The Fountain Hills High School varsity cross country team competed in two meets last week. The Falcons traveled to Rose Mofford Park to compete in the Valley Lutheran Invitational last Wednesday, Oct. 20, and they traveled to Marana for the Eye of the Tiger Invitational last Saturday.

The Falcons competed against 37 other schools in the Valley Lutheran Invitational. Tyler Irvine-Violette led the boys with an 18.55 finish, and he finished in 44th place overall. Zion Atwood was the only other boy to finish in the top 100, earning 85th place with a time of 20.05.

The five other Falcon boys all finished in the top 150 of 185 total runners at the Valley Lutheran Invitational. Caleb Lara (21:03) finished 109th, Ryan Schmidt (21:21) finished 114th, Timothy Lamar (22:04) finished 130th, William Breen (22:39) finished 138th, and Nathan Eastman (23:52) finished 147th.

Erin Hooley (19:50) finished fourth overall for the girls and finished 14 seconds behind first place. Shannon Breen (26:22) finished in 91st, Katherine Hampton (28:43) finished 111th, and Elina Bartman (29:05) finished 114th out of 145.

The Eye of the Tiger course was flat and fast, and three Falcons set new personal bests. Hooley finished third overall with a new best time, and Irvine-Violette finished with a new PR that puts him in a good position to qualify for state championships. Freshman Shannon Breen also set a new PR last Saturday.

The cross country team has its last regular season meet today, Wednesday, Oct. 27, at Tempe Prep, and then they have sectionals next Tuesday, Nov. 2.