It was the first league meet of the season, and the Celtics would probably like to keep the results the same through the season.
At Wednesday’s Central Valley Conference meet at Bush Park, McNary cross country varsity boys took first place, and the varsity girls placed second.
“We came to the race with big goals and I’m very proud of the attitude and confidence that each runner brought to the race,” head coach Josh Christensen said.
Junior Vince Estrada and senior Cain Duncan led the way for the boys squad as they finished first and third among CVC runners respectively. Estrada and Duncan also placed first and third at the 28-team Stayton Invitational last Saturday.
Estrada’s time of 16-minutes, 23.9 seconds was more than two seconds faster than second place, Tigard freshman Paul Hretcanu.
Sprague’s Dakota Neaman finished third overall and second for CVC runners,with Duncan coming in fourth overall at 16:33.6.
All seven McNary varsity boys finished in the top 22 of 48 runners and in the top 16 for conference runners, as they finished 20 points ahead of Sprague and West Salem.
The JV boys followed suit, taking first place overall as well. Yosef Picazo finished first at 18:03.3, a time that would have placed him 23rd in the varsity race.
The varsity girls’ second place finish was led by sophomores Hayden Claypool and Kailynn Bollman-Lechner.
“These two stepped up in the absence of teammate Jocelyn Schnurbusch and raced with confidence against runners who had previously beaten them last spring on the track and this resulted in massive PR’s and a 2nd place finish in the team score,” Christensen said.
Claypool finished fifth among CVC runners at 21:14.1, and Bollman-Lechner was eighth at 21:30.5.
West Salem came away with the overall first place finish for girls varsity with a score of 21 to McNary’s 67.
The next race for the Celtics is the Northwest Classic at Lane Community College on Satursday, Sept. 23.