With league and tournament races winding down, local scholastic cross country teams are gearing up for CIF action in the coming weeks. Before getting there, however, several teams have seen action recently in tourney and league races. At La Jolla Country Day (LJCD) School, the Torreys under head coach Scott Sanders ran recently at the Mt. SAC Invitational. The freshmen boys began the day’s racing, and Jake Mack came up big with a 10th-place finish in 19:02. This helped the boys achieve an eighth-place team finish (of 15 scoring teams). The sophomore boys were next, and Chase Mertz and Sage Hagstrom ran well in what was for both their first experience at Mt. SAC. The girls varsity ran next and finished ninth out of 28 scoring teams in their race. The girls were led by freshmen Sam Staszak (22:49, 39th) and Kaitlin McCallum (22:59, 42nd). Senior Sasha Binderow (60th), and freshmen Maggie Taylor (68th) and Emily Domanico (92nd) rounded out the scoring, while senior Chanelle Herring gamely finished her first and only Mt. SAC race as the team’s sixth runner. The boys varsity was next, in the Division IV Sweepstakes race. Running against some of the state’s best teams, including top-ranked McFarland and Big Bear, the Torreys were hoping to hold their own and see just where they stood. Senior Alex Poyhonen led the way with a strong third-place finish in 15:52. Junior Dennis Roth also ran well, finishing 16th in 16:45. Sophomore Lee Klitzner ran a solid 17:13, earning him 31st, while senior Eric Blodgett ran 17:47 (41st) in his first Mt. SAC race. Completing LJCD’s scoring was freshman Noah Wolfenzon, with 18:06 and 47th place. LJCD’s sixth and seventh runners were junior Alex Fleischhacker (18:28, 47th) and sophomore Phillip Poyhonen (18:55, 56th). The boys ended up in fourth place when all was said and done. “Interestingly, though most of the boys ran better than last year, when they finished third overall, most of them did not feel good about their race and struggled with the course and the dust,” Sanders noted. “I am encouraged that the boys ground out solid times and a respectable team finish under these circumstances. It wasn’t our best race, and we finished as one of the best Division IV schools of the day.” The JV boys wrapped up the day for LJCD with a fifth-place finish in their race (out of 20 scoring teams). According to Sanders, all of these junior and senior boys ran better than expected, led by Miles Himmel (19:20, 25th) and William Craycroft (19:45, 32nd) impressively finishing under 20 minutes. Garrett Schneider (20:11, 43rd), Jake Eliasberg (20:28, 51st) and Armand Harb (20:37, 54th) completed LJCD’s scoring. Elsewhere, La Jolla High’s boys team ran last Friday in the Jaguar Invitational (3.12 miles) at Kit Carson Park. La Jolla’s varsity placed fifth out of 15 teams in the Large School Race. Top performances for the Vikings came via Michael Conroy (third overall, 16:42), Andrew Farkas (16th, 17:28), Bryant Hammershaimb (17:40), Alex Eve (17:53) and Spenser Mays (20:02). On the junior varsity side, La Jolla was fifth out of 13 teams in the Small School Race. La Jolla’s top five runners were James Giammona (13th overall, 20:44), Benny Ghelerter (19:48), Ben Aldrich (21:29), Ben Gammage (21:39) and Daniel Chiu (21:43). “The varsity and junior varsity both ran very well and we are still improving,” La Jolla High head boys coach Hal Goforth commented.