Claremont High School cross country coach Rob Lander knows his boys and girls teams are in for a season-long battle in the Sierra League.

CHS fared well in the first Sierra League meet at Bonelli Park on Tuesday with the Wolfpack frosh-soph boys team taking first place, the junior varsity boys and girls teams finishing in 2nd, the varsity girls team recording 3rd and the varsity boys team placing 5th. The meet included Ayala, Charter Oak, Chino Hills, Damien, South Hills and St. Lucy’s.

“The Sierra League is really competitive from top to bottom and it’s going to be really exciting this year,” Coach Lander said. “Our boys finished 3rd last year in CIF and Ayala and Damien are ranked teams. The Ayala and South Hills girls teams are both ranked and our girls are hoping they can get a ranking too. It’s fun.”

The Wolfpack’s Jimmy Baeskens (16:31.5, 6th place) and Aric Crowell (16:37.8, 9th place) both finished in the top 10 in the varsity boys 5K race.  Mike Lowrie (17th), Stephen Schein (26th), Thomas Chen (28th), Jacob Eagleton (29th) and Kelly Collins (31st) also ran for Claremont.

Baeskens believes the varsity unit gave a strong effort and sees his team only becoming stronger as the season progresses.

“It [Bonelli Park] was a really tough course with lots of hills and then there was the afterschool factor too,” the CHS junior runner said. “I think everyone did great but we just need to pack it up a bit more. We run a strong 2nd half [of the race] but we have to build from the start. We’re not done yet and by the end of the season, I think we can come out with a podium position [in league].”

Complete story in the Saturday edition.

-Landus Rigsby