Submitted photo – Fortuna’s Juan Ornelas and Eureka’s Ryder Bullman have both qualified for the CIF state championships.

By Ray Hamill — A pair of H-DNL rivals are heading to the CIF Cross Country Championships this weekend after a memorable showing for both at the North Coast Section Championships.

Fortuna sophomore Juan Ornelas and Eureka junior Ryder Bullman will make the trip to Fresno to represent the league at the prestigious season-ending meet.

Ornelas led all H-DNL runners at the NCS Championships on Saturday and placed 12th overall in the Division-4 race at Hayward High School, just one spot ahead of Bullman.

And that makes them our choice for Athletes of the Week.

The dynamic duo have battled neck and neck in league competition all season long, along with Arcata’s Evan Poston, with little to separate them during the regular season.

Poston, who was crowned H-DNL champion last week, also was in action at the NCS championships and placed 27th in the Division-3 boys race.

Less than five seconds separated the three runners at the league championships, which was the fourth time they took the top three spots in the four league races they all competed in this fall.

On Saturday, Ornelas finished the three-mile course in a time of 16 minutes, 19.9 seconds, with Bullman just eight seconds back and finishing in a time of 16:27.6.

As a team, the Arcata boys placed 10th.

Ornelas, who placed 37th in NCS a year ago, posted a PR time for a three-mile course.

Bullman was making his third trip to the NCS championships and has shown steady improvement each year.

As a freshman, he finished 53rd, before improving to 18th as a sophomore last year.

Also in action at the NCS meet, the Arcata girls placed 16th as a team in Division 3, while the league champion Fortuna girls placed 11th in Division 4.

The Eureka girls placed 12th in Division 4.

Individually, league champion Claire Gast led the league runners with a 34th-place finish in a time of 20:50.1.

Fortuna’s Brida Lester was next best and placed 49th.