With the first league race of the fall now just three weeks away, H-DNL fans got an early-season look at what to expect in the race for this year’s cross country championship over the weekend.
Eureka’s Ryder Bullman and Fortuna’s Juan Ornelas, two of the top three runners in the league last year, made the trip to Redding to compete at the 19th annual Bill Springhorn Classic at Shasta College.
And once again there was little to separate the two rivals, with Bullman placing 12th overall out of 154 runners, and Ornelas crossing the line just two spots back in 14th.
Both standouts are expected to compete for this year’s boys individual title.
“These two guys will battle all season and it will be fun to watch them race and compete,” Fortuna coach Norm Sotomayor said.
Bullman, a senior, set a new PR in his first race of the season, finishing the three-mile course in a time of 16 minutes 20.2 seconds.
Ornelas, a junior, was just six seconds back and finished his first race of the fall in a time of 16:26.24.
The two standouts placed second (Ornelas) and third (Bullman) at last year’s H-DNL championships, behind Arcata junior Evan Poston, the defending league champion.
All three runners are expected to be the frontrunners for the league title again this year.
The weekend race was won by Garrett Faught (14:22.04), of Crater High, which dominated the day and took five of top six spots.
The H-DNL season officially gets under way on Sept. 30 at Fortuna.
