Hooey leads Eagles at Clovis Invite

He's back. After a slow start to the cross country season, Vista de Lago's Edwin Hooey appears to have returned to his previous form, based on the results of Saturday's race at the Clovis Invitational held at Woodward Park. Despite a slow start with the trip to the race on Friday taking 4 1/2 hours with lots of traffic, the Vista boys' and girls' varsity teams finished the weekend strong. Making the headline for weekend is Hooey, who took the opportunity of running on the same course as the state meet to turn in his best performance of the entire season, which comes better late than never, as the Sierra Valley Conference championships are just two weeks away. Nevertheless, with Hooey back in the fold, Vista's chances of making qualifying for the state meet have gotten a lot better. On Saturday, Hooey was Vista's first runner to finish the Clovis Invitational, as he finished the 5K course in 31st place in the medium school race in 16 minutes, 27.7 seconds, leading the boys' team to a seventh-place finish among 38 teams. Ian Enquist followed up his strong race last week with another strong finish, placing 42nd in 16:40.0. Xavier Biwott came in third for Vista and 61st overall with a time of 16:52.2, while Josh Hooey placed fourth for the Eagles in 72nd overall with a time of 16:59.7. Max Rice was Vista's final scoring runner, as he placed 107th in 17:28.7, passing 18 runners in the final mile. On the girls' side, Laure Lecina led the way by placing 50th with a time of 20:12.7. Addie Luong finished 55th overall with a time of 20:19.5, passing 10 runners in the final mile. Bella Pedeupe finished in 161st overall with a time of 22:44.6. Matlin O'Brien followed up her first 5k last week with another strong run, finishing 176st overall with a time of 23:09.4, while Brooke Voldseth finished 187th overall with a time of 23:52.6. The Eagles placed 23rd as a team. The girls ran without their top runner, sophomore Brenna Mannion today, who was sick.