By Andrew J. Campa, Staff Writer

Posted: 09/12/2009 10:37:42 PM PDT

IRWINDALE - The San Gabriel Valley posted a couple of big wins at the ninth annual Don Bosco Tech Cross Country Invitational at Santa Fe Dam, but there was no debating who was Saturday's star.

Arcadia High School junior Catrina McAlister had a day to remember in shattering the invitational's record for females with a personal-best mark of 17 minutes, 19 seconds.

"I just wanted to start off strong in the race and see what I could do," McAlister said.

"I wasn't thinking about starting slow. I wanted to prove I could start strong."

McAlister broke the mark of St. Paul's Lauren Magdaleno, who ran 17:32 in 2003. She also beat out Foothill's famed Sierra Vega, who finished second in 17:28.

"I kind of treated today like it was a track event," said McAlister, who advanced to state last season in the 1,600 meters.

"I pretended like there were people in front of me that I was trying to chase."

The win propelled Arcadia (1:36:38) to a second-place finish in the large-school division behind champion Serrano (1:35:54).

The San Gabriel Valley's second- fastest girl's time was turned in by Rowland's Kristen Galvez and La Ca ada's Holly Shreckengast, who tied with a mark of 18:43.

The Spartan standout completed her time in the large-school junior run, in which she finished sixth behind McAlister but three spots ahead of Nicolette Garcia (ninth, 19:19) of Los Altos.

Galvez (18:43) took fifth in a spirited girls large-school event, where she finished ahead of Reina Sotelo of Los Altos (seventh, 18:59).

There was another similarly close battle in the girls small-school upper- class race, in which San Marino junior Danielle Knott (ninth, 20:36) edged Ramona Convent senior Jackie Lara (10th, 20:49).

The only other area victory was turned in by La Ca ada sophomore Meghan Fuelling.

The 10th grader fell behind by 10 seconds at the halfway point before rebounding and breezing to a six-second win in 19:09.

"I decided to stay with the girl in front of me until I passed," Fuelling said.

"She was really pushing it, and that made me work harder."

Arcadia's Alejandra Quintero also performed well in that race and finished seventh (19:51).

There were three other girls top-10 finishers, including Arcadia freshman Glyndie Mancia (fourth, 19:20), La Ca ada freshman Sonja Cwik (eighth, 19:52) and Ramona Convent freshman Savannah Fimbrer (ninth, 21:43).

As for the boys, Pasadena Poly posted the third-best time (1:24:40) of any small school.

That was aided by the efforts of Wesley Devoll, a senior who tied for the fifth-best time of any male with a mark of 15:14, second in the boys small-school upper-class event.

"I didn't really know what to expect going into this race, to be honest," Devoll said.

"So I'm really happy with what I got."

Devoll's race was dominated by area entries, including Bosco Tech's wave of JJ Dominguez (third, 15:29), Juan Guardado (fifth, 16:11), Jimmy Granados (sixth, 16:14), Blayze Fimbres (seventh, 16:19) and Albert Gomez (eighth, 16:27).

Poly's Gordon Algermissen (ninth, 16:30) and San Marino's Michael Gimbel (10th, 16:31) also finished in the top 10.

There were three strong area efforts in the large-school freshman competition. They included Rowland's Felipe Tapia (second, 16:26) and David Galvez (third, 16:29) and Covina's Kevin Mejia (10th, 17:23).

The Valley's final four top-10 finishers included San Marino sophomores Robert Moreton (fourth, 16:52) and Alex Yurter (ninth, 17:16), Los Altos senior Miguel Gonzalez (ninth, 15:39) and South Hills junior Jonathan Flores (eighth, 15:55).

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