The South Tahoe cross-country team was up at first light getting ready for the early-morning Clovis meet.

And while the runners may not have been fully awake when the starting gun fired, they still managed to find their season-best speeds, which was what the Clovis Invitation was all about Friday, Oct. 11.

There were dozens of Division I schools and elite cross-country runners who show up for the meet. The Vikings, instead, used the meet to see how far they’ve come as the season finale draws near. The result was a landslide of personal bests.

Everyone who raced set a personal record for the year.

“This is a pretty good showing of where we’re at for the season,” coach Jake Hurwitz said. “We’re building toward the end instead of peaking too early, and we also had a good time there. There was a lot of team bonding going on.”

South Tahoe’s top boys — Harley Norton, Orion Maxwell and Ross Kovac — all finished within 20 second of each other. Norton turned in 17:28, Maxwell 17:30 and Kovac 17:38 on the Clovis course that was about three miles.

Patrick Stimac (18:54), Paul Mutz (19:00), Mario Mangiaracina (19:17) and Chas Carlson (19:52) rounded out the boys’ top times.

Senior Karley Martinez finished first among South Tahoe’s girls in 21:35. Cara Filce was less than 10 seconds behind, cruising in at the 21:44 mark.

Lauren Tang (22:19), Riley Rettig (22:21), Tatum Whatford (22:37), Grace Rosburg (24:14) and Kerry Norton (24:51) completed the girls’ varsity times.

Junior varsity runners Sierra Bedwell (23:58) and Meg Carlson (26:00) also turned in impressive finishes.

UP NEXT: The cross-country team is running in the Sparks Invitational today, JV Championships on Tuesday and the ROP Invitational on Thursday. Regionals start Nov. 1 and state competition is on Nov. 8 and 9.