The Oak Harbor boys finished third in the WesCo North cross country championships for a third straight year on Saturday at Lakewood High School.

Leading the way for the Wildcats was Kelly Garcia, who made the medal stand in ninth place.

Junior David Marriott was just behind in 12th.

“Both promised to bring their best races today and they did,” head coach Seth Hodges said.

Garcia and Marriott both improved significantly over last year where they took 17th and 39th respectively.

Junior Henry Vasquez finished 22nd and sophomore Josh Dix improved over a minute from last year to take 35th.

The bad news for the boys came from top runner Chris Wichers, who finished 19th.

“It was tough for Chris,” Hodges said. “You could tell after the first mile that he just didn’t have it.”

Wichers was one of the race favorites and was in fifth place after the first mile before he faded.

“He ran a perfect first mile, but just couldn’t sustain it,” Hodges said.

There is good news, however, for Wichers. This weekend’s district meet at South Whidbey High School is what counts for state qualification.

“Chris, Kelly, and even David have a shot at making it to Pasco,” Hodges said.

The Oak Harbor girls also equaled their finish from last year, taking fifth place overall.

Amanda Gordon took 16th, leading to four Oak Harbor top-25 finishes and helped the team to its best showing at league since 1998.

Even though they equaled their fifth place finish, the girls knocked 37 points off their score.

“This means that each girl finished an average of 7-plus places over last year,” Hodges said. “It was a tremendous performance by the girls and I don’t think they could have squeezed another point out of the score.”

Gordon knocked a minute and 28 seconds off her 36th place finish of last year to lead the team in improvement.

As they have all year, Leonila Celestino and Jessica Brundidge ran right with Gordon, taking 18th and 19th respectively.

“Its so great to watch them push each other and you just root for them to tie every time out,” Hodges said.

Sophomore Megan Hall was next across the line in 24th, while senior Starlie Keyes rounded out Oak Harbor’s scoring with a 39th place finish.

“Starlie’s finish was a big key for us as we’ve needed our fifth runner to step up all year to help out our scoring,” Hodges said.

The district championships are this Saturday, Oct. 30 at 11:50 a.m. (girls) and 1:30 p.m. (boys) at South Whidbey High School.

Boys team results: 1. Snohomish 31, 2. Lake Stevens 58, 3. Oak Harbor 97, 4. Stanwood 102, 5. Marysville-Pilchuck 125, 6. Cascade 151, 7. Mount Vernon 182, 8. Monroe 207, 9. Arlington 230.

OHHS individual results: 9. Kelly Garcia, 17:20; 12. David Marriott, 17:25; 19. Chris Wichers, 17:41; 22. Henry Vasquez, 17:47; 35. Josh Dix, 18:17; 49. Cameron Spence, 18:50; 55. Jordan Snow, 19:23; 61. Rob Lemme, 19:45 (75 runners).

Girls team results: 1. Snohomish 26, 2. Stanwood 78, 3. Marysville-Pilchuck 85, 4. Lake Stevens 99, 5. Oak Harbor 116, 6. Arlington 141, 7. Mount Vernon 210, 8. Cascade 236, 9. Monroe 239.

OHHS individual results: 16. Amanda Gordon, 21:21; 18. Leonila Celestino, 21:27; 19. Jessica Brundidge, 21:36; 24. Megan Hall, 22:08; 39. Starlie Keyes, 23:04; 48. Challon Waldron, 23:34; 51. Meredith Bezold, 24:02; 56. Stephanie Allison, 24:27 (70 runners)