Foothill boys, Coronado girls take titles at Falcon Invitational

Foothill and Coronado teams shared the top of the podium at the Falcon Invitational cross country meet on Saturday.

The event featured freshman-sophomore and junior-senior races for boys and girls, all run over a 2.5-mile course at Foothill.

Foothill’s boys won both of their races, and Coronado won both of the girls races.

The top individual performance came in the last race of the day, the junior-senior girls race.

Foothill senior Leah Leedy, leading from the start, finished first in 14 minutes, 50 seconds — almost a minute ahead of Coronado senior Michaelanne Laurent (15:41).

Leedy’s time was faster than the time run by 118 of the 153 boys who raced on Saturday.

Coronado’s Lauren Lucas (16:28.3), Canyon Springs’ Heather Hollinger (16:28.5), Tech’s Claudia Perez (16:34) and Clark’s Elisa Vasquez (17:13) rounded out the top six.

Coronado won the team race with 31 points in that event. Clark (59) was second and Foothill (60) third.

Coronado’s girls outscored Foothill 23-36 in the freshman-sophomore race.

Individually, the freshman-sophomore race was dominated by Coronado sophomores Erin Smith and Kristal Hosaka, who finished first and second.

They ran together for much of the race before Smith pulled away to the win in 17:17, 12 seconds ahead of Hosaka.

Foothill’s trio of freshman Sage Long and sophomores Miranda Halliday and Sacha Moctezuna rounded out the top five.

Foothill’s boys easily outscored runner-up Coronado in the freshman-sophomore race, 31-56, led by sophomore Carl Greene and his sophomore teammates Dean Winkelreid and Kyle Harris, who placed fourth and fifth.

Freshman Julian Julani of Bishop Gorman took the early lead in the race but faded after the first mile. Greene won easily (13:28) over two Durango sophomores, Matt Shelton (14:16) and Nick Ruiz (14:27).

The boys junior-senior race for the team title was closer, but the Falcons prevailed over runner-up Tech, 34-37.

Boulder City senior Matt Lundgren won the race in the fastest time of the day (13:21), but Foothill’s depth led to the team win.

Foothill’s Chris Perrine (13:26), a senior, and junior Brian Arvizu (13:28) placed second and fourth, respectively, to lead the Falcons.

Clark’s Jake Naylor (13:27) finished third. Tech’s Eduardo Cordova was fifth and Jose Escamilla eighth to lead the Roadrunners.