Enterprise’s Torres wins West Valley Invitational, U-Prep’s Gaido leads girls

A total of 311 athletes from 25 teams converged on the Northern Section Championship course Friday to take part in the West Valley Invitational, a meet that signals the midway point in the Northern Section Cross Country season. Six of the nine Shasta County teams took part, with Nick Torres of Enterprise and Becca Gaido of U-Prep taking the individual titles in the varsity boys and girls races respectively.

In the girls race, a pack of five, including Gaido and Grace Gaddy of U-Prep, Grace Dudley of Foothill, and two athletes from Chico, led for the first half of the race. At the end of the second mile, the big hill behind them, the pack started to spread out, with Gaido taking the lead and eventually the race. She went on to beat Sophie Sims of Chico by just one second, 19:25 to 19:26, with teammate Grace Gaddy placing 3rd in 19:39. With first and third place finishers, U-Prep looked poised to win a team title, but Chico ended up winning the team trophy with 36 points, its five scorers in the top 14 places. U-Prep finished second with 49, and Foothill 3rd with 53, with those three teams distancing themselves from the rest.

Runners compete in the West Valley Invitational Friday. (Contributed photo)

In the boys race, Alexis Ramirez of Mount Shasta came in with the fastest time, and led through the first mile of the race, setting a blistering pace. Torres of Enterprise and Mario Giannini of Chico were content to let him lead early, but both maintained contact through the early portion of the race, passing him after the first mile. Torres pulled away in the second mile, and near the end, Mario Giannini closed some of the gap, but Torres won by 5 seconds, finishing in 16:07, with Giannini second in 16:12, and Ramirez 3rd in 16:32. Chico won the team title again with depth, with all five scorers in the top 16.

Below are listed the medalists (top 25) in the varsity races, with Shasta County athletes in bold and Division of competition added:

Link to full results — click here

Varsity Boys 98 athletes:

Varsity Girls 90 athletes: