Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Arcata’s Ai-Lan McGoldrick won for the third time in three H-DNL races this season on Wednesday.

Arcata freshman Ai-Lan McGoldrick continued a blistering start to her high school career on Wednesday, taking first place at the latest H-DNL cross country meet at the Arcata Sports Complex.

McGoldrick won for the third time in three league races this season, outpacing the field by almost 22 seconds.

In the boys race, junior Ian Bennett got his first win of the season and led the Eureka boys to a comfortable team win.

Bennett, who was second at the Clam Beach Invitational last weekend, finished the three-mile race in a time of 16 minutes, 13.82 seconds, an impressive 28 seconds ahead of McKinleyville’s West Wood in second.

Arcata’s Jude Ortega and Miles Johnson finished third and fourth, respectively, followed by Eureka’s Jaeden Thayer and Diego Gonzales.

The Loggers had 29 points, well ahead of Arcata (53), Fortuna (89) and McKinleyville (94).

Arcata’s Isaac Johnson was eighth, followed by Eureka’s Jordan Urban and Thomas Becannon.

Logan Calvert was the Fortuna runner in 11th.

Eureka junior Ian Bennett won the boys race.

Freshmen dominance continues

McGoldrick’s stellar performance paced a very strong Arcata, with teammate Vivian Gerstein in second.

McGoldrick finished in 19:31.40, with Gerstein timing a 19:52.94.

The Tigers had seven of the top-10 finishers, five of them freshmen, including Raven Alvarez in third and Zoe Macknicki in fourth.

And it wasn’t just the Arcata youngsters who impressed, with a total of seven freshmen and a sophomore in the top 10.

Eureka freshman Charlotte Leonard was fifth on the day, while McKinleyville freshman Kim Lewis was seventh.

Arcata won the team competition with 16 points, well ahead of Eureka (56) and Fortuna (68).

Rounding out the top-10 finishers, Arcata sophomore Sydney Trieu was sixth, with Arcata freshmen Alauna Thompson and Ruth Godlin-Sullivan in eighth and ninth, and Fortuna’s Maggie Stacy in 10th.

Stacy was the only senior to place in the top 12.

The Arcata girls team cheer on the boys during their race.

The H-DNL will take a break from action next week, before resuming the following Wednesday in Del Norte.

For a full list of Wednesday’s results, visit Athletic.net.

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