The Justin-Siena High School cross country teams are looking to improve on their efforts from a year ago.

Last fall, Braves coach Jim Haugen’s boys team went 2-7 in Marin County Athletic League meets, while placing ninth out of 15 teams at the North Coast Section Championships.

Justin’s girls team, meanwhile, was 1-8 in MCAL competition and 12th out of 13 squads at the section level.

“Our program is continuing to make progress,” said Haugen.

“Our girls team has added a number of strong runners this year, so it should be interesting to see how the team develops,” he added.

“Our boys team has picked up a couple of good runners also, but we will need to work hard and stay healthy in order to move up a couple of more notches at the NCS Championship meet at the end of the season.”

The Braves’ top boys competitors back this year are seniors Andy Seguin and Chris Vecera, juniors Jon Iund and Graham Moore and sophomore Mike Bozzini.

The girls’ top returners include junior Mary Kate Fidler and sophomores Beatriz Arostegui, Daniella de Laat, Emily Galles and Laura Marks.

 

Varsity Boys

• Napa 18, Armijo 45

The Indians were once again led by Kurt Ruegg, who took first with a time of 15:26 on Wednesday. Jessie Featherstone was second (16:11) while Ted Doshier (16:27), Ryan Smith (16:29), George Taylor (16:30), Matthew Lewis (16:45) and Matt O’Malley (16:59) were fourth through eighth respectively.

Marc Moody (17:31), Sanjay Gajiwala (17:54), Doug Mitchell (17:55), Dakota Salazar (18:08), Keith Macdonald (18:15), George Vellucci (20:24) and Henderson Blumer (22:54) rounded out the rest of Napa’s competitors.

• Vacaville 27, Vintage 29

The Crushers almost staged a late-race comeback after Vacaville captured the first two places. Vintage took third through sixth but lost when Vacaville’s fifth man beat Vintage’s fifth man to the finish line.

Vintage’s top runners were Will Pittman (third, 18:59), Andrew Deck (fourth, 19:34), Emerson Song (fifth, 19:34), Dominic Molinari (sixth, 19:44) and Daniel Ly (11th, 20:28).

Varsity Girls

• Napa 15, Armijo 50

The Indians’ Trella Chisco was the fastest girl Wednesday afternoon, finishing 2.8 miles in 19:47. Jessica Beeman (20:20), Nina Pardo (20:23) and Francesca Pascale (20:25) were third through fifth respectively.

Thea Forbes (21:17), Amanda Conroy (22:59), Rosa Page (23:01) and Becky Morris (24:46) all produced top-10 finishes for the Indians.

• Vacaville 20, Vintage 47

Running for the first time on a recently designed 5k course, Maria Avalos opened the new course in Vintage’s favor in a big way. Avalos put 15 seconds on one of the league’s top cross country runners with her trademark late-race surge.

Her individual effort, however, could not hold back the powerful Vacaville squad. Avalos finished in first at 20:45 and was followed by Lorien Clark (eighth, 24:48), Megan Schneiders (11th, 26:21), Ali Lenning (13th, 27:22) and Caitlin Dennins (27:44).

JV Boys

• Napa 15, Armijo 50

The Indians’ Adam Garcia was their fastest runner, finishing third at 12:36 on Wednesday. Alex Mantor (13:01), Gage Hanson (13:07), Craig Kaemmer (13:10), Will Brazelton (13:44) and Conor Fitzpatrick (14:12) ranked in the top 10 while Greg Bucher (14:14), Lucas Clark (14:25) and Bruno Suttles (16:10) rounded out the field of Napa runners.

• Deck shines for Vintage

Vintage freshman Michael Deck ran a personal best time of 13:28 en route to a fifth-place finish against Vacaville.

JV Girls

• Napa 17, Armijo 42

Taylor Willis (14:13) finished first while Indians teammates Hayley Oster (14:46), Rebekah Bunger (15:10), Catie Kensok (15:27) and Kimberli Stuart (15:39) finished in the top 5 on Wednesday.

Sierra Smith (16:36), Arley Romero (16:52) and Kimberly Schnurr (18:54) also ran well.

• Vintage competes against Vacaville

Freshman Taide Guerra-Martinez ran her fastest time of the season to finish sixth at 14:40.