Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Fortuna’s Madison Ruiz (left) and Elizabeth Stevens in action for the Huskies earlier this year.

By Ray Hamill — It was an historic week for a pair of local teams, while two H-DNL standouts continued to perform at an elite level in their chosen sports.

And all four feature in our weekly awards.

The Fortuna girls cross country team enjoyed a week they won’t easily forget after ending a long wait for a league title at Saturday’s H-DNL Championships at the Arcata Marsh.

The Huskies had four runners place in the top seven and earn all-league honors, led by junior Madison Ruiz, who finished second.

The league title ended Arcata’s lengthy reign as H-DNL champs, which dated back to 2017.

And that makes the Huskies one of our teams of the week, along with another local program that enjoyed an historic breakthrough championship.

The Cal Poly Humboldt women’s soccer team clinched a  conference tournament championship with a 1-0 win over rival Chico State in the CCAA final at Monterey on Sunday.

It was the team’s first-ever CCAA championship and also secured just the program’s second-ever trip to the NCAA Division-II playoffs and first since 1996.

Our athletes of the week awards, meanwhile, go to Ferndale’s Prescott Langer and Eureka’s Claire Gast.

Langer is enjoying an outstanding senior season with the unbeaten Wildcats in football and played a pivotal role in his team’s dominating North Coast Section playoff win over Arroyo on Saturday.

Langer scored three first-half touchdowns in the win, including a 90-yard pick six on defense, and he continues to set a physical tone in all three phases of the game.

Gast also had a big week after being crowned H-DNL champion in cross country for the second straight year.

The Eureka junior dominated once again and won the race by more than a minute and a half.

It was her 11th win in 12 races in league competition dating back to the beginning of last season.

ATHLETES OF THE WEEK 

Prescott Langer

Ferndale Football, Senior

Langer and his teammates continued to roll with another huge win on Saturday, as they advanced to the NCS Division-5 semifinals.

He scored TDs on a three-yard run and a 90-yard interception in the opening quarter and added a 19-yard TD run in the second quarter.

For good measure, Langer also had a 68-yard punt to completely flip field position. 

For more on his big week, see Business as usual for physical Wildcats in NCS playoff opener …

Claire Gast

Eureka Cross Country, Junior

Gast capped another phenomenal league campaign with a victory on Saturday, crossing the finish line of the 5K course in a time of 20 minutes, 26.74 seconds.

It was her fifth win of the year in league competition and she will now head to Hayward on Saturday for this year’s NCS meet.

For more on her big week, see Gast, Poston win league titles; impressive Huskies end Tigers’ reign …

TEAMS OF THE WEEK

Fortuna Girls Cross Country

It’s been a long time since any team got the better of the Arcata Tigers in girls cross country, and even longer since Fortuna took home a league pennant in the sport.

But that changed this past week, as head coach Vince Zinselmeir and his runners won this year’s league title with an impressive performance at the Arcata Marsh.

In addition to Ruiz’s second-place finish, senior Brida Lester placed second, junior Alexa McCall was fifth and sophomore Elizabeth Stevens placed seventh, giving the Huskies a league-best four all-league runners.

Freshman Emma Cahoon (15th) and sophomore Metzli Chinas (17th) also impressed for the Fortuna girls.

For more on their big week, see Gast, Poston win league titles; impressive Huskies end Tigers’ reign …

Cal Poly Humboldt Athletics – The CPH players celebrate their big semifinal win over Cal Polly Pomona on Friday.

Cal Poly Humboldt Women’s Soccer

The Jacks enjoyed an historic weekend with victories over Cal Poly Pomona and Chico State on the way to clinching this year’s CCAA tournament, which sees them advance to this coming weekend’s NCAA playoffs.

It’s been a very impressive fall for head coach Grant Landy and his players and they’re not done yet, with a rematch against Pomona in the opening round of the West Region playoffs on Friday afternoon.

And it has been particularly impressive on defense, with the Jacks posting three shutouts in three tournament games on the way to the title.

For more on their big week, see Jacks win historic championship, advance to NCAA playoffs …