Submitted photo – CR’s Kaleb Traficante, Hailey Hopkins and Ruth Gross each earned all-conference honors at the GVC championships on Friday.

CR’s Kaleb Traficante choose a pretty good time for his first-ever win in a cross country race.

Traficante was one of several Corsairs to run the best race of their lives at the Golden Valley Conference championships at Butte College on Friday, taking top spot to lead the College of the Redwoods teams to a pair of top-three finishes.

“He killed it. He absolutely destroyed it,” CR head coach Reed Elmore said of Traficante.

The men placed second to Butte by just four points (45-49), while the women placed third, a fantastic showing for both teams, each of which will now advance to next weekend’s NorCals.

“They’re running the best they ever have,” Elmore said.

In addition to Traficante’s big performance, two CR women also earned all-conference honors by placing in the top seven.

Hailey Hopkins led the way for the CR women in fourth, with teammate Ruth Gross in sixth, each of them remarkably breaking their previous PRs by more than 30 seconds.

Abigail Pulley also had a big day, placing 20th.

In the men’s race, Eureka’s Mathew Guerrero was eighth overall and Hoopa’s Infallible Asenbauer was 10th.

“He had so much promise, and that’s the first time he’s showed what he can do,” Elmore said of Asenbauer. “For him it was a breakthrough race.”

Having been so close this weekend, the coach is hoping the men’s team can get the better of Butte at the NorCals and qualify for the state championships as one of seven teams.

“It’s going to be hard, but if they put it all together they can do it,” Elmore said.

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Ray Hamill writes at humboldtsports.com, where you can read lots more about sports in Humboldt County.