The La Jolla Country Day (LJCD) School boys cross country team continues to do well despite missing some key performers. Currently without this season’s top runner, Lee Klitzner, due to mononucleosis, and also the No. 7 runner, Oliver Hamilton, due to a knee injury, the team still did well in recent action at the Coastal South cluster meet at UCSD. The Bishop’s School’s Will Botta raced to victory and teammate Patrick Hoagland was second, but a number of LJCD runners came in right behind to score points for the Torreys. Noah Wolfenzon, Alex Fleischhacker and Dennis Roth came in third through fifth for LJCD, while teammate Jake Mack also did well on the day. It was the efforts of LJCD’s Phillip Poyhonen and Josh Pooley that led to enough points for LJCD to win the team score, 40-43. “This was a terrific race, not only because it was such a team effort but because every individual ran so well,” LJCD head coach Scott Sanders remarked. “Every single runner set a personal record for our home course. Josh and Jeff (Clancy) were racing on it for the first time, but pleasantly surpassed expectations. Dennis set a personal record by 11 seconds, Alex by 33, Phillip by 49, Jake by 61 and Noah by a whopping 96 seconds. That’s 32 seconds faster per mile! Needless to say, the boys stepped up in the absence of their teammates and showed that they are a determined team of winners.” On the junior varsity side, LJCD’s boys squad was also without its top two runners, but still finished third. Among LJCD’s top performances on the day were efforts from Chase Mertz, Trevor Alexander, Garrett Schneider and Max Gruenberg. Ariel Smotrich rounded out LJCD’s scoring. Aaron Mak and Johnny Edman also ran personal records on the day. As for the varsity girls, they too were shorthanded, as Maggie Taylor was out with a foot injury and Emily Domanico with a lingering illness. Still, Sam Staszak finished sixth and ran 68 seconds faster than last year, and Lily Wolfenzon finished 11th in a time almost identical to Staszak’s from last year. Alina Wong also ran well at her first home meet, finishing 15th. Lisa Felber wasn’t feeling 100 percent, but toughed it out and ran only 10 seconds off her course personal record, as the Lady Torreys finished fourth overall. “All in all, a terrific day for the cross-country team,” Sanders added. Elsewhere, the La Jolla High girls squad defeated OLP (24-31) and Scripps Ranch (17-41) in action last week. La Jolla led a one-two punch with Tatevick Simavoryan and Zoe Wescoe leading the way. The following girls set personal records on the 3-mile course: Simavoryan, Wescoe, Maile Luther, Maddy Frank and Anna Valenzuela. Freshman Jenny Kirby led the junior varsity squad for the Lady Vikings.