106), Brookings-Harbor (107) and McKinleyville (119) rounded out the top five teams.

Arcata’s Ocean Walker (16:40.02) and Eureka’s Reese Sipma (17:16.30) finished fourth and fifth, respectively, follow in turn by Arcata’s Caden Demers, Sebastian Amaro and Gianna Orlandi.

Eureka’s Emmett Davison and Arcata’s Parker Pierson were ninth and 10th, respectively.

Jason Weldon paced McKinleyville in 17th, while Hoyt Walker led Del Norte two spots further back and Patrick Hatch led Brookings-Harbor in 26th.

The H-DNL season will continue next Wednesday at Arcata High School.