Republic boys, Liberty Bell girls win Oroville XC Invitational

Brent Baker/staff photo
The entire field of girls starting the Oroville Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 13 seems to be in an inordinately good mood shortly after the starting gun.

Sierra Speiker, Liam Daily are individual winners

OROVILLE – Oroville’s Sierra Speiker won the Hornets’ home invitational by over a minute and a half, while Liam Daily of Liberty Bell won a battle with Republic’s Duncan Forsman to claim victory on the boys side on a damp Saturday morning, Oct. 13.

Chelan’s girls and Republic’s boys won the team titles, with the placing their entire front five in the top nine, while Republic had its top five place in the first eight finishers.

Daily won on the three-mile course with a time of 16:43, with Forsman at 16:54. Tonasket’s Oscar Avilez led the Tigers with a sixth place finish in 17:50, followed by Adam Halvorsen (22, 19:08), Adrian McCarthy (28th, 19:51), Smith Condon (32nd, 19:59), Lawrence Wambugu (38th, 20:36), Abe Podkranic (55th, 22:32), Jordan Hughes (56th, 22:38), Dallin Good (58th, 24:25) and Ryan Dejong (61st, 30:39).

For the Hornets, Diego Santana (25th, 19:26) and Ronel Kee (48th, 21:53) competed.

Speiker, with no one to challenge her, finished in 19:10 for a 101-second victory, about 12 seconds off her course-best time.

Others finishing for the Oroville girls were Lisa Hartvig (12th, 23:21), Callie Barker (13th, 23:52), Aua Cruspero (26th, 27:00) and Celene Cisneros (29th, 27:42).

Tonasket’s girls included Jessica Puente (8th, 23:07), Jenna Valentine (14th, 24:21), Claire Thornton (19th, 25:25), Kallie Mirick (21st, 26:02) and Vanessa Pershing (23rd, 26:24).

Both squads run their league championship races this week, with Tonasket heading to Chelan on Thursday for the Caribou Trail League finals and Oroville to Liberty Bell on Saturday, Oct. 20, for the Central Washington League championships.

Brent Baker/staff photo Tonasket’s Adam Halvorsen provides a bright splash of blue amongst the fall colors at the Oroville Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 13.

Brent Baker/staff photo Oroville’s Ronel Kee and Chelan’s Junior Gonzalez sprint for the finish line at the Hornets’ invitational on Saturday.