Last Friday night, Sept. 30, the Fountain Hills High School cross country team competed in the largest cross country meet in Arizona, the Desert Twilight XC Festival. The runners raced at night, and head coach Kevin Clancy said almost everyone set a season best and most Falcons set a new personal record for themselves.

The girls team came in 31st place out of 51 teams in the small school varsity race, and juniors Erin Hooley and Skye Alker both finished in the top 75. Hooley finished 27th (21:08.5), and Alker finished 73rd (22:26.2).

Sophomore Racine Homyak was next, placing 276th (26:04.1). Freshman Ali Guerrette came in 309th (27:05.6), and junior Eliana Bartman finished 364th (29:00.0).

The boys varsity team finished 49th out of 64 teams. Senior Tyler Irvine Violette finished 144th (19:16.0) and fellow senior Zion Atwood finished in 176th place (19:33.8).

Freshman Colby Wright, junior Dylan Romans and senior Franklin Fiola all finished within 30 seconds of each other. Wright came in 316th (20:54.8), Romans finished 346th (21:16.3), and Fiola finished 359th (21:24.5). Juniors William Breen finished 418th (22:30.5) and Nathan Eastman finished 430th (23:01.3).

Freshmen Matthew Gonzalez (30:47.0) and Tyler Eastman (31:12.9) both competed in the freshman race and finished 88th and 89th, respectively.

Next, the Falcons will race in the Titan Invitational next Thursday, Oct. 13 at 9 a.m. and then in the Valley Lutheran Invitational on Wednesday, Oct. 19.