The Mt. SAC Invitational in Walnut, Calif. is the biggest high school cross country meet in the U.S. with more than 20,000 runners from 500 schools competing at Mt. San Antonio College. At the 62nd annual run of the invitational, Exeter's boys cross country team made school history by taking second place and the Exeter girls saw a second straight victory from lead runner Katie Fry. It was an eventful competition for the Monarchs as both varsity teams competed in division 3&4 races.

Christian Gonzales, a junior, led the Exeter boys with a second place finish, the highest place ever taken by an Exeter boys runner at the invitational. His finish time of 16:41 was also the first time an Exeter boy has broken 17 minutes at the Mt. SAC races. Gonzales was second only to St. Mary's (of Berkeley) Dan Maxwell who won the race in 16:21. Exeter's No. 2 runner, senior Garrett Dunn, took fourth place running the three-mile loop in 17:07.Exeter also saw scoring performances from Robie Reid who took 13th place in 17:48, Bryce Blackham who took 30th place in 18:44 and Preston Smee who took 39th place in 19:10.

The team scored 85 points to put Exeter in second place behind St. Mary's with 59 points. It was the first time in school history that the boys cross country team has placed at Mt. SAC.

For the Lady Monarchs, Katie Fry won her race for the second straight year. Fry pulled away at the halfway mark and never looked back as she recorded a finish time of 18:55. The second place finisher from West Valley recorded a time of 19:28.

As a team, Exeter took sixth place with 181 points. Exeter's No. 2 runner, Alicia Carstens took 17th place with a time of 21:54, Brittany Ketscher took 32nd place with a time of 23:23, Annie Aleman took 68th place in 25:16 and Karly Brett took 82nd place in 26:03.

'The guys are really good this year especially with Christian and Garrett as a one-two punch,' Exeter coach Isaac Gonzales said. 'The boys have a real good shot at going to State.'

Next up, the Monarchs will race at the John Seaman Invitational at the Kingsburg Gun Club on Thursday, Oct. 29.

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