Ojai Valley School’s cross country runners turned in strong performances Wednesday in their first meet of the season, a non-league contest at Cate School.
Senior Gilim Bae, a member of last year’s CIF qualifying girls’ cross country team, was the lone runner for the girls, placing 19th in the field of 61 girls on Cate’s three-mile course.
On the boys’ side, juniors Jacob Tadlock and Erick Liang ran strong first races, placing in the top third in a field of more than 100 runners.
While the season is just getting started, both the boys’ and girls’ teams show strong potential and are running hard in preparation for a tough fall schedule.
“It was good for these runners to get this first meet out of the way and test their fitness against runners from other schools,” said coach Fred Alvarez, who has nearly two dozen runners on his team this season. “Both the boys and girls are just now rounding into shape and just starting to see what they can do.”
The Spuds host the opening Condor League meet next Wednesday at 3 p.m. on the always-tough Pi course at Upper Campus.