Several local cross country squads competed in the opening day of the Mt. SAC Invitational on Friday.
The Royals' boys team captured a victory in the Div. 3 race, led by a fourth-place finish from Gage Minne.
Following Minne were Logan Patterson Deakyne, Ashton Johnsen, Ben Callanan and Miles Detinger. The top four San Marcos runners were separated by just 11 seconds.
"This was our first time running on the new course and they did great," Royals coach Marilyn Hantgin said. "Mt. Sac Invite has been around for a very long time. Most of our team has not run at Mt. Sac, so it was fun to see them all compete today."
On the girls side, San Marcos finished in second place behind only Santa Margarita.
The trio of Melina Vela, Elsie Tuttle and Sofie Hernandez led the charge by finishing 14th, 15th and 16th, respectively. Delaney Reagan and Anna Holmes rounded things out for the Royals.
"These girls ran fantastic today," Hantgin said. "We have County Championships and League Finals in the next few weeks. I'm looking forward to seeing their improvements. I know they will finish the season strong. We are looking forward to making a run in CIF."
The Rams' girls earned a second-place finish in the Div. 5 race with a team time of 1:50.51.
Francesca Sutch led the way after crossing the finish line in 19:55, a personal record good for fourth place.
Sutch was joined by teammates Jen Won (26th), Stella Rogers (34th), Kate McCoy (39th), Talullah Bates (55th) and Daisy Gemberling (78th).
"The girls have been training very well, but we haven't had many opportunities for them to compete as a team," Cate coach Tim Weir said. "This was a great race to see where we are at this point of the season. It was exciting to see Fran run a complete race and for some of our new team members to experience Mt. Sac. We are looking forward to the rest of the season."
As for the boys, they placed fifth out of 17 teams in the Div. 5 race. Jordan Ryan turned in a strong seventh-place showing with a time of 18:07.
The other Rams racers were Bruce Li, Lian Sheshunoff, Jackson Muller, Miles Williams, Eli Meisel and Max DeVore.
Cate will compete in the Santa Barbara County Championships on Wednesday in Lompoc.
The Warrior boys squad battled to 18th place in the Div. 4 varsity race, with Edwin Hernandez pacing the team in 38th place.
In the girls varsity race, Carpinteria was led by Keilly Hernandez.
At the sophomore level, Warrior standouts included Max Soto, Christian Dominguez and Jaqueline Guadian.
In the freshman races, Gilberto Gomez and Mila Martins were top performers for Carpinteria.
The Warriors will also race in the County Championships on Wednesday.