With league and state races not too far away, local cross country squads are tuning up for some big runs to come. At the recent Saints Small Schools Invitational at Morley Field, The Bishop’s School girls and boys teams had strong outings, with results that promise close and exciting competition when the Division IV teams return to Morley Field for next month’s CIF finals. The Bishop’s varsity girls finished a strong third behind Coro-nado (Div. IV) and Clairemont (Div. III) over a 2.84-mile course. Laura Wyatt (fifth) ran the first part of the race with Lauren Collins (ninth) and Naomi Wagner (10th), pulling her teammates to a higher level of performance. Wyatt and Elizabeth Schulze (12th) ran comfortably early on, gathered momentum and accelerated to the finish line. Freshman Noelle Herring (19th) had a breakthrough race with a 19:06 time. Sammy Silva of Our Lady of Peace won the varsity race in a fast 16:22. The Bishop’s junior varsity girls had a great team effort, finishing second overall to OLP and first among Division IV teams. Michelle Wu won the race in 20:42, followed closely by Charlotte Brutten and Cara Chesney. In boys varsity action, Bishop’s had another strong top-to-bottom performance with a third-place finish behind St. Augustine and La Jolla Country Day. All of the top five Bishop’s scorers were under 19 minutes on the long 3.12-mile layout. Team leader Henry Su finished 10th with an impressive time of 17:29, while Will Wilde Botta powered to a 16th-place finish in 17:46. Tyler Davidson (29th) and Hoagie Hoagland (30th) ran together from start to finish, while Chris Kuntz, Zach Lana and Nick Magnusen all turned in solid races. Eamonn McCarey (Clairemont High) won the varsity race in 16:43. In the boys junior varsity race, Daniel Lupin paced himself wisely to a respectable 24th-place finish in 20:36. David Cohn and Jack Sailer also performed well with energetic efforts for the Knights. Meantime, La Jolla Country Day (LJCD) School’s junior varsity boys squad kicked things off for the Torreys with a second-place finish among 11 Division III, IV and V schools, and a first place in Division IV. Chase Mertz, Jake Mack and Miles Himmel led the way with Top 10 finishes (seventh, ninth and 10th, respectively). William Craycroft (21st) and Sage Hagstrom (41st, running his first cross country race) rounded out the scoring. Freshmen Johnny Edman (55th) and Aaron Mak (72nd) showed improvement as they gained valuable racing experience. LJCD’s varsity girls squad raced next and continued to show tenacity and improvement, according to head coach Scott Sanders. The girls finished eighth overall and fifth in Division IV. Freshmen Sam Staszak and Kaitlin McCallum (14th and 16th in Division IV) led the way for the Lady Torreys, with captain Sasha Binderow (24th), Maggie Taylor (28th) and Lisa Felber (33rd) completing the scoring. Chanelle Herring (35th) was  LJCD’s final runner across the line. LJCD’s varsity boys, finally racing as a full, (mostly) healthy team, came in with high expectations and did not leave disappointed, according to Sanders. Among the 19 Division III, IV and V teams, the Torreys finished second overall to a strong St. Augustine team, and first in Division IV. Leading the way were captains Alex Poyhonen (sixth, 17:07) and Dennis Roth (eighth, 17:16), with Alex Fleischhacker (15th) and Lee Klitzner (20th) also finishing under 18 minutes. Noah Wolfenzon (43rd) completed the scoring, with Eric Blodgett (46th) not far behind. Seventh man Phillip Poyhonen (58th) also ran well. Elsewhere, La Jolla High’s girls team easily defeated Mission Bay and Hoover in action last week. Lady Viking Nihal Kayali was the winner in 19:52 on the Morley field 3-mile course. In the junior varsity race, La Jolla topped both Mission Bay and Hoover, 15-50. La Jolla’s Christie Richmond captured top honors for the Lady Vikings. On the boys side, La Jolla defeated Hoover (24-31) and Mission Bay (17-44) in action last week. In the JV races, La Jolla topped Hoover (16-49) and Mission Bay (15-50). The top five la Jolla varsity runners were Bryant Hammershaimb, Michael Conroy, Andrew Farkas, Alex Eve and Spenser Mays. The top five JV runners were Andrew Jaye, Umi Hoshijama, Shawn Devit, Ferdinand Ekman and Benny Ghelerter.